What is the genesis of the French season in South Africa and the partner show that is going to happen in France in 2013?
In March 2011 President Jacob Zuma had been on a state visit to France and our two heads of state jointly decided that there would be a French season in South Africa in 2012 and a South African season in France in 2013. So here we are. It is a French season from June to November this year in South Africa and from May to December 2013, it will be a South African season in France.
You've just come back from the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown where you launched some of the season. How did it go and what were the highlights?
Actually the official launch is on July 12 with the opening of the big exhibition at the Standard Bank Gallery [Twentieth Century Masters: The Human Figure]. But for sure the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown is just the highlight of whole cultural scene in South Africa and for us it was very important to present some performances there. And we have presented more than 13 propositions, mainly they were collaborations between French and South African artists, and it is what we want to achieve actually with this season.
We want a people-to-people season and what better way to do this than having artists working together. It is not only to present shows to audiences, it is truly to build strong bonds so that in the future they can think about new collaborations and I have to say that the feedback from the audience has been truly overwhelming.
For instance Vortex and the Afternoon of a Foehn from the Non Nova Company had done so well that they had been obliged to add two more performances and it's a real pleasure for me because this show is very beautiful but also very challenging, and the feedback from the audience was just great.
But !Aia from theatre Taliipot which has run at the Market Theatre has done very well – it is a production that was created last year at Artscape and will go from the Market Theatre to Durban, the Jomba Festival.
Then we have Mathilde Monier. Monier is one of our most important choreographers in France and she worked with African choreographers for more than 20 years. And it has really been a landmark on the French choreographic scene. For me it was really interesting to present this show because they re-staged it with some dancers who are 27 – which means they were just born at the creation of the show. And it was very important for me to present this because often when we think about heritage and when we think about memory we think back but what about keeping alive the creation of today? This is a very important issue. Obviously when artists are struggling to put together their production they don't think of keeping this memory.
Coming back to Jo'burg: the Twentieth Century Masters exhibition is enormous. Tell us about the show and why Sylvie Raymond was chosen as the curator and what she will bring to the project?
Sylvie has been chosen for many reasons. We were looking at an exhibition which could present masterpieces of the 19th and 20th century, not far away – but masterpieces – because we think we are very lucky in France to have a strong control policy so that we have many museums and they are presenting very interesting masterpieces and exhibitions in France all around the year.
The reward of this is that these museums are experiencing fantastic attendance it is increasing year after year. So the idea for us was to bring some of these masterpieces so it could engage with the South African audience.
Sylvie Ramon had put together a show whose title was The Human Figure that had been presented in Shanghai and it was exactly about that. It was about the human figure. It was a theme that interested us a lot. And I think it is really important in South Africa, issues around the body obviously, it is a very political issue in the right sense of it. And she had put it together in Shanghai in 2010. And what was interesting for us was that this show is not only from her institution, she is the director of the museum of fine arts in Lyon.
This show gathers masterpieces from several institutions all around Lyon. So you have the museum of fine arts in Lyon, the museum of contemporary arts in Lyon, institute of contemporary art of the Saint-Etienne Metropole; and altogether they joined therefore to lend some very beautiful masterpieces.
So it is coming to the Standard Bank gallery and it is there to October 15 and I hope a lot of people will come to see it.
What else can be expected from the French season in South Africa and what can be expected from the South Africa season in France next year?
The French season is around 120 projects so we could spend hours talking about it. It is not only about arts and culture, it is also scientific events, it is also tourism, business, we will have a strong business forum in October. It is about sport also – for instance on July 18 Tour de France will be in a city in the south west of France and at the beginning of the race the cyclists will say happy birthday to Nelson Mandela, just to say hello to South Africa at that time.
And I know South African people are fond of cycling and I know some people are looking at the Tour de France live at work and so it was great that we are doing that.
So it is many events, from the smallest, the very interesting collaboration between one artist and another that the outcome will be shown only next year, to the biggest. I talked about the exhibition. But in July we are opening at the national gallery in Cape Town, a very important exhibition of contemporary art also, bringing together 10 French artists, 10 international artists.
People are there to present their work but mainly they will be there to engage with South African artists – because next year it will be the biennale of Lyon for contemporary art in 2013. And some South African artists will be invited to present their work there. The name of the show is Rendezvous 12.
So we also have a French film festival all around South Africa in August; we are very strong at the Durban International Film Festival with 18 French films, with professionals coming to talk about coproduction; with Arte which is a channel in France giving an award this year, I could go on and on.
Music: Black music – there is an important exhibition, very interactive with is digital means to allow the audience to experience the story of Black music, throughout the 20th century.
This exhibition is coming to the Museum Africa at the end of August and it has been reworked so it includes a lot of South African music also.
And next year? What is scheduled for 2013?
We will not be able to talk about specific projects for next year. There is a joint committee which is communicating every two to three months – this committee is composed of commissioners general, Bongani Theme who is the CEO of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra and myself but it is also with the implementing agency the national arts council and the Institut Français in Paris, and people from the [South African] department of arts and culture and people from the French ministry.
All together we are choosing, we are assessing, we are talking about the different projects and we are making decisions. And these decisions for 2013 we are just beginning to happen. So there is no precise project. I just mention for instance the Biennale of Lyon – we know that the Biennale of Lyon will have something very important.
I could mention also the photographic festival of Arles, which is one of the main festivals around the world of photography, and there will be a strong focus on South African photography there. It is collaboration, actually, between French photographers and South African photographers about the social landscape in South Africa.
We will be strong at other festivals in Lyon and in Paris and there will be a very strong focus around contemporary dance from South Africa. I could go on and on because the thing is that, since we are talking to French organisations about the South African season in France we are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and it is very difficult to limit things. If we were accepting each and every project that was proposing we would never be able to do all these things.
So talking about all the enthusiasm and your journey – what is it that the French people and the South African people, share? Do we have anything in common?
Yes, something I found very fundamental is the promotion of diversity. It is an issue in each country. It is there, that we have to learn from each other and it is really a fundamental issue. You know in South Africa, obviously, but perhaps you don't know that in France it is becoming an increasingly and a fundamental issue about social unity. It will have a huge impact in the coming years; and for many years now we are promoting cultural diversity all over the world.
South Africa and France teamed up very successfully when it came to adopting the charter of culture and promoting cultural diversity at Unesco. So there we have very common ground. I would say that the reason for the common ground is the mutual respect that the French people and the South African people have for each other. So we have this kind of enthusiasm when we talk to a French organiser, they are very respectful of what South Africa is representing when it comes to the struggle regarding human rights, obviously. And we very interested in what all this is like since the end of apartheid.
So the thing is that it is always the same – French people believe that they know South African people and South African people believe that they know French people. Because we always base our knowledge on cliché, for instance. Our season is there to try to give a more accurate image of each country.
For details about the France-South Africa Seasons, 2012 & 2013 visit the website.