Arts & Culture in shaping the 21st Century

Between the fantasy of the present and the Realty of the future

Paper presented at the JakArt@2008 conference coincide with 4th AGM of the AAPAF Jakarta, Indonesia, August 2008

Amir Nabih, Member of Egyptian Writer Union
Director of International Festival Dep.
Foreign Cultural Relations
Ministry of Culture , Arab Republic of Egypt

E-mail:amirculture@hotmail.com

Mr. Chairman,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Allow me to begin by expressing my sincere appreciation to the Government of Indonesia  and to the Jakart institute for hosting this very important Conference in this most hospitable and deeply international  city, to the organizer  and personally to Mr.  René van Helsdingen the Program Director for their excellent preparatory work ,  and in the same time I have to admit it is a big challenge to speak after the eminent speakers who have preceded me at this podium today. Their words are timely reminder of important values that we all cherish .

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

For all of us, The Relevance and Importance of the Arts & Culture in shaping the 21^st Century– the title of   the conference is particularly well chosen – is a challenge in itself. In spite of  being aware,  more than ever ,of the power of culture to change the course of the future .

There’s no need to say “no development without culture”, because  economic development without cultural roots will never be sustainable. On the other hand countries, regions, peoples and communities are becoming more and more intertwined and interdependent, we can no longer cut ourselves off, so we need dialogue to understand and accept each other's culture, and as much culture needs dialogue, dialogue needs culture.

I would like, nonetheless, to underline four main points, which deserve our attention.

The first concerns with the need to do more and more efforts to convince peoples, institutes and governments that international festivals and international cultural events are not merely a vehicle for entertainments and investments: it is also a goal in itself, because it offers constructive ways for countries to represent their ideas, culture, beliefs and to dialogue. And allow me to quote one of the Professor Wang commented abut how power of  performance can be:
 

"The Divine Performing Arts show is restoring the forgotten history, using art as a means. It lets the world see what real culture is. This effort is very important for the world now and for the future “.

We have to believe that, what it looks now as the fantasy of the present, it will be the realty of the future.

The second point is important to support the mobility of cultural workers, and before I proceed I shall just mention what I mean by the term " the mobility of cultural workers", it refers to artists of all disciplines, practitioners, cultural institution managers, producers, promoters, researchers, journalists, operators in the cultural area, etc. The concept of mobility applies when these individuals travel outside of their country of residence in order to perform, learn, create, cooperate and exchange for professional purposes.

 Third, we really have to pay more attention to the Internet and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) as a shared virtual places, artists will be able to work, alone or in collaboration with colleagues from the same country or from deferent nations, exchanging ideas and experiences creating and innovating, promoting culture and tolerance among different cultural identities

The last one, which relates to how can Arts & Culture shaping the 21st Century? I believe that it’s very important to set up training courses to promote the creation and management in international cultural events fields.

We all had tremendous hope for the 21st century. We felt that it must mark a new beginning for mankind. We can still realize these hopes. It is not impossible to dedicate us to averting violence at all levels, to exploring alternatives to violent conflict and to forging attitudes of tolerance and active concern towards others.

Before  I  end my words , allow me  to show you  this small presentation , it’s   a message from Africa to say how much we  do share same concerns .

 

I thank you once again for allowing me to share with you my experiences and reflect..

Thank you.