At the invitation of Mohamed Zine El Abidine, Minister of Cultural Affairs of Tunisia, Audrey Azoulay, Minister of Culture and Communication, visited Tunis as part of the first edition of intercultural dialogue 5+5 Culture.
This meeting of Ministers of Culture brings together the countries of the Western Mediterranean: Italy, France, Spain, Portugal for the North Shore, Malta, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and Libya for the South Shore.
In the area of artistic exchanges, the Minister announced the launch of a mission of assessment and proposals on exchanges between France and the South of the Mediterranean, carried out by the General Inspectorate for Cultural Affairs, with the support of Bernard Foccroule, who has long been involved in exchanges between the two shores of the Mediterranean. It will make it possible to take stock of existing actions and networks today and to identify priority areas for development. The mission will report its findings at the end of March.
This visit was an opportunity to strengthen the partnership between France and Tunisia through the signing of several agreements :
- Thetwinning contract between the two Ministries of Culture to support Tunisia in its reform process. The signing ceremony took place with Mohamed ZINE EL ABIDINE, Minister of Cultural Affairs and Patrice BERGAMINI, Ambassador of the European Union to Tunisia. The Minister welcomed the fact that France has been selected for the implementation of this EU-funded project.
- The creation of a bilateral fund to selectively support the co-production of French-Tunisian film works : jointly implemented by the Centre national de la cinématographie et de l'image animée français and the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image tunisien, this three-year agreement will encourage film co-production between France and Tunisia. The fund endowed with more than €400,000 in 2017, co-financed, should help between five and six feature films each year.
This trip was an opportunity for the Minister to pay tribute to the quality and richness of Franco-Tunisian cultural cooperation and to visit the Medina of Tunis, the permanent collections of the Bardo Museum and the exhibition «Places saints partagés», organized in partnership with the Museum of Civilisations of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM). Finally, the Minister had rich exchanges with cultural circles in Tunis, booksellers, artists, filmmakers, publishers and associations.