Dear Minister,
Ladies and gentlemen elected,
Distinguished Ambassadors,
Mr Prefect,
Chairman of the MUCEM,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,
A well-established adage among geographers claims that a good map is better than a long speech. In going through this new exhibition of the MUCEM, which I have the honour and joy of inaugurating in your presence, Mr Minister, it seems difficult to prove them wrong. Within these walls, the cards speak. In their own way, they tell a story. Because the cards are above all an Imago Mundi. And like any image of the world, they don’t just describe a territory: they tell the story and reconfigure it. The cards reveal the interest, desire or point of view that shape the gaze of the one who draws them.
«Made in Algeria, genealogy of a territory» retraces the history of Europe’s gaze on the other side of the Mediterranean.
It tells a vision, in turn warlike and mercantile, poetic and political, imprinted of orientalism.
The exhibition depicts the mechanisms of control, that of the colonial order. It tells the story of a feeling – should I say pride? – that Hédi Kaddour calls «preponderance», which led an administration and men to relegate nearly 90% of the country’s population to the poorest territories.
But it also tells, and finally it tells, Algeria as its inhabitants see it today, of the political effervescence of Algiers after 1962, when it was the cultural capital of postcolonial movements, until artists look at the topology of their country, reflecting their history, both national and intimate. I am thinking in particular of the beautiful series of Zineb Sedira’s «Terres de mon père», which takes us to the confines of the Aures to paint a portrait of the land of the Hashem.
From Algeria seen from afar to Algeria as closely as possible, from the imagery of the conquest to that of independence, this is all that tells, with great accuracy, delicacy and intelligence, «Made in Algeria».
We are in deep need of works and events that seek to provide a shared perspective on a shared history. The work of historians and artists is essential to build a serene future, where the past is understood and surpassed.
In this regard, I would like to commend the work of the two curators of the exhibition, Zahia Rahmani and Jean-Yves Sarrazin, who were able to occupy the setting that stage designer Cécile Degos had designed for the occasion.
Thanks to MuCEM and its President, Jean-François Chougnet, for proposing «Made in Algeria». Thanks to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art for their contribution. Finally, thank you to the media partners, who I am sure will give this new exhibition the echo it deserves.
We could not have dreamed of a more symbolic place than the MuCEM to host this exhibition and to receive you in France, Mr. Minister.
Welcoming you within these walls is almost a no-brainer. The MuCEM reserves Algeria a special place in its collections, in its programming and in its cooperation.
With «Le Noir et le Bleu, un rêve méditerranéen», in 2013, with «Algiers-Marseille, round trips/returns, in 2014, the ties between our two countries were often highlighted. The Crusader residencies as well as the literary meetings organized at MuCEM contribute in their turn. We mentioned this when I went to Algiers last October.
That Marseille reserves for Algeria such a special place is a matter of geographical, intellectual and cultural evidence: the city of Marseille is a gateway to this sea that connects us much more than it separates us. What would Marseille be without the Mediterranean? The sea is our cradle and our common basin.
In this period of upheaval and change, each generation must be able to find places where shared history and mutual cultural influences are shown and told. In this way, everyone will be able to make a contribution and leave their mark on this heritage.
What would our two shores be without the trade of goods and ideas, which go back to the first Phoenician counters?
What can be said of Hippo’s influence on the whole of Europe, long after the fall of the Roman Empire?
How can we fail to see that in this basin «where agriculture and the gods were invented», to use the title of one of the spaces of the Gallery of the Mediterranean of the MuCEM, exchanges have continued to weave and shape what we are today?
This is how we respond to those who petrify cultures and use them to turn them into an identity or nationalist poison.
This is how we respond to those who are essentializing cultures and reducing to little their complexity and their contradictions, to justify community withdrawals.
I am one of those who believe that culture is the fabric on which it is possible to forge the links that will sustain the Mediterranean world of tomorrow. This is one of MuCEM’s vocations.
It is also one of the vocations of a festival like Babel Med, dedicated to Mediterranean music, which is held every year at the Docks du Sud.
This is the work to which the choreographer Nacera Belaza is attached, which I distinguished recently.
This same concern runs through the great novels that have been published in recent months, in Algeria as in France. I mentioned Hédi Kaddour. But I also think of Matthias Enard or Kamel Daoud, Ahlam Mosteghanemi, finally translated into French, or Boualem Sansal.
Making the link between all the shores is what inhabits every place of culture, in Marseille and all around the Mediterranean.
And it is finally - I think I can say this - that nourishes the cultural cooperation between Algeria and France. Our dialogue has never been stronger or more intense, and I am pleased about that. Our two governments have chosen to intensify it through our cultural cooperation, particularly in the book, film, audiovisual and heritage sectors. Regular exchanges between cultural professionals are planned throughout 2016 and 2017.
A few major events will give us the opportunity to measure this. In October, the Algiers International Book Fair made our country the guest of honour. I went there at the invitation of the Minister, whom I thank for the quality of his welcome. I saw there the deep interest of the Algerian public for French authors, and that of French book professionals for Algeria. In March, Constantine, Capital of Culture of the Arab World, will be the special guest of the Paris Book Fair.
Here, today, as in the coming months, everyone will be able to measure how deep, solid and inextricable is what connects us from coast to coast. Everyone will be able to draw from it what to build a future, singular and collective, at the same time lucid, serene and peaceful. Because it is the strength of culture.
Thank you.