Newsletter

World Music
Charter

VISA EMERGENCY

The Estates General

of World Music

10 years ago, Zone Franche con­clud­ed its last États Généraux after three bien­ni­al meet­ings in 2009 (at Sci­ences Po Paris), 2011 (at the Cité Nationale de l’His­toire de l’Im­mi­gra­tion) and 2013 (at the Vil­la Méditer­ranée in Mar­seille). These high points mobi­lized insti­tu­tions, actors, pro­fes­sion­als, etc., from all over the world.


In the space of 10 years, the effects of glob­al­iza­tion have increased, as have the rise of iden­ti­ty and nation­al­ism, the cli­mate cri­sis has become an emer­gency, geopo­lit­i­cal bal­ances have shift­ed dra­mat­i­cal­ly, and pop­u­la­tion move­ments are call­ing into ques­tion the abil­i­ty of coun­tries to wel­come with dig­ni­ty “the oth­er”, with their cul­ture and the rights inher­ent in their human­i­ty. It’s high time, there­fore, to bring about an aggior­na­men­to of the think­ing of the time, to the real­i­ties of the world, and there­fore of World Music, today.

The États Généraux des Musiques du Monde will take place in France and Ger­many over a peri­od from 2023 to 2026. Tak­ing stock of devel­op­ments over the past 10 years, we’ll look at the new chal­lenges fac­ing us today and in the future.

PROGRAM 2023 — 2026

When we talk about World Music, we’re talk­ing about the world’s cul­tures, about our­selves and about oth­ers. It means debat­ing inter­cul­tur­al and inter-iden­ti­ty exchanges and rela­tion­ships. It’s about cher­ish­ing dif­fer­ence against stan­dard­iza­tion. It means choos­ing open­ness over with­draw­al. It’s a way of talk­ing about arts and cul­tures out­side the log­ic of the mar­ket. It’s about ques­tion­ing the rela­tion­ship between music and soci­ety, and the polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic pow­er it wields, so much so that it shapes iden­ti­ties and imag­i­na­tions. These ques­tions, and many oth­ers, will be the focus of the many pro­fes­sion­al meet­ings, both nation­al and inter­na­tion­al, orga­nized around 4 main themes (one per year) and an inter­na­tion­al meet­ing in Ger­many.

2023 (FRANCE)
GEOPOLITICS AND MUSIC

● Cul­tur­al coop­er­a­tion (French, Euro­pean, inter­na­tion­al): between sup­port and real exchanges with local play­ers, or soft pow­er and artis­tic and eco­nom­ic cul­tur­al stan­dard­iza­tion ;
● What is the place of world music in a mul­ti­po­lar world fraught with ten­sions ?
● The dynam­ics of decol­o­niza­tion and the return of works : what about intan­gi­ble cul­tur­al her­itage and music ? ;
● Music and (im-)migration : influ­ences and con­flu­ences of migra­tion on musi­cal, social and cul­tur­al syn­cretisms.

2024 (FRANCE) :
MUSIC(S) AND CULTURE(S) AT THE HEART OF GLOBALIZATION AND MARKET LOGIC

● Can cul­ture be viewed through the prism of the Cul­tur­al and Cre­ative Indus­tries (CCI)? ;
● The phe­nom­e­na of con­cen­tra­tion linked to glob­al­iza­tion and their con­se­quences in music, the media, soci­ety,… ;

● What is the role of pub­lic cul­tur­al poli­cies, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the field of music, in the face of eco­nom­ic imper­a­tives and Euro­pean dic­tates ? ?

2025 (GERMANY) :
UNION DES ACTEURS EUROPEENS DES MUSIQUES DU MONDE

● A look at Fran­co-Ger­man cul­tur­al coop­er­a­tion around World Music ;
● Meet­ings of Euro­pean phil­har­mon­ic and oth­er clas­si­cal music venues pro­gram­ming World Music ;
● Col­lab­o­ra­tive day with Euro­pean net­works to build a man­i­festo for World Music (exam­ples of invit­ed net­works : Zone Franche, FAMDT, EFN, Euro­pean Music Coun­cil, Forum of World­wide Music Fes­ti­val, Rete Ital­iana World Music, Bel­gium World­wide Music, Hangve­to, etc.).

2025 (FRANCE) :
PEOPLES AND CULTURES

● Musi­ciens d’i­ci et d’ailleurs : musiques pop­u­laires et dias­po­ra ;
● Ethics and aes­thet­ics of the insti­tu­tion­al­iza­tion of music ;
● Cul­tur­al rights : how to work with them, rein­vent them and inter­na­tion­al­ize them ?
● Trans­mis­sion, the key to safe­guard­ing musi­cal diver­si­ty.

2026 (FRANCE) :
WORLD MUSIC & ETHNO-FUTURISM

● Prin­ci­ples and val­ues of eth­no-futur­ism ;
● Frag­ile pop­u­lar cul­tures : faced with dis­ap­pear­ing music, a sav­ing eth­no-futur­ism ?
● Youth and dynamism of urban music with a her­itage essence ;
● For a decol­o­niza­tion of dig­i­tal plat­forms : will AI find its her­itage roots ?