EU year of Intercultural Dialogue
Sete Sois Sete Luas Festival
The Festival Sete Sóis Sete Luas is a project promoted by a Cultural Network of around 30 towns of 9 different Countries: Portugal, Italy, Spain, Cape Verde, Croatia, Greece, France, Marocco and Israel. It promotes projects of popular music, of street theatre, of the plastic limbs, involving important personalities of European and Mediterranean culture. Marco Abbondanza, founder and director of the festival, presented the aims and contents of Sete Sois Sete Luas at the conference. The festival is focussing on an artistic exchange between various music traditions and the original music production especially in the Mediterranean area. By this it is enhancing strongly the intercultural dialogue. The project received EU funding within the EU Culture programme several times.
Downloads: presentation slides - short article
Find more information at www.7sois7luas.com
Music as a common language of the whole world
Dubi Lenz was talking about his stong believe and hope, that music can serve as a common language of the whole world, understandable by all citizens of the globe. During his work as broadcaster and editor of the IDF Radio Station and as an artistic director of festivals he tries to bring together musicians from all over the world to work together, especially Israelis and Palestinians. One example is the first broadcasting of the song BELIBI – In My Heart – by the Israeli David Broza and the Palestinian group Sabreen. This is a song about hope, love and peace, performed by the authors and by 2 children choirs – one Israeli and one Palestinian. At 10:05 on a Sunday morning the lines were opened between the I.D.F. radio and the Palestinian radio in Gaza. Dov Lenz and the Palestinian presenter spoke about the song and about their dream of peace, and on the same second they started to play this song.
Watch the clip of the song on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0sdCksStfQ.
Listen to Dubi Lenz' weekly World Music radio show every Friday between 20:05 and 22:00 (Israeli local time) on glz.co.il.
Download the lecture script here.
Together in Diversity
Timo Klemettinen, EMC chairman, presented the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. The main objective of the year is to promote intercultural dialogue as as instrument to assist European citizens, and all those living in the European Union, in acquiring the knowledge and abilities to deal with a more open and more complex cultural environment.
The civil society platform for intercultural dialogue, originally set up by Culture Action Europe and now strongly supported by the EU Commission, just launched the "Rainbow-Paper", a cross-sectoral set of political recommendations on intercultural dialogue, recently.
Timo Klemettinen criticised the lacking visibility of the EU year for the EU citizens.
Download the presentation slides here.
Find more information on the EU Year here
on the Civil Society Platform here.
Concluding Speech
David Sanders, American professor of music and broadcasting at Montclair University, drew three vital conclusions from the conference in his final speech:
- In the first place, it is important to build a closer international network among the activists in order to allow them to exchange experiences and best-practice examples, and to support one another in their work.
- Second, the media must be embraced and encouraged to publish positive news about troubled regions.
- And last but not least, monitoring studies must be carried out to validate the impact of the work and to facilitate the cultivation of new patrons and sponsors.
"We cannot save the world through music - we cannot solve all the problems of the world through music... but we can use music to bring beauty and hope where there is only suffering and ugliness... and we can use it to help remove the obstacles to peace of hate, fear and misunderstanding," he said, praising the amazing group of people who were present at the conference and who dedicate their work to peace and freedom.