MEDI1TV Afrique : Festival du livre africain, sculpture, les trésors de Dahomey, l'exil des Mikéas - 11/01/2025
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00:00It is with great pleasure that we meet you on Mediain TV for this new Escalculture at the heart of Africa.
00:16In a few moments, we will offer a total immersion in the universe of the Syrian sculptor Kiki,
00:23and then we will talk about Dahomey, this documentary, this docu-fiction, which we talk a lot about and which is worth the detour.
00:33But first of all, we are talking about literature with our guest of the day, right now.
00:39And as promised, we are talking about literature with our guest of the day, Younes Ajaraei, who is the general director of the festival dedicated to African books, Le Flamme, which will open its doors on January 30.
01:03He is with us. Hello.
01:06Hello Amina, hello to your guests and viewers.
01:12Thank you for being with us, Younes Ajaraei. It is a pleasure to have you.
01:18January 30, we are almost there. I think you are in full preparation for this third edition of Le Flamme.
01:26What was the main line-up? How did you prepare for the conception of this third edition?
01:39In fact, this third edition is a bit like a confirmation edition of our young festival, since we are only three years old.
01:52The first edition was really something extremely strong.
01:59We were expected to shoot, of course, during the second edition.
02:03I think it was a consolidation edition, indeed.
02:07We also had a very, very beautiful edition.
02:11And then I think we're starting to age a little bit, if I dare say so, since it's the third edition.
02:18And so we made sure that it was a real confirmation edition.
02:23So we're going to find a bit of the classics, if I dare say so, of the festival,
02:28that is, meetings that are essentially around literature,
02:32but also meetings around history, politics, sociology, anthropology, what we call the words.
02:40And then there is also a whole section that is dedicated to the nocturnes,
02:46which are dedicated to disciplines other than literature.
02:53And then, above all, this opening to youth, which is our credo,
02:57because we really aim to promote reading and writing to the young public.
03:07And so there is more and more openness to this cutting edge.
03:11So there you have it.
03:13As I was saying, it's more of a confirmation edition
03:18where we're going to try to lay the foundations of the festival.
03:24The third edition of the Flamme, I remind you, will open its doors on January 30,
03:32right in the heart of the city of Marrakech.
03:35Are there themes that will carry this new edition?
03:43Are there main guidelines that will be put in front of the stage?
03:51Yes, indeed.
03:52First of all, we never wanted to thematize this festival.
03:56We have always made sure that the festival is a festival
04:01that sticks a little bit to the literary news of the guests.
04:07And so it is essentially the publications of the year that are present.
04:13But at the same time, we have always made sure to focus on a particular theme.
04:20This year, the theme that we have chosen will be around female voices.
04:25It will be around the condition of women, let's say,
04:30on the continent and in the diaspora, of course.
04:34And so there will be a focus around this issue,
04:38in the presence of a number of authors and talented women,
04:44in the presence of young women,
04:47and in the presence of some relatively important personalities.
04:52And Younes Hajaray, as a general delegate of the FLA,
04:57but also as a co-founder,
04:59this is the third year, a year, as you just said at the beginning,
05:02of confirmation in a way of this very beautiful festival.
05:07And how did you experience the outbreak of this festival,
05:12its evolution, its maturation?
05:15And above all, how do you imagine it in the future?
05:19Maybe it's a bit of a difficult question,
05:22but it's true, how do you see it growing, in a way?
05:28No, no, I think it's a very relevant question,
05:30because it's better to project yourself,
05:33and try to imagine the future,
05:38than to stay a little static.
05:40That's what we've been trying to do from the start,
05:42because it's true that the project has already been matured
05:46during the entire period when I was artistic director
05:49of Marrakech, African Capital of Culture,
05:51so from 2019.
05:54And so the project was already a little bit in project, precisely.
06:00We transformed the essay by the creation of the festival in 2023.
06:05We are actually projecting ourselves to first accentuate
06:10this aspect of promotion of reading and writing with young people.
06:15This year, in particular, for example,
06:18we sponsored the literary prize of the high school students of Marrakech,
06:24which is now an integral part of the festival.
06:30We are going to go further.
06:32We actually hope to go towards the creation of a somewhat Pan-African prize,
06:36with, first of all, a few countries, let's say, close and neighboring.
06:42We are also planning, and we are working on it with a number of publishers,
06:48why not launch a publication on several continents
06:55with quite affordable prices that allow readers to access reading,
07:02since we know very well that, unfortunately,
07:05books come at a very high price in our countries.
07:13So, we are rather in this dynamic, indeed,
07:16of developing reading and writing, the promotion of reading and writing.
07:21And at the same time, we are also thinking of residencies,
07:24perhaps during the year, during which we would bring together a certain number of,
07:29let's say, we would benefit a certain number of audiences,
07:33especially young people, once again,
07:35of the presence of writers from different countries of the continent.
07:42So, we are in the process of reflecting, taking shape as we go along.
07:47As you know, the era of war is important and necessary
07:52to be able to try to realize all these ideas,
07:57but we are working on it, we are working on it and we are quite confident.
08:00So, yes, we are trying to project ourselves. You are absolutely right.
08:04In any case, we hope to see you at the UNES in Jaraipour,
08:09the third edition of Flamme, which will open its doors on 30 January.
08:14I remind you that you are a delegate, general, but also co-founder of Flamme.
08:18Thank you for being with us. It was a pleasure to have you.
08:22Thank you and we are waiting for you. Thank you very much.
08:30And right away, Ciri Kiki is an emblematic figure of art on our continent.
08:35In 1953, at the Ivory Coast, Ciri Kiki studied at the School of Fine Arts in Abidjan,
08:40then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tuscany, in Italy,
08:45before finally settling in Burkina Faso.
08:48It must be said that for Ciri Kiki, the artistic act is a participatory act.
08:52He works the bronze live, in front of everyone,
08:55to allow visitors to observe his process, attached to ancestral techniques.
09:00He makes his works outside, follows the molds with firewood,
09:05and makes the cast of the bronze in a traditional forge.
09:08There is always, in the work of the one who is nicknamed Sky,
09:12a link that refers to his African origins,
09:15in order to leave traces of a millennial culture
09:18in which so many Western artists have been published.
09:25We invite sculptors who come from all over the world,
09:28who find themselves here on the site,
09:30and who work for a month on the blocks they find and leave in place.
09:48When we arrived in this place, the pebbles were already sacred,
09:51by the people who lived next door.
09:54They said they were inhabited pebbles,
09:57and we apologized to them,
10:00saying that we would try to give them a little more value.
10:04I'm not saying that the pebbles that were here were not valuable,
10:07but we give them a little more value by putting our mark,
10:11not by games or art.
10:14But the sacred side is there, we respect it,
10:17because we don't move the stones, they stay there.
10:20We put our mark, and that's it.
10:22Did you see Thomas Sarkara?
10:25Top 5!
10:26I tell young people to work sincerely,
10:29to look for beautiful works, to work with stone,
10:33and then things will come on their own.
10:47In the past year, in different countries,
10:50there have been 200 symposiums around the world.
10:53The peculiarity of Langot,
10:56which is a symposium of granite sculpture,
10:59is that Langot is a place where you come,
11:03you find the works that are there like that,
11:06the granite sculptures that are in the Renaissance era,
11:09you sculpt them, and you leave them in place.
11:12Art is sometimes expressed in a rather crude way,
11:15in Cyric, who highlights his African roots,
11:18the roots buried in his mythology,
11:21which is intrinsically linked to the history of his people,
11:24of which he managed to revive the essence.
11:27He is the creator of the International Symposium on Granite Sculpture,
11:31initiated by Langot,
11:33and commissioner of the Symposium on Granite Sculpture in Benamira, Mauritania,
11:37and Africa Bidon in Nardèche, France.
11:40Cyric, who has exhibited in several museums and galleries around the world,
11:44and has participated in symposiums in Canada,
11:47France, Asia and Africa.
11:49Moreover, he lives and works in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
11:52A whole film had been dedicated to him,
11:55a film signed by Christian Lajomard,
11:58about his unique process of creation.
12:01Let's take a look.
12:17I know Cyric because Baki said in the film
12:21that he is a transversal person.
12:24I do theatre, that's my job,
12:27and regularly he comes when we have activities like the recreational,
12:31when we have performances, he comes to see the performances.
12:34And he stayed and we talked about what we were doing.
12:37And since then, we have kept very good ties.
12:41And that's what makes...
12:43And until today, he's just a friend.
12:46So I'm sure he didn't...
12:48If he was here, if we were in France, why would we talk like that?
12:52It looks like the guys didn't do anything.
12:55Here, big passages.
12:58What was engraved on it,
13:01the young colleagues, the young artists,
13:04engraved a ceremony.
13:07It was really...
13:09It happened to me.
13:11I was moved. I don't easily get moved by things like that.
13:14Because I'm not used to being caressed in the direction of the hair.
13:19And I'm used to it.
13:22So when there's an activity, I think it's going to be...
13:25And today, it was really cool.
13:28It was...
13:30I would say it exceeded my expectations.
13:36And right now, we're talking about cinema.
13:38On November 10, 2021, 26 works of art were restored to the Republic of Benin.
13:43These are the 26 royal treasures of Dahomey,
13:46pillaged by the French colonial troops at the end of the 19th century.
13:49It's this heritage that Dahomey documents.
13:52The second feature film of the French-Senegalese cinema,
13:55Mathidiope Dahomey,
13:57consecrated by the Golden Bear at the last Berlinale.
13:59So what becomes of a work when its cultural, symbolic attribute is raised
14:03and exhibited in a museum and which, moreover, is in a foreign place?
14:07Can the statues die and be reborn?
14:09Let's take a look right now.
14:14This is a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:17It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:19It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:21It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:23It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:25It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:27It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:29It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:31It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:33It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:35It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:37It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:39It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:41It's a statue of the Golden Bear.
14:49It will allow to us historians, artists, to repurpose this tale.
14:56It's a political surveillance.
14:58We are nothing without history.
15:03Even our own culture has never been composed in our language.
15:07It's the life of the public.
15:22It's one of the questions we ask ourselves
15:24when we see Daumé, film hybrid between documentaries
15:26on the restitution process of works
15:29kept at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris
15:31and which will make the trip back to Cotonou.
15:35Documentary also when Mathilde Diop films a debate
15:38between students at the Université d'Abomé in Benin.
15:40Fiction when it makes us hear
15:42in voice-over and background language
15:44the interior monologue of one of the works,
15:46the anthropomorphic statue of King Gézau.
15:48But how to live the return of his ancestors
15:51in a country that had to be built and composed
15:53with their absence, while the soul of the works
15:56is free? The debate is raging
15:58among the students of the Université d'Abomé.
16:00What is the opinion of Daumé?
16:01So, Mathilde Diop's second documentary.
16:04Goodbye or see you urgently.
16:12And before we leave Place de Madagascar
16:14where a photo exhibition to tell the exile of the Mickeas
16:18signed by the photographer Andy Razzolo,
16:20Harry Vaughny tells the change of way of life
16:23forced by this indigenous people of hunter-gatherers
16:26from the southwest of Madagascar in his exhibition.
16:29And they ploughed the sand at the H Foundation.
16:31The Mickeas are threatened, you should know,
16:33for several decades by the decryption
16:36that destroys their forests.
16:38Forest guards, moreover, confuse them
16:40with those who exploit their natural habitat.
16:43Consequence, the 1,400 members of this community
16:46have all fled to villages where they try,
16:48despite everything, to preserve their traditions
16:51of these few days spent with the villagers
16:54of Ambo-Lofti, where 90 Mickeas live.
16:57The photographer above all retains the will
17:00of the community to adapt,
17:02good or bad, to a new way of life.
17:04And this despite the discrimination
17:06suffered by it and other ethnicities
17:08living in exile from the forest.
17:11So here is an exhibition to discover urgently.
17:14And we come to the end of Africa in Culture.
17:16Thank you for being with us.
17:18And we'll meet again next week.
17:20No problem.