FRANCE:THERE WAS talk of amour et beauté, and of culture and Europe,under the vaulted glass ceiling of the Grand Palais yesterday when three government ministers and a flurry of cultural luminaries committed the first act of France's upcoming presidency of the EU - the launch of the Saison Culturelle Européenne.
Countries usually use the rotating EU presidency to showcase their own art and literature. But this time, the country which often seems to think it invented culture has adopted a new approach. "For the first time since the EU presidencies started, we want to welcome others to our country, saturate ourselves with their culture, listen to others," said France's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner.
Dr Kouchner is no shrinking violet, but yesterday he made six professions of modesty in as many minutes. He wanted "to present the French presidency with humility". We intend "to listen to others", he said. "We've often been reproached for being arrogant, for making up our minds ahead of time, especially when it comes to Europe," Dr Kouchner explained. Why the sudden bout of self-deprecation? "At a certain moment, we fell off our perch, because France voted Non; it was a cruel blow to Europe . . . a beautiful lesson in humility . . .," said the French foreign minister.
The idea that the country holding the presidency should be required to host cultural events from all 26 other members was floated by Olivier Poivre d'Arvor, the director of Culturesfrance, the cultural arm of the foreign ministry, in an interview with The Irish Timeslast winter.
Culturesfrance is in charge of the ambitious cultural season, which is based on the magic number 27. During the second half of this year, France will produce seven cycles of 27 concerts, 27 exhibitions, 27 performances, 27 history lessons, 27 writers, 27 film producers and 27 playwrights.
Another 26 "tandem projects" will unite French creativity with a cultural figure from each of the 26 other EU countries. French, needless to say, seems to be the working language. In the "tandem franco-irlandais", director Michel Abecassis will adapt two novels by Roddy Doyle for stage productions, to be performed all over France by the Franco-Irish actress Olwen Fouéré.
Jean Monnet, a father of Europe, allegedly said: "If I had it to do over again, I would start with culture." France's minister for European Affairs, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, suggested that culture "is implicitly at the heart of the European project." He sees culture - "identity landmarks" - as a rampart against globalisation.
The US literally hovered over yesterday's gathering in the form of monumental rusted steel sculptures by the American Richard Serra. Serra's work was "proof that one can be American by birth but French and European at heart," said Mr Poivre d'Arvor.
The culture minister, Christine Albanel, also referred to Serra, saying it would be "bad grace" to say something anti-American "in the shadow of the magnificent work of Richard Serra". Ms Albanel went though a list of German, Spanish, Italian and Romanian films which have become "our personal landscape".
Yet "despite all these exchanges and this familiarity, it is still with America that most of our inter-cultural dialogue takes place . . . There's still a lot to be done."
Actress Juliette Binoche draped herself over a chair on stage, wearing a slinky black dress, diamond earrings and pointed sling-back pumps. She thanked her "immigrant ancestors" without whom she might not have worked with Polish, Taiwanese and Austrian directors. "Art is a sort of diagonal between the vertical and the horizontal," she said. "Art enables me to become more human." Nobody knew what she meant, but it sounded good, even if something was lost in translation.
For further information, see www.ue2008.fr/saison-culturelle-europeenne