JMJ - Hangzhou (China) - UNESCO
Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 2:42 pm
16 May 2013
Jean-Michel Jarre believes that culture is as important as the environment
Hangzhou (China), May 16 (EFE). - The French musician Jean-Michel Jarre, a pioneer and revolutionary electronic music in the seventies and eighties, told Efe in China today that someday the "culture should be regarded as important as it is today the environment ".
Jarre, now a goodwill ambassador of UNESCO, participated this week in a conference of this organization in the Chinese city of Hangzhou tourism, which is expected to ensure that culture into the international political agenda as a cornerstone for the sustainable development of mankind.
The musician, convinced of the power of art and education in this regard, said that "the most important (this conference) is to convince the international community that culture is not an abstract notion, but must be considered today as we have to consider the ecology and the environment 30 years ago. "
"At about the time when I wrote 'Oxygen' (his 1976 album with music that revolutionized synthetic), we felt a bit like talking about enlightened defend the planet," he said, but "little by recently we have found that (nature) was becoming an increasingly important concern. "
"And today, although not everyone separates their waste properly even when pulling away, we are all aware that we have to pay a little attention to our planet for future generations", and predicted that something similar will happen with the awareness of the importance of culture.
"The notion of culture interests around the world and at the same time does not interest anyone, because it is too abstract."
"When there is nothing she continues, when countries and morals of the people are ruined, either by wars, natural disasters or problems of any kind that weakens a society, to end the culture and forms of expression are the oxygen of the soul, the last foundation that ultimately brings us together ".,
Jarre was once alien authorized the first musician to give a concert in the Republic of China since its founding in 1949, and that experience, said today, "is a very good example of how culture and artistic expression can collect and reconcile ".
In 1981 Radio Beijing received from a foreign embassy Jarre several albums, including his iconic "Oxygen", and that same year the French musician was invited to give two concerts in Beijing and Shanghai, which were published in Europe in 1982.
"The first time I came to China was just after the fall of the Gang of Four, which came after the Mao era, in the early eighties," recalls Jarre country so different from that of China today.
"In one stroke, a people who had cut all contact with the outside on culture, as there were many people who had no idea what was our music, our movies, our literature in the West, could open somehow, a door or a window to the world, "he said.
The same has been shown in South America, he said, "where there is a culture so important and where in times of huge economic crisis, music, film, painting, literature, are the last walls of civilization, allowing us to know that we are still alive and that we belong to a community. "
"So I think that the interest of this forum is everyone aware that culture is a priority quite as important as the environment" so that "say we should start talking about sustainable culture."
"For governments to understand what the streets need to understand it, and this requires that the relevant media put it," he added.
Thus, it is important that "both we, the artists, like you, the press, we contribute to the street people understand that culture, their children, their parents, and to the generations that come after, is something essential, "he said.
Source: http://newscaster.ikuna.com/439_cultura ... iente.html
@JB: Edited the title of the topic to bring other links into it.