http://rami.lafriche.org

The RAMI project ( Rencontres Arts et Multimédia Internationales ), initiated in September 2006 until December 2007, is a platform for experimentation and communication that will organize international meetings based on contemporary creation, digital tools and multimedia.

Similar to the Plastic Arts and with strong links to certain Schools of Fine Arts, the world of Digital Arts is well-identified in France.  In comparison to this, in the Lebanon, the artists interested in the field move very easily from the medium of experimental video to that of fiction video, and, in Egypt, the artists tend to move from the graphic and the visual arts worlds towards diversified multimedia installations and performances.

The ground is fertile.  We feel that there is everything to gain in supporting the developments in the Visual, Audiovisual and Performing Arts. It would be a challenge to bring these Arts together in the same space and time. Such an interesting venture would allow for a better platform to understand the artists’ motivations, the spirit of production and its effects on the audiences.

The RAMI project is the result of a cooperation that began in 2001 between the following major partners: SHAMS-Beirut, ZINC/ECM-Marseilles, l’ATELIER of Alexandria and ASTAR-Milan.

RAMI is divided up into seven phases:

1 - ARBOMED:  Marseilles – Aix, October 2006

2 - Beirut, 9 to 20 May 2007

3 - Alexandria, 6 to 15 June 2007

4 - Marseilles, 18, to 23 September 2007

5 - Beirut, 4 to 14 October 2007

6 - Alexandria, 18 to 25 November 2007

RAMI is a project proposed and co-produced by

SHAMS – Beirut

Contact Abdo Nawar: assshams@cyberia.net.lb

ZINC/ECM – Marseilles

Contact Claudine Dussollier: cdussol@lafriche.org

l’ATELIER of Alexandria

Contact Moataz El Safty: info@atelieralex.com`

ASTAR – Milan

Contact Delphine Tonglet: delphine@studioazzurro.com

Rami is financed by

Anna Lindh Foundation - Al-Mawred Al Thaqafy

Dramastica Institute - Open Society Institute - Ford Foundation - French Cultural Centre in Beirut –– Region Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur – Ministère des affaires étrangères français.

Why a RAMI?

New information and communication technologies have become widespread in all aspects of daily life, both private and professional.  Throughout the world, new potentials and easy access to vast stores of information is being offered to everyone by simply turning the codes and modalities of transmission, transforming our every-day perception of time and space.  By de facto, the modalities of dialogue and the language we use to express ourselves become altered, breaking the codes for presenting reality as we once knew it.  As a result, these new technologies have led to a fear that dialogue will be “virtualized” to the detriment of real contact with the Other.  A reason for RAMI.

Artists have also made use of these new technologies to explore different ways of becoming part of the landscape of contemporary creation.  Visual artists, as well as those from the fields of theatre, choreography and music, examine and use these new tools to offer the public new points of view and new fields of perception and reception.  The complexities of today’s world are seen as digital technology and multimedia influence art forms to evolve into creations which are often still unclassifiable.  A reason for RAMI.

In all countries, we are seeing artistic approaches and projects which are marked by these digital tools:  installation, interactivity and multimedia performances criss-cross the biennials of contemporary arts and numerous festivals.  This is true around the Mediterranean.  In the Lebanon, for example, groups of artists take part in the experimental workshops; in France, in Marseilles and Aix-en-Provence in particular, cultural operators develop the production and diffusion of digital projects; in Egypt, new sites in Cairo and Alexandria play host to artists in the context of residences and workshops.  In the framework of the “Biennale des Jeunes Créateurs en Europe et Méditerranée” (BJCEM – “Biennial of Young European and Mediterranean Creators”), multimedia projects and digital arts are constantly increasing.

Today, two objectives justify the creation of the RAMI project:

1- The need to bring artists, professionals and audiences closer together to better understand the contents and the technical and artistic approaches which exist in this domain.  It is important to create a balance between the human aspect of arts in relation to the emergence of the digital and the multimedia art forms;

2 The importance of making these emerging art forms visible and to develop a key to common understanding in the Mediterranean basin, thereby facilitating the development of a critical forum for dialogue.

SHAMS in Beirut, ZINC/ECM in Marseilles, l’ATELIER of Alexandria, ASHTAR in Milan and their respective partners feel that the time has come to encourage a meeting based on these objectives to redefine the creative work that to many is still too abstract.

The RAMI project wants to undertake an initial inventory to demonstrate how these new technologies have a transversal effect on several artistic disciplines. It will give the artists, professionals and public a forum for confrontation and reflection.  These International Meetings on Arts and Multimedia (RAMI) will be developed within the Beirut, Marseilles, Alexandria triangular network in order to underline this transversal dimension and to encourage openness and exchange.