For the 2nd year, the Africa department of the Applied Research Center in Contemporary Cultures is celebrating World African Culture Day (JMCA). A rich and festive program, scientific and charitable, combining visual arts, music, fashion, history, and culture!

With the participation of students from the MBA in Art & Luxury Management and Performing Arts Management programs of IESA International Paris and the partnership of the EHESS Endowment Fund.

IESA arts&culture invites you to several events, the first of which is the exhibition presented in the Gallery, Other Voices, Draperies and Beads (D’autres voix, Drapés et perles), an exhibition by Edwige Aplogan and Beya Gille Gacha from January 15 to January 28. These two artists present their works there; for Edwige Aplogan, it is an installation titled "ABLODÉ MIZON," or "Let us move toward independence." Since 2010, the year of the 50th anniversary of African independence, she has initiated a series of monumental installations, dressing buildings, monuments, and boats in the flags of the African countries that celebrated their 50th anniversary. Over the years, these dressings have evolved and she has integrated a historical vision and a tribute to Africans of the Diaspora across the centuries of slavery.

As for Beya GILLE GACHA, her works, sculptures and installations, always address social and societal themes. She discovers the beadwork workshops of the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation. A period of research follows, leading to the production of beaded sculptures. She approaches beadwork in a contemporary way, blending the codes of African and Western classicism. Beadwork is a traditional art that requires a great deal of time and precision. The use of beads takes on the look of an epidermis and thus gives her sculptures the appearance of a second skin.

Program of the Day

  • 15:00 - Opening of the day and of the Madiba Leadership Institute’s representative office in Paris by Boris Grebille, director of IESA arts&culture, and Sam Faye, director of the Madiba Leadership Institute - ISM Group
  • 15:30 - General History of Africa, a lecture by Tabue Nguma, a graduate of the EHESS and consultant at UNESCO
  • 16:15 - Matriarchy, Masterclass led by Oula Zaroual with Diagne Chanel & Ali Rakib
  • 17:30 - The Little Africa 2019 guide, by its founder Jacqueline NGO MPII
  • 18:30 – SUN IN WINTER: MADE IN AFRICA, Fashion Show presented by Fanny Kabongo, president of the Asrens association
  • 19:30 – Opening of the exhibition D’autres voix: drapeaux et perles (Other Voices: Flags and Beads), in the presence of the artists Edwige Aplogan and Beya Gille Gacha
  • 20:30 - Karim Camara and IVY, concert in two sets produced by Aminata DJOMGUEM POUYE

Meet at the Cultural Innovation Campus at 1 Cité Griset Paris 11!

At the initiative of the African Network of Cultural Promoters and Entrepreneurs (RAPEC), supported by UNESCO, the Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, the Independent Cultural Centers of Africa, and numerous associations and NGOs, this day commemorates the date of the adoption of the Charter for the African Cultural Renaissance on January 24, 2006 by the heads of state and government of the African Union.

The organizers have issued a call to Africans, people of African descent, and enthusiasts of African culture, so that together they can celebrate "Africa, cradle of humanity." The JMCA is thus intended as an annual forum for reflection on the preservation and promotion of African cultural identities as a basis for dialogue between peoples. And to defend the role of Culture and its actors in preventing and resolving conflicts of all kinds, as well as its role as a lever for the development of our territories… A vision that IESA arts&culture and its applied research center in contemporary cultures share 100%!