A CULTURAL VANGUARD BRINGS PARIS TO THE ISRAELI SPRINGTIME
By Goel Pinto

Ha’aretz, Israel
May 11 2006

PARIS – During a visit to Israel six months ago, Olivier Poivre d’Arvor
decided to hold a French cultural season in Israel. The decision was
certainly not taken thoughtlessly. For the most part, the personal
ideology of someone who believes that culture mirrors everything in
life lies behind the idea to hold a “French spring” in Israel.

Poivre d’Arvor heads the French Association for Artistic Action
(AFAA), which has been operating for over 80 years to create cultural
cooperation between France and the rest of the world. The association’s
headquarters is located in the 7th Arondissement in Paris, between
the Austrian consulate and the military museum, Les Invalides. In the
entrance hangs a picture of the Eiffel Tower painted red, a one-time
gesture by the AFAA to mark the Year of China in France, in 2004.

Each year, France announces it will focus on a different country,
and during that year, the best of that country’s culture is presented
to the French audience. Last year was the Year of Brazil and next
year will be the Year of Armenia, during which a huge concert by the
world’s most famous Armenian, singer Charles Aznavour, will be held.

The Year of Israel took place eight years ago.

Poivre D’Arvor, a man with a dry sense of humor, sometimes – perhaps
deliberately – forgets his diplomatic role. The initiative for a
season of French culture, to kick off next week in Israel, he says,
was not conceived as a gesture of mutuality in the wake of the Year
of Israel in France.

“I still have not received the letter of invitation,” he says with
slight sarcasm.

A few months ago, Israel refused to sign the “Convention for the
Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions”
initiated by UNESCO, and its refusal was what led to the decision.

“We are not all the same,” and “do not all have the same culture,”
states the convention, which is based on a consensus that every
country has the right to promote its culture. It was signed by 148
countries, four abstained and two were opposed: the United States,
which felt that it was an activity directed against the American
culture dominating the world, and Israel, which followed suit.

“Today, everyone’s fantasy is to be American,” says Poivre d’Arvor.

“In another 20 years everyone will want to be Chinese, and in another
50 years we will all be citizens of Dubai or Brazil or India. The
UNESCO document states that differences exist. I don’t understand why
Israel was so quick to refuse to sign the document, since it of all
countries has to protect its very fragile culture, the Hebrew language,
which is spoken by so few people. The founders of the State of Israel
were dreamers, but in order to dream you need culture.

Enough with watching American television all day long,” he says,
raising his voice.

“Halas,” he adds, and for a moment it seems as though he is returning
to the late 1980s, when he served as the director of the French
Institute in Alexandria, Egypt and as his country’s cultural attache
at the embassy. “There is more than that to life. To open a book,
to take an interest in the cultures of others, and then one day the
Israelis will take an interest not only in the sounds of explosions,
but in culture as well.”

We will help the Palestinians

The French season in Israel, which has the charming name “Voila!” –
with a logo that emphasizes the letters “IL” to represent Israel –
will begin on May 16 with a pyrotechnics extravaganza, a performance
and fireworks display by the “F Group.” The group will light up the
skies of Tel Aviv with a cacophony of color, just as it did at the
Athens 2004 Olympics, the Winter Olympics in Torino and the Millenium
festivities on the Eiffel Tower. Poivre d’Arvor says that he chose
this show as the opening shot, because “anyone who has been in Tel Aviv
and does not see that you like craziness, is either stupid or blind.”

Aside from the opening evening, there will be, among other things,
the “Dialogues” fashion show by Christian Lacroix, in the Reading
power station building in Tel Aviv (May 17-June 15), and at the
Jerusalem Film Festival there will be a retrospective of the films
of Isabelle Huppert.

Surprisingly, the season of French culture will take place only in
Israel, and will not spill over to the Palestinian Authority areas.

“I respect Israel,” he says, “because it respects its culture and it
has the means to display important works of art, and cinematheques
in which to present films. In Palestine there are not even minimal
conditions. In the coming years we will help the Palestinians construct
such buildings, so that in the future we will be able to have a season
of French culture there.”

Poivre d’Arvor believes with all his heart that culture can change
situations, even a serious conflict such as that between Israel and
the Palestinians. “I am very familiar with the situation in the Middle
East, I come to Israel often, my partner is Israeli, and I don’t hear,
from any direction, that culture can change the situation between the
Israelis and the Palestinians. It sounds absurd to people, a statement
by Don Quixote on his donkey. But I believe in it. The Jews, like
the Muslims, are a nation with a glorious cultural past. Why are we
connected to the Jewish people? Because of its culture, not because
of the prime ministers, who are replaceable.”

Poivre d’Arvor believes that if Israel were to build a cultural
institution in other countries, it would gain sympathy. “You only
have to look around,” he says. “The British have the British Council,
the Germans have the Goethe Institute and the French have the French
Institute. The goal of all these groups is to connect to countries on
the cultural level. With a relatively modest budget, Israel should also
establish an Israeli cultural institution in countries it considers
important to gain international public opinion. Artists like Daniel
Barenboim contribute to the improvement of Israel’s image in a way
that no foreign ministry can. Nobody can accuse cultural figures of
defending government policy, and that can change everything.”

Poivre d’Arvor, 48, began his career as a journalist at Le Matin de
Paris and afterwards directed a theater group in Lyon. Over the past
20 years, he has served as a cultural attache at French missions in
Alexandria, Prague and London. He is a writer who has written many
novels, some with his brother Patrick, who is 11 years his senior
and one of the most famous journalists in France.

Inferiority complex

Poivre d’Arvor believes that the French connection to Israeli culture,
and vice versa, is no coincidence. “Which country welcomes Israeli
culture more than any other country?” he asks. “I know that the Jewish
community in France, and Israelis in general, have a great deal of
criticism about France’s attitude towards them, but the fact is that
not a day goes by when one opens a newspaper – Le Monde, La Figaro,
Liberation – and doesn’t find an article in it about a new Israeli
book that has been translated, or about an Israeli film.

France has many shortcomings, but in one area, culture, there is a
genuine consensus that culture must be supported. We believe that
the world does not consist only of numbers and economics, but also,
and mainly, of emotions and an exchange of opinions. We have also
been enriched by importing culture and artists. All the great French
artists of the last century were foreigners: Picasso, Chagall, Dali.”

However, even Poivre d’Arvor admits that French culture has declined
in recent years. “It’s true, and it’s a good thing,” he says.

“Culture that consistently remains on a high level becomes arrogant.

Today, nobody has any right to dominate the world. It is important
that we received some blows, that the French language is no longer
spoken and admired, that our cinema does not sweep the world off its
feet, and that our writers are not the greatest writers in the world.

When I read Israeli writers I have an inferiority complex. It was
hard to accept that, and in France there are doubts and questions
regarding this matter. We are trying to change it, not in order to
dominate the world again, but in order to better understand it.”