|
The Third Planet isn't just a
music experience but also one with individuals coming from
different cultures and working together to reach an objective.
As Smail, our Algerian singer, put it, our cultures
are different, but the work is one. Work is indeed the truely
noble activity through which the universal nature of man can be
revealed. And there's a form of work that has preserved its
dignity along the centuries and is becoming extremely relevant
again: the craft workshop.
The Third Planet is a craft workshop,like those
of the Florentine Renaissance where artists from all over the
world converge to develop projects together, feeding into
them the wealth of their
original cultures.Now that ethnic rivalries - never subdued but simply
stifled by ideologies and dictatorships - are dramatically breaking
up again, the Third Planet is there to proove that the
dialogue among different cultures is not only possible but indeed
indispensable in artistic work. as well as in
everyday life. From time immemorial this dialogue has favoured innovative creation;
and offered traditions the fresh sap for
their renovation and development.
At the beginning of our collaboration , we would define
ourselves as a "multi-ethnic group"; later on, due to
the growing trend of associating "ethnic" to such terms
as "war", "minority" and finally the awful
"cleansing" , we preferred to call ourselves a
"multicultural band", though we are not totally happy
with this definition either. As a matter of fact, in our
workshop, we do not simply put together pieces of different
cultures but we have the ambition of contributing to the birth of
a new kind of culture, originating from the free and easy use of
art forms and art styles, unbiased and unclassified but
appreciated for their crucial contribution to the creative
process.
"Style" is probably the only aspect of cultures we are
interested in and consider worth preserving. Life-style, in
the first place, that is work-, art-, music-, food-, language- ,
writing- and , why not, fashion-style too.
The rest of what we call culture is of little interest to
us as it appears to be nothing but an endless variation
over the same theme, exploited by the powerful to divide people
and make them fight against one another .
We believe that cultural differences must be respected and valorised, not
merely accepted.
There's no respect in mere acceptance: " Yes, I accept you
because you're different from me and there's nothing I can do
about it, I live next to you but I don't care about you etc.
" Respect is something different:" Yes, I respect
your culture and that's precisely why I feel entitled to criticize it and discuss those aspects I do not agree with. I
pick some elements from your culture to enrich mine and
offer some of mine to you as a gift."
Nothing new can be born out of acceptance that indeed risks to generate
new conflicts. Respect is our hope for a better
world.
Like in scientific labs, where researchers of different
origins, ethnic groups and cultures peacefully work together, in
our workshop we try out new languages of music, by making
different styles interact. In doing so,day after day, our
" cultural differences" become less and less relevant
while our individual styles as artists emerge
and unfold providing us with a great and really
multi-cultural wealth to share.
|
