Maison des Cultures du Monde, Paris, France

The French Center for the Intangible Cultural Heritage (CFPCI) is an association of 1901 law whose aim is to promote exchanges and dialogues between the forms of expression and cultural identities of the peoples of the world and to promote Cultural diversity. Founded in 1982 at the inspiration of Chérif Khaznadar, it is one of the French referent associations in the field of intangible cultural heritage and offers a permanent scene to the traditional forms of the spectacle. Recognized internationally for its cultural engineering, know-how in field prospecting and its programming (exhibitions, performances, meetings, concerts, shows, rituals …), its headquarters is located Boulevard Raspail in Paris, where since 1982 It operates the theater of the Alliance française. It organizes numerous shows, meetings and conferences including a part of the Festival of the imagination, the cycles “Alliances en résonance”, etc.

The Center for International Cultural Heritage is a non-governmental association of the world’s cultural heritage. Its aim is to promote exchanges and dialogues between the forms of expression and cultural identities of the peoples of the world, Cultural diversity. Founded in 1982 at the inspiration of Chérif Khaznadar, it is one of the French referent associations in the field of intangible cultural heritage and offers a permanent scene to the traditional forms of the spectacle. Recognized internationally for its cultural engineering, its know-how in field prospecting and its programming (exhibitions, performances, meetings, concerts, shows, rituals …), its headquarters is located Boulevard Raspail in Paris, where since 1982 She exploited the theater of the Alliance française. It organizes numerous shows, meetings and conferences, including a part of the Festival de l’imaginaire4, the cycles “Alliances en résonance”, etc.

The Maison des Cultures du Monde is a place of information, documentation, training, reflection, recovery, education and transmission, dedicated to the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and cultural diversity. Located on the territory of the Marches of Brittany, it fulfills its task of organizing and cultural education, with local and regional partners. From the historical activity of the documentation center of the World Cultures Institute, it developed a research, expertise and network nationally, with an international dimension, around the implementation of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of intangible Cultural Heritage.

Established in 1997 in Paris, the Festival de l’imaginaire allows visitors to discover the diversity of cultures from around the world – traditional or modern, scholarly or popular, rural or urban – by presenting shows, concerts, performances and rituals in many places Of the French capital: Maison des cultures du monde, Bastille Amphitheater of the Paris Opera, Institut du monde arabe, Louvre Museum and Auditorium, Quai Branly Museum, Théâtre du Soleil, Zingaro Equestrian Theater, …

Each year, the Maison des cultures du monde invites students to a journey into the imagination of the peoples through its Cultural Education program. This approach proposes to sensitize young consciences by making them discover the cultural heritages of the whole world through a series of educational spectacles which are as many routes to the discovery of the Other.

In 1995, the Maison des Cultures du Monde and the research laboratory specialized in the study of performance practices at the University of Paris VIII-Saint-Denis founded the ethnoscenology, a new anthropological discipline dedicated to the performative practices of an ethnic group9 In their diversity, without concern for scale of values ​​or exclusion.

Numerous colloquia, meetings, seminars, workshops and presentations of performances, doubled by the study of their forms, have taken place since this birth certificate in Paris.

In 2005, the Maison des Cultures du Monde inaugurated the Documentation Center on the World’s Performances – the future CFPCI – in the north wing of the Notre-Dame de Vitré priory, made available to it by the City of Vitré in Brittany. This decentralized cultural branch brings together not only the archives of the House of World Cultures, but also those of the Festival of Traditional Arts of Rennes.

As part of the digitization plan of the Ministry of Culture, more than 13,000 documents among the 60,000 members of the CFPCI are now available online via the Ibn Battuta database.

This database makes it possible to consult free of charge documentary records concerning traditional forms of live entertainment, as well as several thousand photographs as well as full video capture. It has a hierarchical thesaurus developed internally on music, dance, performing arts, rituals, ethnomusicology, etc.

In 2009, an audiovisual archive of the world’s music and traditions was set up jointly by the Maison des Cultures du Monde, the Cité de la Musique, the Quai Branly Museum, the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris, the The Royaumont Foundation, the Ile-de-France Festival and the Orientales in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil.

The dispersion of these funds and their references makes it difficult to access them. These institutions have decided to share their archives through an Internet portal that allows them to consult their digitized documents. Research can be carried out on the basis of numerous criteria: artists, instruments, countries, cultural areas, ethnolinguistic groups, types of shows, places and dates of execution.

Each year, the Maison des Cultures du Monde offers an offer of intangible cultural heritage training for cultural professionals.