UNESCO’s Diversity of Cultural Expressions Committee to examine impact of COVID-19 on creative and cultural industries
Paris: The annual meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee that oversees the implementation of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions will be held online from 1 to 6 February. It will be chaired by Park Yang-Woo, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea.
The 14th session of the Committee will open with UNESCO’s celebration of the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, with messages from Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, Volkan Bozkir, President of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, President Iván Duque of Colombia, and representatives of multilateral agencies such as Isabelle Durant, Deputy Secretary-General of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Sameh Wahba, Global Director for Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land at the World Bank.
The celebration aims to reaffirm the central role of artists and cultural professionals in the creative economy and UNESCO’s commitment to promote the sector through inter-agency cooperation.
During the session, the Committee will consider new funding requests submitted to the International Fund for Cultural Diversity and examine a proposal for the establishment of a programme to support the implementation of the Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in the digital environment.
Members of the Committee will also examine results of the ResiliArt movement UNESCO launched last April to raise awareness about the impact of the global health crisis on the cultural and creative sectors. Embraced by more than 100 countries, the movement gave rise to more than 240 ResiliArt debates in 2020, giving artists and cultural professionals a platform on which to share their concerns and solutions, demonstrating the resilience of the arts in the face of the pandemic.
Side-events, including ResiliArt debates, will take place during the session:
“ResiliArt: Through the lens of Asian filmmakers”. An in-depth conversation between Bora Kim (director of the film ‘House of Hummingbird’) and Naomi Kawase (director of the film ‘True Mothers’), 2 February, 3.30 to 5.00 pm
“The Making of ‘Parasite’: Dialogue with the Producer” of the internationally acclaimed Korean feature film, 3 February, 3.30 to 4.30 pm
“ResiliArt in celebration of the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development: Building Back Better through Creative” introduced by Ernesto Ottone R., UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture, it will be moderated by Valériane Gauthier, France24, with the participation of Jean Michel Jarre (composer, performer, and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador), Abderrahmane Sissako (acclaimed filmmaker of “Timbuktu”), Thomas Steffens, CEO of Primephonic (a classical music streaming platform), and Vanja Kaludjercic, Director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and a representative of Medellin (Colombia), UNESCO Creative City of Music (TBC), 4 February, 3.30 to 5pm.