India, France to sign Cultural Exchange Programme 2012-2014

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India and France are likely to sign a Cultural Exchange Programme for the period 2012-14 in the coming weeks.

 

This was agreed at a high-level meeting between Culture Minister Kumari Selja with the French Minister of Culture and Communications Frederic Mitterand in Paris during her four-day visit to France last week.

 

In the Joint Statement issued by the two Ministers after the meeting, they expressed satisfaction at the cultural relations between the two countries, particularly the festivals Bon Jour India and Namaste France held in the recent past. They agreed to work for further widening and deepening of the cultural relations and welcomed the Indian initiative of establishing a Cultural Centre in Paris.

 

An exhibition of paintings by Rabindranath Tagore was inaugurated by Selja at the prestigious Petit Palais Museum in Paris on January 26 as part of the 150th birth anniversary of the poet and artist. Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe was also present.

 

Paris is one of the nine international venues where Tagore exhibitions are being held and it holds a special place as the Nobel laureate had held his first-ever international exhibition of paintings in Paris in May 1930.

 

Currently, exhibitions of Tagore paintings are being held in Victoria and Albert Museum, London and at the Art Institute of Chicago, besides Paris.

 

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister spoke of the multifarious talents of Tagore and his choice of non-verbal communication in the form of paintings in the latter part of his life.

 

At a meeting with Henri Loyerette, President-Director of the Louvre Museum, Selja emphasized the importance of collaboration at institution-to-institution level.

 

A memorandum of understanding relating to expertise and capacity enhancement, exchange of professionals for sharing of experiences, and holding of collaborative exhibitions in India and France was initialled between the two sides.

 

This is the first formal arrangement with the renowned Louvre Museum under which the National Museum and the National Gallery of Modern Art will be the main collaborators from the Indian side. Similar MoUs were signed with the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the British Library in June 2010.

 

NNN

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