euskalkultura.eus

Since its inception, one of the tasks and objectives of the Etxepare Basque Institute has been to weave a network between the various cultural and political agents that move within the geographic scope of the Basque language and culture. For this reason it is essential to work shoulder to shoulder with all groups in the French Basque Country and Navarre to internationalize our culture. We have especially dedicated ourselves to this end.

Through their representative institutions, Iparralde and Navarre are currently present on the Board of Etxepare Basque Institute. Together with them, we collaborate in the task of bringing our language and our culture out into the world. Often when speaking of "internationalization", the tendency is to cast one's view far a field, forgetting that close to hand lie very interesting focal points as well. A perfect example is Aquitaine; a nearby region with an intense and rich cultural activity, with whom our institute has always had the clear objective of mutual collaboration. One proof of this is the close relationship we have maintained with the street arts festival Fest'arts of Libourne since 2011. The Euskadi-Aquitaine office has proved to be a great support to achieve this goal.

I would like here as well to emphasize the collaboration with EKE- Euskal Kultur Erakundea, an institution based in Iparralde and with which Etxepare has worked since our institution’s inception. We have organized a number of projects together such as the translation into French of several books of the Basque Culture collection published by the Etxepare Basque Institute. Thanks to this collaboration with EKE these editions are now available on the web in the French language as well as the original Basque, Spanish and English.

• La littérature basque du XXème siècle
• La musique classique basque
• La chanson basque: pop, rock, folk,
• Cinéma Basque
• La danse basque         [for downloading the books please click on the titles]

Also in collaboration with EKE, it has been our great privilege to be able to organize a program of Basque music, art and literature at the Le Rocher de Palmer, a spectacular concert hall in Cenon, a town near Bordeaux. It is a project that we have been developing for the last year in the desire that Basque music might be heard in Aquitaine. We are pleased to see that the initial plan has expanded and consolidated into what has now become a stable part of the Center’s program for 2015. This work was designed with an eye toward the future and with the clear intention of creating connections between artists. We are delighted at it’s development and confident that within a few years Basque music will occupy its own place in Aquitaine.

To our great fortune, these initiatives we’ve been working on together represent just a portion of a much wider array of projects spanning other areas of interest.

And may we work together for many years!