A fine arts artist by profession, Margalit Opman Berriet fell in love with the world of arts because it allows people to experience and express subjective viewpoints, thus it appreciates “the endless pluralities of ideas, history and identities”.
Her burning passion for arts only grew stronger as time passed, but she always felt that she could do more with it.
Growing up in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel, the 61-year-old acknowledged that she was “born in a country and family that carry difficult memories, where humanity has not respected and appreciated each other”.
“We must be able to respect all differences and maintain the idea that humanity as one, composes of endless diversity and pluralism,” she shared in an email interview.
In May 2003, true to her beliefs and values, she founded Mémoire de l’Avenir, a non-profit organisation contributing to humanism based in Paris, France.
Mémoire de l’Avenir, which translates to Memory of the Future, implies that “memories are not only concerning of our past and present” because as decision-makers of our future doings we are, hence, creating our future memories.
According to Margalit, the organisation incorporates scholars, educators and artists from multi-disciplinary competencies to work towards greater knowledge and appreciation of cultural diversity in all generations. They also aim to promote peaceful co-existence and exchanges beyond political and religious connotations by using arts as tools of dialogue.
Every year, a theme is chosen in line with Mémoire de l’Avenir’s fight against stereotypes, ignorance and racism to guide the direction of all their projects. Some of these projects are pedagogical but they are not limited to only schools. In fact, they were also conducted in prisons, social and cultural community centres.
Besides that, they organise workshop training, exhibitions, performances, concerts and debates to “unite the works of professional contemporary artists with the youth, women, prisoners, families and migrants”.
“Our programmes aim to formulate and contribute new outlooks for younger and older generations, surpass habitual ways of thinking and encourage interactive conversation between cultural identities,” she said.
Today, Mémoire de l’Avenir is 16 years old and steadily growing. However, many challenges were part and parcel of their journey to become who they are today.
It was more than simply declaring the objectives and aims of a non-profit organisation, because setting up a team like this required lots of work such as establishing a trusted administrative body, being recognised within the field of arts and education and securing funding.
Furthermore, as the French education is often considered as one of the best in the world in areas concerning cultures, arts and science, Margalit noted that it was not as easy to prove one’s mettle, especially when she was neither educated in a French Beaux-Arts nor one of the prestigious Art History schools in France.
Despite the many obstacles put in their way, Margalit and her team at Mémoire de l’Avenir persevered through.
“I could never allow myself to give up,” she said, adding that it was important to her to be able to play her role, as little as it may be, towards a better world.
An optimistic person, Margalit rarely gets fully discouraged by the lack of means or other complications because when a door closes, she knows she’ll eventually find another window of opportunity.
Over the years, their blood, sweat and tears eventually paid off when positive results and feedbacks started flooding in.
“This unlocked possibilities for me to cross paths with some wonderful people who eventually collaborated, helped or appreciated our work, allowing us to progress,” she added.
Currently, Mémoire de l’Avenir is working together with the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (CIPSH), Global Chinese Art and Culture Society (GCACS) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with projects along the same lines.
As one can see, their journey hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. But having a passionate and committed team made it all the more bearable.
Margalit firmly believes that artists are not only responsible for their aesthetical and intellectual influence, but also their ability “to influence, challenge, propose, think critically and raise awareness”.
For her, she hopes to continue dedicating her life to Mémoire de l’Avenir because, quoting French artist Robert Filliou, she agrees that “art is what makes life more interesting than art”.
Website: http://www.memoire-a-venir.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/memoiredelavenir/
תגובות