INTERVIEW
FRENCH IS THE LANGUAGE OF CULTURE, LOVE,
BUT ALSO CAREERS STANISLAS PIERRET
COUNSELOR FOR COOPERATION AND CULTURE AT THE EMBASSY OF FRANCE, DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUT FRANÇAIS IN SERBIA
During the 19th century, the Institut Français was more than ever an oasis of Francophone culture, and a symbol of freedom in a pandemic. We are using this wonderful summer to renew old connections with the general public, and establish new ones, through various events. And we invite them to visit us and take advantage of our resources
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or two long years, there was almost no travel. But admirers of the Institut Français were able to travel virtually to France during that time and mix with French culture. “It was a period when the French Institute was more than ever an oasis of Francophone culture, a symbol of freedom in a pandemic. We were one of the first cultural institutions that, aware of the need to support all cultural actors, creators, performers, writers and their fans, moved their activities to the virtual sphere and continued to work even more intensively to promote Francophonie and French”. This was how our conversation began with Stanislas Pierret, Counselor for Cooperation and Culture of the French Embassy and Director of the Institut Français in Serbia. “We managed to organise our traditional events virtually, but also many debates related to current world topics. We switched to online language classes, which, thanks to our dynamic teachers, not only maintained the quality of teaching, but also attracted an even larger number of interested people throughout Serbia.”
■ Recently, during the French Presidency of the European Union, we had the opportunity to host a major academic 18
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BUSINESS PARTNER | FRANCE 2022
conference on the future of regional cooperation in the Balkans and European integration. In light of the current moment, which conference messages would you highlight? - We organised the conference with the valuable help of Serbian experts, but the idea was to give it a regional character, so we included lecturers from other countries, with the great support of European organisations. Particularly during this period of Russian aggression against Ukraine, it is important to discuss European issues and the Balkan countries for which the issue of reconciliation is crucial on the road to the EU. I would like to emphasise the speech on reconciliation given by Turkish lecturer Ahmet Insel, who spoke about the importance of trying to improve Turkey's relations with Armenia and Cyprus. Reconciliation is an essential European value. It is important to learn from the past, as Germany has. Germany and France, former enemies, have taken a big step and built the EU on the basis of their reconciliation. This conference provided an opportunity to hear the opinions of experts, and one of the important goals of its organisation during the French Presidency of the Council of the EU was to arouse young people's interest in cultural diplomacy and any other form of diplomacy.
