Festival MIMI 1986 - 2007

Since 1985 and since 2001 on the Frioul Islands in Marseille Bay. An innovative, transaesthetic programme.

 

esthétiques
MIMI 2003 (EN)

MIMI 2003 (EN)

18e édition
Iles du Frioul – Marseille


EDITO
In order to celebrate its coming of age (18 years), MIMI gives birth to two younger brothers, MIMI-Nor in Narian-Mar, Nenetzs Capital City in North Russia, and MIMI-Sud in Kinshasa/DRC. These three workshop-festivals (with a possible fourth to come in the Middle East) frame together an annual integrated tool in which training’s and exchanges of all kind are now plugged, whether they are directed towards artists or their managers. Today, it seems to us hopeless for ever to separate the performance from itscontextual ups-and-downs. The simple act of chewing "culture-gum" leaves certain questions wide open: how do all those great musical ideas come to life? For what will they be used? What will be left of all this TV opium? What is beautiful? Who is allowed to innovate? Who’s going to pay for all this, and why should they? Quite a few mimists (audience or crew) ask themselves these questions. Including the foreign cultural professionals (4 russians, 1 japanese, 1 libanese, 1 congolese) invited to join the staff this year ...
We do hope that sharing these lazy days on the island shore will re-inforced our abilities to question certainities. And, since the average mimist is more than ever a traveller, we’ll be chatting again together in Narian-Mar and Kinshasa ...
Yallah !!!... (*)

(*) "let’s go" in arabic

Ferdinand Richard


July, 24th Thursday
Preparers’ Night
Benoit Delbecq(France)
PacJap (France/Japon)

Today, music instruments are emancipating. They drive their own life, and the musician is more to be considered as the natural companion of the elements. The arrogant and despotic artist has given place to a quasi-animist relationship between the human medium and the God of Wood, or the God of Electronic Flux.
Benoit Delbecq does much more than playing, as do the franco-japanese members of the crossed-workshop PacJap. By preparing their instruments for weird ceremonies, they make these omnipresent small Gods sing, in order to bring on our heads the favors of Destiny, to protect us from unfortunate mistrals.


July, 25th Friday
Tsunami Night
Duo Peter et Casper Brötzmann(Allemagne)
Duo Luc The Ex et Phil Minton (Pays-Bas/Royaume-Uni)

The four big-heads on stage tonight represent perfectly what is the radical integrity of independant european music. The all-famed Peter Brötzmann embodies the absolutism of german free-jazz, and following the same logic his son Caspar has pushed the Berlin post-punk scene to its most extreme expressions.
Luc, central pole of dutch punk cult-group The Ex, associates with another living legend, Phil Minton, path finder, easily sending back the electronic noise-music to that of the level of lift-music, with the sole help of his voice...
Will the Fab Four conclude the night together ? 2+2 = one tsunami ?



July, 26th Saturday
The Night of the franco-american friendship
David Watson "Glacial", avec Lee Ranaldo et Tony Buck(Nouvelle-Zélande/USA)
Residence-creation de Pierre-Yves Mace (France)

We hail here the ability of the artists to set up peace. Tonight, no other Holy War than a certain type of extasis, and particular personnalities. Bagpipe player Watson, a new-zealander living in NYC, has found in Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and Tony Buck the perfect mates for an unreal but tonic music, entitled "Glacial". Pierre-Yves Macé, talented young french composer, scouted by John Zorn, makes a bet: he jumps on stage with local guys for an unique creation, a kaleidoscopal residence...
All of them face the question of musical architecture with a new philosophy...
... and a bit more courage than a strato-bomber pilot !!!


July, 27 Sunday
The Night of the beautiful gestures
Z’EV solo (Etats-Unis)
DJ Vadim and The Russian percussions(Royaume-Uni)

In fifty years, from Art Brut to ethno-musicology, performer Z’EV, using California as a launching platform, built (alone or with Glen Branca, La Fura dels Baus, Keiji Haino, etc...) undisputed percussive spaces, religious trances. These are at the opposite end of the chain which links him to the ultra-sophisticated Dj Vadim, urban star from the very creative british hip-hop label Ninja Tune, virtuoso turn-tabler of russian origins. Those primitive shiverings of Music are a passing ritual between two worlds. "If the arm-in-movement is beautiful, the sound is good", say the japanese monk-drummers of Ondekoza...
Illustration...








Lee Ranaldo