songs and dances from Badakhshan, Burkina Faso and Kurdistan come to Paris and Marseille

Organized by the Maison des cultures du monde, the Festival is held in Paris, Aubervilliers, Montreuil and Marseille from May 31 to June 6. It aims to give visibility to artistic forms often threatened with disappearance.

Coming from Upper Egypt, Badakhshan, Burkina Faso or Kurdistan, spectacular traditional forms, music or dances, sometimes unknown, are on display at the 27th edition of the Festival de l’Imaginaire, until June 6 in Paris and in its close suburbs.

The House of World Cultures, of which the festival is an emanation, attempts to preserve against all odds these forms of spectacle, many of which are threatened with disappearance. Some of their performers, whose space of expression is often limited to a region or even a few high mountain valleys, exceptionally leave their preferred setting for that of the Marseille and Ile-de-France stages.

Among the artists, Aqnazar Alovatov practices singing and the rubab pamiri, a stringed instrument from the lute family. Surrounded by two other musicians on Tuesday June 4, at the Théâtre de l’Alliance Française, he will perform the devotional songs and music of Badakhshan, a province on the borders of Afghanistan, Tajikistan and China that has remained inaccessible for a long time.

Mazaher, an ensemble of women led by Om Sameh, will reveal on Saturday June 1, in the same place, the secrets of zar, a healing and protection ritual generally reserved for homes and community spaces in the region of Upper Egypt and in northern Sudan.

It remains to be seen whether this music, many of which are linked to rituals and generally performed within the framework of ceremonies, does not lose its meaning when transplanted into a concert hall. This question will be asked during a round table on Saturday.

Some of this regional music has managed over time to reach the general public, such as Pakistani qawwali, a rather joyful Sufi trance music that Asif Ali Khan (student of the late legend) will perform on Monday June 3 at the Théâtre de la Ville. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) and his ensemble, or the Catalan rumba popularized by the Gipsy Kings.