BIOGRAPHY

I am an anthropologist and I received my PhD from Université Paris Cité. For the past thirty years, I have been exploring the intersecting fields of human sciences and cultural action with indigenous, peasant and urban communities on several continents.

Combining anthropology and creative projects, I have carried out a series of innovative research and cultural action initiatives with communities of various sizes (from villages to large cities). In 1998, I founded ALTAMIRA, an international cultural action project for which I managed various human and musical adventures in Asia and Africa as well as in my home town of Saint-Denis in France. These projects have resulted in many films, records and live performances highlighting the cultural resources of the local participants.

I worked academically on the study of the social organization of a peasant locality in Madagascar and its relationship to the nation-state (PhD dissertation), and am now interested in the impact of family structures on human societies.

These multiple fields of action allow me to share a vision of humanity and the world nourished by what I have learned from the men and women I have met all over the world. 

My musical works have been acclaimed by major french cultural magazines such as Télérama, Les Inrockuptibles, Mondomix, and rewarded by the prestigious Académie Charles Cros. 

Ten years of work with the City of Saint-Denis as a pilot of socio-cultural projects with the inhabitants led to the awarding by the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Health of the label Bien Vieillir Vivre Ensemble in 2010.

As an artist or as a lecturer, I have performed at the Quai Branly Museum, the Guimet Museum, the University of the Philippines, the Alliance Française in Paris, the Espace Senghor in Brussels, as well as in a multitude of nearby places (retirement homes, schools, hospitals, etc...). 

How do humans around the world live together and with their environment? What can we learn from these practices and experiences in order to better inhabit our planet, today and tomorrow? These are the questions that have guided me for more than 30 years in my geographical, cultural and human explorations.

COLLECTIVE DYNAMICS 

My first and most important discovery was that of the social energy that can be produced by human groups through the organizing of collective events. I first realized it during a couple of days of music and dance in a small village in Zambia in 1992 : this decisive observation - how to generate an inclusive effervescence thanks to the contributions of all - has been at the heart of my 10 years of socio-cultural initiatives with the inhabitants of Saint-Denis.

HUMAN DIVERSITY

Having lived in places as different as the Philippines, the Sahara, the Himalayas or the Upper Zambezi, and having carried out artistic projects with the inhabitants, I have been able to measure the variety of cultural differences produced by humanity, whether conscious or not, striking or subtle. 

Paradoxically, from this diversity emerges the unity of humankind and its universals, thanks to which we can act together as soon as we engage in common projects. 

The memorable residency in France of the tribal musicians of Lemhadong collective (Philippines), which I had the pleasure to organize, was an emblematic demonstration of this.

SOCIETY, COMMUNITY, COLLECTIVITY

Fluvial royalty in Zambia, theocracy in the Himalayas, intervillage horizontality in Madagascar, pathogenic racial constructions in Rwanda, public service in search of social links in Seine-Saint-Denis: the various societies I approached from the inside allowed me to observe the issues of organization and flexibility, antagonism and solidarity, power and autonomy, which underlie the complex relationships between community and collectivity. 

Whether it is a matter of making a team cooperate effectively or building a fulfilling society for all, the diversity of collective experiences around the world and in history provides us with a valuable repertoire of enlightening ideas.

SOCIETY, COMMUNITY, COLLECTIVITY

Fluvial royalty in Zambia, theocracy in the Himalayas, intervillage horizontality in Madagascar, pathogenic racial constructions in Rwanda, public service in search of social links in Seine-Saint-Denis: the various societies I approached from the inside allowed me to observe the issues of organization and flexibility, antagonism and solidarity, power and autonomy, which underlie the complex relationships between community and collectivity. 

Whether it is a matter of making a team cooperate effectively or building a fulfilling society for all, the diversity of collective experiences around the world and in history provides us with a valuable repertoire of enlightening ideas.

SCIENCE, NATURE AND FUTURE

The environment is now a major source of concern, even despair. This is due to the paradigm that dominates collective thinking on the subject: nature and humans are fundamentally antagonistic, with humans seen as the destroyers of nature. Restoring nature to its rightful place would therefore mean reducing that of humans.

My life journey between farming communities and scientific research has led me to consider another paradigm: humans are an integral part of nature, and like all living beings, they learn about and act within their environment. Through modern science, humans have acquired unparalleled knowledge of the complexity of the world: this gives them the mission to protect life, thanks precisely to their understanding of the world and the many technologies they derive from it, in order to improve human life on a healthy planet-garden.

I explore some of these themes in the academic context.

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