CULTURE: Yaoundé boasts new cultural centre

The International Centre for Cultural and Artistic Heritage (CIPCA) was inaugurated in Yaoundé on 4 April. It aims to become a temple of national and international culture. Reports Dounia Ben Mohamed.

“This house, which we have the pleasure of inaugurating, is dedicated to the expression of artistic sensuality, of the aesthetic sensibility of the creators of works of art.” With these words, Cameroon’s Minister of Arts and Culture, Narcisse Mouelle Kom-Bi, underlined the mission of the new seat of the international center for cultural and artistic heritage (CIPCA) in Yaoundé at its inauguration on 4 April. It has high ambitions, aiming to become a centre of excellence for artistic expression on a national and international scale.

“Genius has neither frontier nor nationality. It should be a legacy, a prerogative of humanity,” said the minister to guests including local artists and representatives of UNESCO.

Cultural heritage

The CIPCA, which works for the realisation of cultural projects in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, is run by a group passionate about Cameroonian and international arts and culture. Through projects and meetings, the association forges links between creators, cultural actors, re-searchers, experts and collaborators sometimes from communities whose cultures are threatened. At the heart of the mission they have set them-selves is the preservation and trans-mission of cultural heritage.

The centre itself is a work of art. Its facade, composed of six iron sculptures mounted on concrete columns, sets the tone. And for its premiere, the establishment hosted a private viewing of the exhibition “Poste central(e)” by the French artist Atikin and the Cameroonian Jean-Michel Dissakè.

“It’s an exhibition about assembly and recycling. Bringing together two artists from different horizons is one way to show our openness,” Fabiola Ecot Ayissi, founding president of CIPCA and curator of the exhibition, told local media. A cross be-tween two cultures is at the very heart of CIPCA’s mission: to call on culture and its universal values to bring people together.