Making the most of Romania's cultural potential

3Q with Christophe Pomez, cultural attaché of the French Embassy and deputy director of the Institut Francais a Bucarest

How will you use your experience at the Cluj French Institute in Bucharest?

The mission entrusted to me as the new cultural attaché of the French Embassy and deputy director of the French Institute in Romania is mainly to develop an innovative cultural strategy for the entire network of French Institutes in Romania, and in particular the regional centers in Cluj, Iasi and Timisoara. Moreover, my experience in Cluj and what I have recently discovered in Bucharest has helped me understand the diversity and the beauty of Romania, as well as the various aspects of this country.

On which projects will the Bucharest French Institute focus?

On the cultural side, the institute will develop three axes: artistic residencies, Romanian-French projects and cultural actions that allow co-production and cooperation between the two countries, and the preparation of a 2013/2014 cultural season, named Tendances, presenting works at the junction between innovation, the economy and art.

How developed is cultural management in Romania?

I believe that the cultural management sector is an important asset in which we have to invest, especially in education, in order to form future managers and cultural entrepreneurs. These specialists must succeed in the difficult synthesis between enterprise management, culture-related law, cultural marketing and artistic expertise. For example, the Romanian film industry has an international audience, so the future could mean jobs for those in this industry. The same could happen in the editorial sector or tourism, while Romania has a lot of cultural potential to structure an economy in this sector.