This is the run-up to the grand final. A few weeks ago, when the selection of the applications was finalised, the members of the committee drew the same conclusion. Selections are sometimes unfair ones. What criterion should prevail? Mastery or promise for a bright future? The artist’s personality, or his/her capacity to express empathy and reflect the world? The times are so difficult and emergencies so numerous that creation must stand its ground. As one jury member wrote in a post. “There’s the ‘I’, there’s the game and the us, there’s them and you. As for us… we are a little bit confused.” One hundred and fifty-eight applications! One hundred and fifty-eight words and colours, sounds, reflections and rhythms. We are a bit confused… to sort out only ten. The Afro Pepites Show is not a competition, it’s an online trade fair. We don’t play football. But you still have to make a choice.
This time, it’s done. Ten, like the fingers of the two hands that wrote the texts and placed the colours, that struck the tom-tom and spread the gesture. Ten messages, twenty fingers producing meaning, twenty ways of being, in eight African countries: Cameroon, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mali, the Republic of Guinea and Burkina Faso. And once again, it’s a difficult task, given that the entire continent is multiplying the number of tracks. Ten signatures and 148 others behind them, because the Pépites are also a state of mind, a topicality, a deep need to say together, in one way or another, that this voice is ours.
So when it comes to the final selection, the decision is up to you. For you that fill the concert venues, attend exhibitions, showcases, for you stand in the arena and are part of the picture too. You who fill the halls, you who attend exhibitions and performances, you who stand at the foot of the stage and in the painting too. This is how art works. Proximity is essential. Virtuality remains an illusion. For as long as the Pepites have existed, they have had this driving force, this trust, and this will apply on 15 December, when we announce the new pepites. Your choice, your artist, your desire, your vote. It’s up to you to have your say until 30 November 2023! And as many of you as possible should take part. In less than a month, this final picture will be yours.
