Hassan Elammouri has been living in the Netherlands for over forty years and has become a leading figure in the country's diverse musical scene. Through this long-term process, he has slowly but surely succeeded in decompartmentalizing the Dutch art scene. The gamble has paid off, thanks to ArteGanza, his non-profit foundation that runs the Musica Mundo Rhythms of the World festival in Amersfoort. Born in Aït Ouarda Ouaouizeght, in the Beni Mellal region, Hassan Elammouri has lived in Fès since the age of 6. It was in the spiritual capital that he obtained his literary baccalaureate in the English section before beginning his bachelor's studies at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University. A keen student of Arabic and English literature, he migrated to the Netherlands in the early 1980s to pursue a master's degree at the University of Amsterdam. He also completed an academic course in law and administration, with a view to entering the civil service. Afterward, Hassan Elammouri worked in the banking sector to gain experience in the business world but always with the idea of joining the administration to contribute to «change from within». Later admitted to the civil service, he was assigned to the tax department and then went on to study city equipment, infrastructure, and management. He rose through the ranks to become a municipal advisor to the college of mayors and their deputies. With 25 years of experience in public management in state civil service positions, he now has a say in local administration through strategic consulting. At the same time, Hassan Elammouri has always been a great music lover. Building bridges through public management and artistic action After working in Utrecht for eight years, Hassan moved to Amersfoort, where he says he found «an urban space on a human scale, allowing contact with nature». It was in this city of 132 nationalities, in the center of the Netherlands, that this performing arts enthusiast gradually introduced the notion of diversity into the programming of cultural structures. Now a national reference in the field, he is the driving force behind the Musica Mundo - Rhythms of the World festival, which will hold its seventh edition from June 27 to 30, 2024. But it's been a long road, and he's delighted to be reaping the rewards of decades of hard work. Between music and public management, Hassan Elammouri builds bridges between Morocco and the Netherlands. Through his professional activity, he organizes meetings with town councils in his home country, with a view to territorial networking and the exchange of best practices. «Apart from that, I was always looking for activities to keep me busy. So I started touring the Dutch cultural world, visiting theaters and art venues with a strong focus on local and national artists», confides Musica Mundo's General and Artistic Director, from inside this edition. «At first, I was the black tulip among the other flowers! The public, still very local, wondered whether foreigners could understand the subtleties of their culture. I drew my strength from this, and today it teaches me to talk to my interlocutors in the artistic and social worlds more generally, in a way that brings people together across differences». Convinced that «we have to create our own artistic currents» in Morocco, Hassan Elammouri was once dismayed by the lack of spaces for artistic expression, limited at the time to a few theaters and stages confined to the underground universe. Through Musica Mundo, he gives visibility to artists from the four corners of the globe, including from his homeland, which fits in well with the eclectic programming currently on offer. This year's headliner is Lazywall, an alternative oriental rock band from Tangier, alongside artists from other African countries and the global South, in symbiosis with their Dutch counterparts. «I've vowed to become an ambassador for Moroccan heritage in a different way», says Hassan Elammouri. Cultural diversity for a different kind of integration It was with this in mind that Hassan Elammouri became personally involved in the field. Initially, he took part in the artistic programming of festivals and cultural events on a freelance basis. By proposing new colors to change the Euro-centric programming, he succeeded in opening horizons toward cultures from elsewhere, all ensured with regularity. In 2007, Hassan Elammouri set up the ArteGanza foundation with the aim of «moving to the next level, through a non-profit institution dedicated to art and musical creation». The spirit of this structure and its initiator is multi-disciplinary, open to music as well as to the visual arts or those combining various creative approaches. Little by little, the structure proved its worth and won the confidence of public funding bodies. «Today, we have four years of public subsidies, while being pioneers after 17 years of continuous work. Thanks to this credibility built up over the years, we now have facilities to integrate programming with artistic spaces, in a complementary dynamic like in theaters, including Lieve Vrouw in Amersfoort for Musica Mundo, but not only». In this approach, which is both artistic and ethical, the cultural actor is keen to define himself primarily as «passionate about music». «I'm not looking to get paid through these activities. We are 60% subsidized by the public authorities. It's taxpayers' money, and the most legitimate right of citizens is to have it returned to them, through the regular artistic programming we offer and which we seek to make accessible by all means», he told us. Culture, a return on investment for citizens For Hassan Elammouri, «this is the return on investment that remains an asset of artistic and cultural action, with an economic and social impact, while imposing professional demands on oneself, aware that the principle of accountability applies to everyone». «The funds we receive go towards artists', technicians', and service providers' fees, even if it means investing your own funds, as I did previously, before being subsidized», he added. In this vein, ArteGanza organizes many other activities and launches several artistic projects linked to photography, documentary, and music, in addition to several events apart from Musica Mundo. «Our current aim is to attract more young people to the festival. There are over two million world music fans in the Netherlands. We need to create a new generation of loyal fans», says Hassan Elammouri. For this reason, the festival has opened up its programming to the young scene through the after-party, «a concept tried out this year and which was a great success, giving us the idea of renewing it for future editions», in addition to continuing to connect local artists with those from Morocco and everywhere else. «It's a way of attracting curiosity about other types of music, for all ages», says the man who also aims to «capitalize more on artistic residencies and produce a documentary every four years», through ArteGanza.
