Error system
From referendums to electoral campaigns, being ‘anti-system’ has become popular. Used loosely and broadly to describe movements or personalities that oppose everything, the term has lost all meaning. It’s a catch-all term, meaning whatever we want without ever having to be specific about what we mean by ‘the system’, which is always the root of all evil, the spectre, the bad word clearing the name of all who keep it at a distance. In fact, the concept is much more complicated than that. Solar or school, electoral or electrical, legal or monetary, capitalist or communist, eco or ‘D’, we find systems everywhere.
Faithful to its critical approach, the Festival des Libertés 2017 will attempt to untangle the imbroglio by analysing the concept of ‘system’ from every angle: its complexity and necessity, its impact and protections, its ramifications and machinations, its twists and turns. It will be the opportunity to assess the systemic character of the multiple crises that threaten the flourishing of freedom, solidarity and democracy, not to mention the planet itself. It will also be the opportunity to examine the relationship to the system of scattered intellectual, cultural, political or grassroots movements that offers an answer to the dead ends of the present and which Festival des Libertés gives resonance to each year.