The electronic journal "Mots Pluriels" invites scholars and artists interested in an inter-disciplinary dialogue to reflect on the diversity, complementarity and room for exchange between differing art forms and mean of artistic expression.

To what extent is dialogue possible between competing art forms given that every artistic discipline is jealously protected by vested interest? Every artist seems eager to defend his/her field from any outside contamination, enclosing the space in which he/she can practise his/her passion; yet, often artistic endeavour reaches far beyond that space. All art forms, at a point in time, escape the control of the artist who, by choice or passion, has attempted to confine her/his artefacts and him/herself within a limited space. Isn't it so that fundamentally, every art form is first and foremost an expression of openness, a potential transaction with other fields and disciplines whose boundaries it challenges willy-nilly?

Whereas no art can be conceived within the confines of rules and pre-established grids, it remains that generally speaking, artistic disciplines dictate their main characteristics, their limits, their techniques, the materials used, the target audience.... Every discipline has its specificity. Hence painting is not poetry, neither is sculpture literature, nor is music cinema; but can we imagine a meeting point between these different disciplines which are considered by some to be far removed from each other? And what would be the nature of that meeting point ?

Would it take the shape of a full artistic discipline or the fuzzy contour of a field of experience difficult to define? Some examples of dialogue between the disciplines do exist and could be used as a stepping stone. For example, literary texts have been adapted for the cinema. Some works of art have been matched with poetry. Drawings and paintings can be brought to the screen in the form of animated cartoons. Written texts can be spoken, set to music or danced. In theater, plays, images, sounds, dance and music can share the stage. For purely commercial ends, ecletic media advertising often reconciles unrelated artistic domains.

How much space has been given to art in a variety of cultural settings,what emphasis has been put on dialogue between the artists at different times in the past and how can we best work togheter now, such is the aim of this issue.

As was the case in former issues of MOTS PLURIELS, the emphasis will be put on the state of affairs in Africa, but the problematic exceeds the limits of a purely African issue. Articles dealing with the theme as it is perceived elsewhere are actively encouraged as they would significantly enlarge the scope of the discussion

Tanella BONI

All submissions must be sent by POST to :

Professeur Tanella BONI

Université de Côte d' voire

BP 274 cidex 03

Abidjan-Riviéra

Côte d'Ivoire

A second copy of the articles should be sent, where possible by email (if email not available, by post) to the Editor of MOTS PLURIELS ([email protected]), specifying that a paper copy has been sent to Professor BONI.

Submissions should include a ten line paragraph presenting the writer of the article and his/her most recent publications (3 or 4).

Closing date for the submission of articles : 15 October 1999.

For any further information, please contact Professor Tanella Boni, Université Nationale de Côte d'Ivoire, coordinator of this issue. Fax: (225) 43 20 76. (brief correspondence only email [email protected]) or Dr. Jean-Marie Volet, The University of Western Australia, Editor of MOTS PLURIELS. Fax: 961) 8 6488 1182, email: [email protected] .

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