Ever since the world became a global village, connected to everything and accessible to everyone, the issue of communication has radically changed. Now, with certain well-known exceptions, the problem is what takes place when everyone sees and knows everything.

In conversation with the critic and programmer, Tiago Bartolomeu Costa,

Dominique Wolton (1947, Cameroon), founder and director of journal Hermes and the National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris, asks the audience: does the death of physical distance reveal the extent of cultural distance? And how can a world in which everything is visible, but in which each individual is mindful of their cultural, personal and community identity, respond to the 21st century challenge of avoiding war and embrace diversity, i.e. accept everyone’s rights and duties and achieve their cultural cohabitation? Wolton believes that this is a conundrum that will be even harder to untangle than the planet’s ecological problem. If ecology means accepting the diversity of nature and animals, communication requires organising negotiation and cohabitation on the basis of cultural diversity and varied collective identities, made visible by the globalisation of transmission and dissemination techniques, that require a genuine effort in order to uphold respect and tolerance – an objective to be attained as a pre-requisite for globalisation.

Simultaneous translation.