For several years, Europe has been confronted with an influx of refugees from different cultures (war, political repression, economic crisis, environmental crisis) who arrive in our European countries and take their culture with them. What should these new residents do with their culture, their language, their intangible heritage? Should they forget it in order to assimilate or should they hold on to their culture to create a kind of defence against the culture of the host country, towards a kind of communitarianism? Or should they confront their culture with that of others so that they can mutually enrich each other?

The role of artists and musicians, coming from exile and living in Europe, is therefore essential, which is why it is necessary to encourage their integration into European society, to promote their professional integration and development.

To meet this challenge, the COMMON ROUTES project brings together emerging European artists, developing and exiled artists to work in complementary emulation. It will promote the professionalization of exiled artists through trans-cultural creations and works.

From the moment we go towards other cultures and free ourselves from a communal and geographical vision of our culture of origin and let cultures meet, then we can enrich our culture of origin and the culture of the other, and create contemporary works that retain the roots of each culture, and thus present trans-cultural works, an avant-garde concept.

We are 7 European cultural operators from 6 countries (Belgium, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland), with complementary expertise in the music industry, working to develop the careers of musicians and expand their audience both locally and in Europe; who, for several years, during informal meetings, have built together the COMMON  ROUTES project which aims to support emerging artists based in Europe and to support European companies through the implementation of a European cross-border cooperation with a particular focus on the theme of trans-culturality and the place of exiled artists in the European music ecosystem.

COMMON ROUTES was conceived by Saïd Assadi, founder of ACCORDS CROISÉS, who is a versatile player in the field of creation to dissemination, with a focus on trans-cultural creations that have toured internationally, and nearly 30 years of proven experience in the field.

From this point of view, we European cultural actors believe that today we must give ourselves mission of facilitating and giving this possibility of existence to trans-cultural works in the live musical performance in order to move the public and try to bring them by this means towards awareness of living together in Europe and also to accelerate the professionalization of exiled artists in Europe.

The COMMON ROUTES project aims to create a viable ecosystem for artists, a European-wide networking of the different cultural actors and artists, allowing for a more fluid exchange between them, by intervening at all levels of the cultural chain.