CHANCE ENCOUNTERS Over the past year, the Rmn - Grand Palais has been engaged in a strategic re-positioning of its actions in the regions. Driven by this ambition, it was associated with the Summer of Culture project initiated by the Ministry of Culture by organizing Chance Encounters all over France during the summer period.
The Rmn - Grand Palais proposed and co-built an itin- erary of artists in 15 French regions based on the very fine mesh of libraries and media libraries, where knowl- edge is accessible to all and where all literary works are available free of charge. In connection with the DRAC, curated by Pierre Giner and entirely financed by the Ministry of Culture, these encounters enabled 42 artists, authors and scientists to travel around France to meet residents and holidaymakers in 58 locations (from large cities to the suburbs and rural villages) in 15 regions and online accounting for a total of 92 events. The Internet was the 16th region for our 2020 Chance Encounters: the entire programme of encounters from July to November was recounted and documented by
the designers, philosophers, scientists, artists and po- ets and those institutions that agreed to share some of their content. All speakers met with the audience in conferences, chats, readings, screenings, dance solos or "maker" work- shops. By reaching out to the public in this way they fostered discoveries, aroused emotions and passed on knowledge making the summer of 2020 a time of sharing the artistic and heritage wealth of our regions. While these Chance Encounters were disrupted by the health crisis, they were nevertheless a genuine success with some 3,000 people taking part.
79