About

Yanai Lab is a response to artistic mobility. An import export entity applied to culture, where it is possible for artistic and cultural initiatives to flourish beyond the borders of France. The structure facilitates the movement of artists, so that they meet different audiences but also they experience new ways to create. Yanai Lab is also welcoming the diversity of cultures in the European spaces of diffusion and sharing together the new modes of expression and new artistic practices that travel the world.

The Yanai Lab adventure began in the province of Tamil Nadu, a state in southeastern India, where contemporary music is emerging progressively while musical traditions still anchored in the heart of society. This sector under construction, its challenges and the ambition of the Indian actors are opportunities for reflection and questioning about the economically sustainable models of the international music market.

Yanai (யாைன) : elefant in tamil
Lab : label, laboratory, or labyrinth

After a year of incubation, travels across India and meetings, the company Yanai Lab was born, taking for port d’attache, Orleans, capital of Region, territory where India was already obvious. Since 2008, the Center-Val de Loire Region has maintained relations with the authorities of Tamil Nadu as part of its decentralized cooperation action. This institutional link has materialized through cultural, economic and academic exchanges over the years. Cultural cooperation began in 2012, establishing a strong link between French actors in contemporary music and Indian professionals of independent and emerging music.

Yanai Lab has built its activity around services rendered to artists and professionals, going to India, as part of artistic projects but also by providing perspectives to Indian professionals around structuring missions of the Indian independent music industry. . International projects on other territories are currently being studied, in order to allow the establishment of identical services in other parts of the world where artistic cooperation would have its place (examples: Madagascar, Morocco, Iran …).