Tribune. We, artists and actors of the cultural sector, would like to issue an alert concerning the marginalization of the issues of arts and culture in an electoral campaign which has made spectacular the political incapacity to breathe meaning into cultural policies. We can easily ask ourselves the question: is there still a cultural policy in France, or even a desire for a cultural policy?
Omnipresent, the extreme right proposes nothing other than the replacement of culture and creation by an adulterated cult of the past, the reduction of culture to a sickly protectionism, where the spirit of encounter does not dominate, but that of of the “clash of civilizations”. The few times the subject is addressed in the programs, it is most often in a quantitative way: always more digital, more public, more establishments, events…
But what vision underlie all these figures? This is the real question. Such a vacuum installs the unpleasant feeling that it would be a question of abandoning art and culture to the laws of the market, to entertainment, and perhaps also to the perverse effects of Covid (remote culture, representations or dissemination on platforms), in the cinema sector but also in publishing, in the audiovisual sector, etc.
Towards consumerist, regressive conceptions
In the field of education (music, for example), many conservatories are being evacuated from national structures, returned to local authorities, soon to the private sector? This void gives the impression that the public service (as elsewhere) is disengaging, when it is not vassalizing itself in relation to lobbies, often identity-based, practicing intimidation and censorship a priori, and which seem to have taken over any vision of general interest.
New pressures shift the artistic requirement towards consumerist, predigested, regressive conceptions. Yet, if “with culture you can’t eat… culture can’t be eaten”, wrote Dario Fo! And these new tacit criteria settle insidiously in our heads, even in certain cultural institutions. One only has to consult the grant application files, where the quantity and the declaration of intent reign on this subject.
For a long time, we believed that we could turn to the ministry to help promote shows or works of creation, experimentation, research, surpassing ourselves. This is less and less true, as the principles that had been developed and implemented in our country until a few years ago have been replaced by a form of navigation by sight, retreat and “no waves “.
You have 31.95% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.