Address by Frédéric Mitterrand, Minister of Culture and Communication, on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone of the ARTEM campus

“ARTEM non odit nisi ignarus”: “art is odious only to the ignorant”.
This maxim, which I read on the pediment of a Berlin museum, during
my recent trip on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall,
seems to me perfectly suited to the project of ARTEM, since its creation it
10 years ago: a project of knowledge, research and
culture, worthy of this city of lights that has always been and that
home NANCY.
ARTEM is also a nice acronym – which is a tour de force! – for
“Art – Technique – Management”. But it is, above all, a beautiful
how to bring down the walls and a beautiful “alliance” project, no
not just three schools or three structures, but everything that,
in the past, “the arts” were the "mechanical arts, of which
the École des Mines de Nancy, and the fine arts, represented by the École
national art superior. As for management and commerce, which
were taught only much later in history and which are here
represented by the ICN-School of Management, they constitute
could call communication and exchange arts.
This beautiful principle of the “alliance” is somehow inscribed
in the heritage – I would say almost genetic – of the famous School
defined by its founders as the Alliance provinciale des
art industries, probably because Nancy, like Metz where I got myself
made before coming here, has always associated art and technique, in
because of its glorious industrial past.
But I also see another genealogy of this spirit of alliance, which is, I
said, that of the Enlightenment and the Encyclopaedists, who never
stopped practicing on this city, until the enlightened edile who runs it with
the success that everyone has enjoyed for over 25 years, and whose efforts
and determination were rewarded: thank you, Mr. Minister, Mr. the
Deputy Mayor and President of the Greater Nancy Urban Community;
Thank you, dear André ROSSINOT!

The alliance is first and foremost the interdisciplinarity and transversality of
approaches that, even before translating into this shared space, is
already ensured by «workshops», where art students, by
example, can be introduced to management, engineers, design
managers to painting or art history. Far from being simply
this multi-disciplinarity and diversity of training
are an essential dimension of this priority for the
The Government of Canada’s Student Employment and
job creation. As more and more today, it is necessary to combine
its most advanced skills in its core discipline, a
general, scientific, economic culture, which allows to value it
fully.
The alliance, symbolized and above all realized by ARTEM, is also, well
the creation of this centre of excellence, in a spirit of
of forces and energies. Because to exist, especially
on the international level, we must be visible. The principle of the campus that
we implement by creating these gateways and pooling
some of our resources, you know that he was also retained by the
rapporteurs of the Great Loan, including the President of the Republic
will soon unveil the final lines.
This cluster of expertise will combine with other networks – I think, by
example, and to stay in the case of the School of Art that falls under my
to the Grand-Est Art College Network, which
brings together 9 schools located in five different regions, or will lead,
I hope, in partnerships with other schools and cities,
like that of Metz, very close. Nothing prevents, for example,
imagine a closer collaboration of the ENSAN with the Institution
cultural cooperation public (aka EPCC) that are in the process of
establish the Metz and Épinal schools.
The alliance is finally – last but not least – that of the various institutions
and the various actors who helped to give it a life
real in the city, of which this laying of the first stone is the
symbolic materialization, but also tangible: besides cooperation
between the four Ministries of Culture and
National Education/ Higher Education and Research (of which I
welcomes the representative, Mr. Patrick HETZEL), and Industry, of course
between local authorities – the Regional Council, the
as I said, the city and the urban community – and
with which they have worked in close partnership, without
forget, of course, the private partners grouped within ARTEM
Companies. I am delighted with this virtuous alliance between sectors
public and private, to enhance the attractiveness of our territories and our
research centres. For this, we need all the energies
The Ministry of Culture is no exception, as you know,
as it pays no less than €11 million into this project, according to
the terms of an agreement with the Urban Community that will be
signed shortly.

It is this type of project which shows that culture must not be
enclosed in its meadow, but is now part of the living forces
through which we will build the economy of tomorrow:
just reaffirmed it at the 2nd Forum in Avignon, from which I come back all
where we tried to uncover the “Strategies
cultural for a new world».
I would therefore like to thank warmly, in addition to André ROSSINOT, all
the elected representatives who have worked for the success of this cooperation, and in particular
those I have the pleasure of meeting or meeting here – Mr. MP and
former Minister Laurent HENART, MP Valérie ROSSODEBORD,
Mr. Senator Philippe NACHBAR for his strong involvement
in cultural affairs within the High Assembly, as well as the
Presidents of the Regional and General Councils, Mr. Jean-Pierre MASSERET
(also former minister) and Mr. Michel DINET. I am not forgetting the
exemplary work of Mr. François LAURENT, President of ARTEM and
the National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine, which was able to federate around the
the efforts of his colleagues and partners. I salute
also Mr Antonio - José GUZMAN, director of the school
national art and the many actors of cultural life,
scientific and economic, which have contributed and will contribute
to enrich this pole by new cooperations.
In short, this alliance to which ARTEM invites us has the strength
an alloy, a principle well known to mining engineers and natural
steel region. The new alloys of the steel
knowledge, of which ARTEM is the emblem, is for sure
today the best to create sustainable growth. In
the economic and financial crisis we have been going through for a year and a half,
culture appears as a pole of resistance and resilience:
to intervene in the unique alloy of an interdisciplinary research pole
combining three complementary types of art and technique is, to
the evidence, the best way to invest in our future.
Culture and research are based on the same curiosity
scientists and artists share. In Paris too, we will
the Palais de la Découverte and the Cité des
Science and Industry led by Ms Claudie HAIGNERÉ, a
Centre combining scientific culture and technology.
It is for all these reasons that I wanted to be present
for this founding act of the ARTEM campus, in this city that
remain faithful to the spirit of the Enlightenment: that of an opening of the disciplines
and practices, and especially from one opening to the other.