Madam Vice-President of the Regional Council, dear Isabelle Leroy,
Madam Vice-President of the Loire-Atlantique County Council, dear Dominique Poirout,
Dear Mayor of Nantes, dear Johanna Rolland,
Dear Nicolas Marc, President of the Biennales Internationales du Spectacle,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I want to thank you warmly, Mr. President dear Nicolas Marc, for your invitation. My presence being required with the President of the Republic, I unfortunately cannot be at your side to celebrate this beautiful anniversary. I’m sorry about that.
20 years, it’s a celebration! Since 2004, the BIS have been an essential meeting and exchange space. From edition to edition, each intervention, each sharing of experience has brought the news and the performing arts community to life.
20 years is also the age of all possibilities! And if you can be proud of how far you have come, you are probably already planning on inventing a future.
Your future is at the heart of my ministry’s concerns, and it will therefore be at the heart of my roadmap.
I measure all the energy it takes to put on your shows, all the effort and perseverance it takes to get funding and audiences, constantly innovating.
Like all French people, I also know that you have to operate in a difficult economic context, burdened by inflation and rising energy prices.
I want to fight with you – and affirm my confidence in a fundamentally dynamic and promising sector that knows how to count on the amount of talent you represent.
I will soon have the opportunity to meet you, whether it is rue de Valois or – even better – directly in your rooms. It will be an opportunity to listen, exchange and share. Be sure of my entire mobilization and that of my ministry to support and accompany you in this period of transformation.
At your side, I want to defend a public policy in favor of live performance that is both protective, ambitious and bold.
Protective, first, in order to best preserve this diversity of live performance that is so dear to us, with large structures subsidized by the State and local authorities, but also independent companies, large festivals and smaller. Each in its own way is essential to sustain our territories and promote our country.
A public policy in favor of live performance that is then ambitious. It is supported by an overall budget of the Ministry of Culture up by 6% in 2024, in order to support the sector in the face of all the major challenges that face it in economic, environmental or digital terms.
And a bold policy, finally: because in a world in transition, where everything is going so fast, you measure well each and everyone the urgency that there is to transform. That is what the Direction générale de la création artistique’s “Mieux produire mieux diffuser” plan is all about. This plan aims to further balance the offer of shows throughout the territory.
This is an issue that I consider essential.
Our common goal is to carry a live performance that is both demanding and popular, in order to reach all audiences, whoever they are and wherever they are. For the whole performing arts, for our theatre, for our music, for our street and circus arts and for our choreographic creation, The challenge is to fill the halls and festivals and to wear the colors of the French scene all over the world.
Thanks again to all of you, for your commitment and for your energy. For your taste for freedom too, which speaks so much to me. You can be sure of this: I will be uncompromising in defending your freedom of creation and in ensuring that all voices can always express themselves.
I wish you all an excellent 20th edition of the BIS!