Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,
For more than thirty years, the Ministry of Culture has been pursuing a policy in favour of the visual arts – now the “visual arts” policy.
Today, this public policy calls for two observations. The first is one that I have made since my arrival. I have to tell you, I’m struck by the strength and strength of this policy.
In France, we have an exceptional network of actors. This is the result of sixty years of action by the Ministry of Culture and local authorities. Sixty years of actions to structure a large presence of artists and their dissemination in the territory; to allow support for creation; and to accompany the structuring of the sector. There is not a single country in the world that has such a network, such a wealth, such a chance.
A few months ago, I inaugurated the FRAC in Caen; in a few days, I will inaugurate MECA[1] of Bordeaux and the MoCo[2] Montpellier; all signs of the dynamism of our creation.
This dynamism is also reflected in the rave reception given by the international press at the French Pavilion of the Venice Biennale. Beyond the project imagined by Laure PROUVOST, I could see the presence of French artists at this Biennale. It is representative of the vitality of the French scene: an open stage, identified and recognized worldwide.
We owe this vitality to the tens of thousands of visual arts professionals in our country. Under various statutes and under very different conditions, you contribute to the economic wealth of our country.
We can rejoice and congratulate ourselves on this. Nevertheless, this radiance must not blind us.
The second observation I make is one that each of us has made and that I have been able to apprehend for many years as a local elected official.
It is the observation of the fragilities that affect a part – at least – of these fields of creation. This is the observation of the impoverishment of these professions.
This is the finding of insufficient remuneration for the work of artists, for the vast majority of visual arts authors. The government’s report to Parliament on the state of the visual arts reminded us that of the 65,000 visual arts authors in the social system of artist-authors, only 10,000 earn more than €1,430 a month on average over five years.
While some, few in number, are doing well, the vast majority cannot make a living from their artistic work alone. I see it. I hear it.
I am sensitive – how can I not be? The question that is put to us is that of the conditions necessary to maintain, sustain and develop a free and living creation, in resonance with the issues that cross our society.
We have to answer that question with the first people involved. We have to answer it with the artists. With all the visual arts professionals.
In the past, they may have been forgotten in this policy. We were interested in encouraging creation, without always involving creators. We were interested in developing a broadcasting network, without always involving those who feed it.
We have taken an interest in structuring a sector, without always including those who constitute it.
I want this to stop. Since my arrival, I have been hammering an intuition that has become a conviction: I want to put artists back at the heart of our cultural policies.
Today I want to tell you how we’re going to do that, in terms of the visual arts.
To change, you need to know: where you’re going; where you’re going; and how you’re going.
From where we start, first of all:Historically, the Ministry of Culture has structured its action in favour of the visual arts around 5 axes:
The first is support for creation. This support consists in developing, in conjunction with the authorities concerned, arrangements for the integration and dissemination of artistic creation in the context of life, and ensuring its implementation throughout the territory. It is for example the implementation of a policy of support to the public artistic commission. It is also the implementation of all the procedures that allow the enrichment, the valorization and the conservation of public funds of contemporary art, public collections and cultural goods within its area of competence.
Second is support for artists and visual arts professionals. The State is the guarantor of the organization of the visual arts ecosystem. It draws up regulations on the social and fiscal situation of artists and professionals and on their continuing training. It implements measures to support their individual and collective activity.
Third axis: the structuring of the public and private ecosystem. This action is carried out in collaboration, in particular, with art galleries, collectors, foundations, fairs. It concerns, for example, issues related to taxation, venues, or the visibility of the French scene abroad.
Fourth priority: the management of a policy in favour of crafts, design and fashion. This aspect of service work is developed in close liaison with the Directorate-General for Enterprise at the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Fifth area: steering the ministry’s policy in favour of photography and photographers. This axis was dedicated by the creation of a delegation to photography in 2017.
These five priorities remain essential. I want to commend the services that carry out these actions on a daily basis, with a tireless sense of commitment. As I said, we must put artists back at the heart of these five axes.
That’s where I want us to go. I have three main priorities:
The first is to make France a stronghold of art. We must do a better job of promoting the French scene nationally and internationally. To do so, we can rely on a vast network of venues for the dissemination, production and acquisition of works by living artists:
- art centres and regional contemporary art funds,
- the network of art colleges, national and territorial,
- support for artists implemented by the DRAC,
- and the National Plastic Arts Centre
But we can go further. I hope that proposals will be made to me by the end of the year to improve the promotion of the French scene at the national and international levels.
My second priority is to strengthen the presence of artists and works throughout the country, both hexagonal and ultra-marine. Through the commissioning of works in the public space, but also through a policy of support for new places of production, and through artist residencies
I will come back to these three points in more detail in a few minutes. Finally, my third priority is to better support the visual arts sector. We must support artists and creators at all stages of their professional careers.
This implies: the implementation of support mechanisms for artists, but also a regular consultation with professionals and the actions of the Ministry of Culture in order to defend the tax, social and economic rights of artists, in particular with regard to copyright, the social system, and remuneration.
Concertation: that is the word that will guide us. That is why I wanted to bring together the National Council of Visual Arts Professions. I am very pleased to install it today. This Council is intended to be a forum for dialogue between the Ministry of Culture and all of you.
Because it is by associating you on a regular basis; by building a work program together, that we will renew our support for the visual arts.
It is by taking into account your opinion, your knowledge, your experiences, that we will build devices adapted to the reality of the professions.
It’s through dialogue, really, that we can develop more effective public policy. The presence on this Council of several ministries, associations representing local authorities – which play an absolutely essential role – and professional organizations, make it an incomparable space for exchange. To identify difficulties and provide them with negotiated solutions; to think together the means of a regulation attentive to the conditions of exercise of the professions of the visual arts: this is the spirit that presides to the creation of this council.
It will meet at least once a year, and will be supported by working groups focused on concrete topics. Above all, it must be a force for proposal: to evolve regulations, to promote the dissemination of innovative experiences, to exchange on good practices. I invite you to look at the developments in the various sectors.
By setting up this Council with you today, I also want to open up three projects, which can form the basis of our joint work:
- The first project concerns the artist’s career
- The second, occupational structuring
- And the third, broadcasting
The first, as I said, concerns the career of artists. Beyond the indispensable improvement of social protection which must take into account the specificities of creative work, we must now rethink the place of these creators and professionals in society: what they bring to it, the value they create and that they do not always enjoy, whether it is in the classical dissemination or in the exploitation of works on the internet.
That is why I entrusted Bruno Racine with a prospective mission on the status of artist-authors.
This mission, whose proposals will be made by the end of the year, covers a broader field than that of the visual arts.
But the questions that arise today are the same in all artistic disciplines: how to guarantee creators a remuneration in relation to their work at the service of the economy and society?
Bruno RACINE, whom I thank for being here, will tell you more later.
In addition, the Ministry of Culture has heard the difficulties of artist-authors.
A number of recent structural reforms have brought to light difficulties of dialogue and even of understanding between them and the State.
Started in June 2018, I wanted the monthly consultation with the artists-authors to continue. It deals with the next issues of pension reform; the abolition and compensation of the CSG, for example.
I wanted the department to reorganize itself, which is ongoing within the DGCA, so that these issues are heard and addressed. I know this may have seemed like a long time for some, but I want to tell you how determined I am to get these files through. I would like to thank Sylviane TARSOT-GILLERY and her teams for their commitment on all these subjects.
The transposition of the European Copyright Directive will be an opportunity to strengthen the financing of creation and creators. This directive made it possible to highlight the fair remuneration of creators. The issue now is that the sharing of value can be done in a balanced way.
I will take this major subject to the Conseil Supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique, which will also have to be on our council’s agenda.
I also want to defend the remuneration of artists' work. It is a matter of changing habits: I do not think it is acceptable to expose for free, sometimes to pay for it. That is why I recommend a right of public presentation.
Art centres and regional contemporary art funds have committed to this. I hope that the State and its operators will set an example on this point as for others.
I am aware of the essential role that exhibitions organized in many communities, at the initiative of communities or associations, play for the public as well as for artists.
Our National Council of Visual Arts Professions must be the forum in which a dialogue can take place so that this remuneration for the right of exhibition is implemented wherever possible, desirable and useful.
I ask the services of the DGCA and all the DRAC to carry this recommendation of the State and to carry out the necessary consultations.
In the same way, the artistic residencies whose importance was recalled by the President of the Republic are a fundamental tool in the construction of artists' careers.
In this area, we must acquire a better knowledge of the existing, and make it more transparent.
The Académie de France in Rome will have an essential role to play in structuring this network of residencies, in a European and international ambition.
We will have to pay particular attention to the territories far from metropolises, where the means of creation and dissemination are concentrated: this is the case especially in the overseas territoriessea, which also contribute to the richness of creation in the visual arts and more broadly.
The President of the Republic, in his speech in Ornans, recalled: France is a land of artists.
The policy of residences that we will soon announce will have to spread throughout the territory.
To accompany the journey of creators is to accompany it from the initial and higher formation.
We have a strong network of higher schools of art and design, but insufficiently structured around the challenges of professional activity.
This subject must be better shared by all public authorities.
There is also, and this from the training, a lot of work to do to combat gender inequalities, but also social inequalities in access to artistic careers.
Femis does this for its high-level training. But too often, the artistic professions are only invested by a part of society.
The challenge is not only to reduce the glaring inequalities in access to the arts professions.
The challenge is, as for audiovisual production, to feed the creation of all the diversity of our society; so that art reflects this diversity. It is to allow all, without distinction, to express themselves through creation. And to allow all those who have the desire to make it their profession.
It also means breaking down the barriers between practices and supporting places where production tools are shared by creators from all disciplines of the plastic arts, design and crafts. Agnès SAAL, whom I thank for her presence, will say a word about this later.
As you can see, behind these initial tracks is the department’s determination to think and support artists' careers and their remuneration.
The second pillar concerns professional structuring.
The Ministry of Culture has taken the initiative to propose, in each region, the development of orientation schemes and development of visual arts: the famous SODAVI. This approach, the conduct of which has been left to the actors themselves, is still in progress.
It mobilizes many participants and gives rise, at the level of the territories, to nourished exchanges, and proposals to work better together, and for a better federation.
In some cases, this co-construction work has made it possible to propose an adjustment of the arrangements and a strengthening of support to the sector.
What is interesting is that it is from the actors themselves and from a given territory that these schemes are developed.
We must also promote the circulation of quality information on professional opportunities: public orders and acquisitions, residencies, creative aids, workshops.
The Ministry of Culture and its dedicated institution, the Centre national des arts plastiques, must play this central role in serving all professionals, artists, broadcasters and intermediaries.
The new establishment of the CNAP in Pantin is an opportunity to think today a new CNAP able to meet the needs of the professions.
With respect to design in particular, the department has launched a new initiative with the industry department.
In December, the design conference will be the culmination of a mobilization of actors in the regions for several months.
They will also be the starting point for a shared policy whose guidelines will have to be drawn up for the coming years.
The work of unprecedented structuring that must be done is comparable to that which brings together the actors of the world of art.
I will not go into the details of our support policy in the fashion sector, but I want to tell you that we are determined, with the Ministry in charge of industry and professional federations, to support young creation.
In 2018, the first call for projects dedicated to young brands helped 16 winners develop their businesses.
The scheme was renewed this year and focuses on the digital development of younger brands.
I also want to say a word about the Parliament of photography.
Regular meetings were held within the framework of several thematic working groups: on dissemination structures; on galleries; on the publishing of photography books.
First periods of restitution and exchanges will be organized in mid-September 2019, to understand and support this unique ecosystem. I am pleased with the dynamism and abundance of future actions. I will talk about this on July 1, at the opening of the Rencontres d'Arles.
In terms of crafts, the Ministry of Culture can and must play a leading role. We must have ambition for the crafts. I wanted us to develop a roadmap that would include the Mobilier national and Sèvres factories.
Contemporary creation has its place. I asked the DGCA to reflect on the future of these institutions, so that they serve even better their missions of international promotion of creation.
The last pillar, finally, concerns the dissemination of works in the territories, in France and abroad. For several years, many reports have deplored the decline of France’s place in the international art market.
Some suggest public support too focused on certain forms of creation, or a tendency not to support our art scene internationally, while other countries have implemented massive export support schemes.
As I said earlier, I expect proposals on this subject by the end of the year. Without having to resort to the promotion of a “national” art or creation, it is possible and even necessary to go against a defect that often characterizes us: that of not supporting the creators of our country, or who have chosen to live there.
The influence of these artists also rests on: On the valorization of the French scene in France in FRAC, art centers and museums throughout the territory. And on the existence of genuine European networks between places of production and dissemination, which we must encourage.
The mobility of artists in Europe will have to be taken into account, as will the circulation of works throughout the country.
I want to popularize the attendance and acquisition of creative works.
There is a reluctance, which is not only economic but also cultural, to borrow or acquire works of art.
Making art familiar, more accessible, also implies, for this environment, to step out of a self, which is a form of social intimidation.
All actors – gallery owners, exhibition organizers, art centres, regional contemporary art funds, art libraries – have a role to play, so that the act of acquiring a work is not reserved for a few. In this sense, I insist on the presence of contemporary creation in public buildings, whenever this is provided for by the texts.
Thus, I will sign a circular to recall the obligation to decorate public buildings.
Since 1951, the 1% artistic system has demonstrated its effectiveness in contributing to the dissemination of contemporary creation, particularly in educational settings.
It is a significant resource that must be maintained and even developed.
At the same time, the development of the scheme must be continued, particularly with schools as part of the 1% days.
But the effort of the communities and the state is not just about the artistic 1%.
We have to work with the art dealers, the gallery committee, to adjust the various regulations that have sometimes overlapped until they lose their meaning, at European or national level. We will work with the departments involved.
And I know that work should begin soon. Artistic commission for public space is also essential.
It allows artists to express themselves in a different way, to meet the public outside the dedicated places. It mobilizes unusual means.
I would like us to reinvigorate this mode of intervention, which allows us to go as close as possible to everyone; that we go to meet communities that do not dare to embark on the project. In this regard, we will soon publish a practical guide to artistic commissions for sponsors and artists.
In partnership with Flammarion, the Ministry will publish a book reviewing the last 10 years of commissions in the public space, L'art à ciel ouvert, volume 2.
In addition, the ministry with the CNAP is also an actor of the artistic commission with in 2018 a commission of multiples in partnership with the artothèques and a photographic commission on the theme «Flux, une société en mouvement» which is presented this year in the Hauts-Alpesde France.
We will also launch, in partnership with the CNAP and the communities, a national commission for protocol works that will be located in cities of less than 50,000 people.
Because the State must ensure territorial equity. Then there is, alongside public control, private control. The “1 building, 1 work” scheme is a tool to encourage it.
By signing the charter, “1 building, 1 work”, 36 real estate developers have already committed to order a work of art in the buildings they build.
That’s already over 270 projects that have been committed.
We still hope to develop this program by working with social donors. Finally, I would like to say a word about the art libraries.
A national commission was launched in 2018 by CNAP in partnership with the Association de développement et de recherche sur les artothèques, to contribute to the renewal of the artothèques' collections.
I deeply believe in their ability to spread art and works throughout the territory; in their role more familiar, less intimidating.
That is why I would like a working group from our Council to examine how the Ministry of Culture could strengthen its support for these local tools, which are the art libraries.
Resources will be available in 2020.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Today, I wanted to take the time, in the hope that I did not take too long, to remind you of the department’s policy, my priorities and the work I want to do. As I was saying, the NCPAC must be a place of exchange.
After we have heard the presentations of Bruno RACINE and Agnès SAAL, we will give you the floor for an exchange.
I hope that at the end of today’s Council meeting our joint work programme will be defined for the next few weeks.
Thank you.
[1] Creative Economy and Culture House
[2] Montpellier Contemporain