1 building, 1 work: instructions for use

You want to sign the charter «1 building, 1 work» to put art at the heart of living spaces and workspaces.

Under the “1 Building, 1 Work” Charter, developers and builders undertake to use a living artist, by ordering or purchasing a pre-existing work, for the buildings or building programs they operate, and to respect the spirit and the letter of the charter.

You can send the charter you signed to 1immeuble1oeuvre@culture.gouv.fr.

Signing and complying with the Charter gives its signatory the right to claim the title of “1 building, 1 work”, a true recognition of the “quality approach” it has undertaken.

You signed the charter «1 building, 1 work» and wish to call on an artist to improve the quality of the living and working environment of the users of your buildings.

By investing in art, you have decided to invest in creation, diversity, imagination, reflection, but also pleasure. The work chosen will contribute to the identity of the site and the construction of this common space. It will provoke exchanges, dialogue between building users, without distinction. She will acquaint the greatest number with the creation of our time. The charter «1 building, 1 work» is part of all the «quality approaches» that you implement.

The following practical guide, available online, will be regularly enriched by feedback from promoters, builders, artists and all teams involved in the projects, has the ambition to help you to carry out your project and to acquire a work adapted to your real estate operation.

When the work is done and installed, you report it by filling in the online form of installation of the work (cf. infra). The form allows you to demonstrate your commitment in the charter, to report the work and to present it to the Founding Members Committee for a possible award of prizes.

If a project is not reported during the year, the status of signatory of the charter may be withdrawn by the committee of founding members.

- Define your wish, draft specifications 

Describe the real estate project and its future users

• Quickly present the history and values of the company, describe the future users of the site, explain how the organization is structured. It is a matter of exposing the context in which the work will fit.
• Build the arguments justifying this commitment in art: internal and external image, cohesion among staff members, support for creation, dynamism of the company...
• Why this artistic option? To do this, you can encourage internal discussions with employees from the outset of the project and involve the works council or employee representatives and your employees in the steering committee.
• Organize meetings and actions to raise awareness of today’s art forms.

Detail the site constraints

Identify the constraints of the building and the space where the work will be installed, and where mediations around the works may be organized: environmental, regulatory, architectural constraints (respect for the architect’s moral right and, for example, can the work be hung? How much weight can the floor bear? What technical connections are available?) Will the work be installed inside or outside the building? Etc.

Identify existing equipment and measures that can be put in place to ensure the preservation and safety of the work

• Depending on the type of artwork that will be chosen - or ordered, the precautions to be taken to ensure its preservation and safety will be different.
• Guarding, environment (for example hygrometry, lighting, modular lighting, fire suppression device, anti-intrusion device, pest and dust control device, etc.)
• At the same time, it is necessary to consider the safety of building users.

Present the approach and means

• The means: define, from the outset, a budget envelope and human resources allowing the purchase or commission of the work, the remuneration of the artist, mediation, security and conservation of the work. Anticipate the proposed work schedule.
• The desired work: the type of work (permanent or temporary), the medium (painting, sculpture, design, videos, graphic arts, photography, etc.), the subject (carte blanche to an artist or imposed theme)…

- From specifications to implementation 

Once you have defined your wish, you can:

Purchase an existing work of art;

If you want to acquire an existing work of art, you can:

• acquire a work in a contemporary art gallery. In this case, you can check whether or not it belongs to a recognized professional organisation;
• buy directly from the artist.

(See practical sheet Resources).

Order a work made specifically for the building

The steps in the art order process are often as follows:

• Order according to the wishes and constraints defined in the specifications (see above). If you wish to be helped in your choices, you can set up a steering committee that will gather advice around you. Art professionals (for example, directors or representatives of public or private art structures) as well as future users of the building could help make this choice and, if necessary, better define your expectations as soon as the specifications are drafted.
• Conduct a limited or extensive consultation, depending on the degree of publicity you wish to give it. It can be useful in a first time to remember on file (CV + portfolio). If you have studies, sketches or preparatory work done, it is good practice to provide artists with meaningful compensation. These studies must then be contractualised and compensated (projects, models, memorandum of intent, provisional budget)
• Contractualize with the artists selected to carry out a study and the artist or artists selected for the production, in particular by agreeing on a provisional production schedule.
• Encourage meetings with the selected artist before and during the production. The organization of an event after the installation of the work and the laying of a cartel indicating the name of the author and the title of the work will also contribute to the good knowledge of the work. The artist can also contribute to the development of his work, for example by participating in the choice of the cartel, of a night lighting, or by any other means.
• The inauguration of the work represents a festive moment and presentation of the production.

What are the specificities of artistic commission?

The commission of an artistic work is distinct from the commission of a utilitarian object. The artist has a moral right to the work of which he is the author. It is preferable to give artists a freedom of work that allows them to give their full measure. Thus, we will avoid imposing an artistic program that is too detailed and restrictive and leaves little room for the imagination of the artist.

Report the installation of a work

In order to demonstrate the respect of the charter and your commitment in this process, we invite you to inform us of the work that you acquired or ordered, once its installation has been finalized. In addition, by declaring this artistic achievement, you propose the work to the artistic committee of the prize 1 building, 1 work, for a potential award, and contribute to the observation of the device by the Ministry of Culture.

Fill in the receipt form:

Artisyour

It is advisable to use artists engaged in a professional approach. This point can be attested in particular by the artist holding a SIRET number.

Who can claim the device? The profession of artist is not regulated. An artist is most often a self-employed worker. It generally comes under the social system of the artists authors, adapted within the general system. He-She reports in this case her income as non-commercial profits.

The property of the work

When ordering or purchasing a work, the owner only acquires the «material support». Intangible property rights such as moral and economic rights belong to the author of the work (cf. articles L121-1 to L122-12 of the Intellectual Property Code).

The moral right of the artist is «perpetual, inalienable and imprescriptible». It is bound to the person of the author who cannot renounce it or yield it to others. This moral right includes a right to authorship and a right to respect for the work (cf. article L111-1 of the Intellectual Property Code).

The author of a work also enjoys economic rights, that is, rights to profit from the exploitation of the work, including reproduction and representation. These rights last throughout the artist’s life. Upon his death, this right persists for the benefit of his rights holders during the current calendar year and the following 70 years (cf. article L123-1 of the Intellectual Property Code).

Intellectual property: reproduction and representation rights

When purchasing or contracting for the selected work, the purchaser is strongly advised to negotiate with the artist the assignment, on a non-exclusive basis, of his economic rights of reproduction and representation, in accordance with the provisions of the Intellectual Property Code. In addition to the work ordered, the assignment may usefully include preparatory work for the elaboration of the work (plans, sketches, models, etc.) which are eligible for copyright protection. The assignment of each right must be explicit (assignment right, duration of the assignment, geographical extent of the assignment and use).

However, it will be necessary to acquire only the rights strictly necessary for the reasonably foreseeable uses of the works ordered, for example in the context of an institutional communication. Each of the uses authorized by the author must be explicitly mentioned in the assignment contract. In the event that you consider using the work on a commercial basis (by-products for example), the contract with the artist must explicitly set out the conditions, including financial terms, or refer to a subsequent amendment.

The architect also has a moral and economic right to the building he designed.

It is advisable to check whether or not the sponsoring company is subject to the social contributions defined by article L382-4 of the Social Security Code. This contribution is 1.01% of the gross artistic remuneration. It is collected by the social security agency to which the artist belongs (Maison des artistes or AGESSA). For more details, see the websites www.secuartsgraphiquesetplastiques.org and www.agessa.org

The sale of the building, the sale of the work.

• Case of the work that can be moved if the building is sold. If the work can be moved, it can be kept by its original owner.
• Where appropriate, the works have a «building by destination» character. They are therefore completely related to the building and can be resold at the same time as the building.

When the assignment of a work is carried out by an art market professional, the resale right applies. The resale right is the remuneration from which the authors of original graphic and plastic works benefit when resale of their works during which a professional of the art market intervenes.

The resale right is inalienable, that is to say that it is linked to the person of the author, the author cannot assign it, give it, bequeath it (cf. articles L122-8 and articles R122-2 to 122-12 of the Code de la propriété intellectuelle.)
For more information, please consult the following websites:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/TXT/?uri=URISERV :l26049
http://www.adagp.fr/fr/utilisateur/droit-de-suite
http://www.lamaisondesartistes.fr/site/quest-ce-que-le-droit-de-suite/

Preventive storageve and restoration of works

The preventive conservation and restoration of the works is the responsibility of the owner or the assignee, if the work is deposited. The moral right of the author includes in particular a right to authorship and a right to respect for the work which, if necessary, allows the author to oppose a modification of his work. The consequences are important: thus, to change the location of the work designed specifically for a site, you must first obtain the consent of the artist or his rights holders.

With regard to maintenance and maintenance, the owner who is responsible for it (on his credits) must also be vigilant to the nature of the measures taken. This is why it is strongly recommended that all the technical clauses concerning the future of the work and the questions of maintenance, restoration and possible removal should be included in a contract awarded at the time of ordering. These technical prescriptions developed by the artist help to avoid the degradation of the work.

In the case of a work likely to evolve, for example a signage or landscaping, the technical stipulations developed by the artist will ensure the sustainability of the work.

Finally, the parties may provide for the ephemeral nature of the work and its possible destruction or non-restauration in case of normal wear and tear related to its material, which would therefore not constitute an infringement of the artist’s moral right. In this case, this must be indicated in the contract.

The implementation of a regular monitoring program and routine maintenance of the work according to the artist’s instructions - indicated for example in a technical sheet - is recommended, as it avoids significant degradation of the work leading to costly restoration. For the proper functioning and conservation of the works, the owner may usefully consult structures with responsibility for art collections, near the work.

As stated, the restoration must respect the moral right of the artist, who must be consulted before any intervention on his work. In addition, it is recalled that the restoration of a work must, with very rare exceptions, be entrusted to specialized restorers. It cannot be carried out by non-specialist technical services if the work is beyond the scope of routine technical maintenance (for example, replacing a bulb or plant).

Within the framework of the application of the charter 1 building, 1 work, two accounting and tax provisions are possible and applicable for any company. The type of work and the project of the company will determine the choice of signatories, for either of these mechanisms. 

Expense deduction or “completion method”

Companies that order or acquire works of living artists, in order to integrate them into the constructions made, may apply the “completion method” consisting in deducting from the turnover the amount of the transaction at the time of delivery. These expenses related to the work of art are included in the cost of construction. The deduction is made over the year of realization of the expenditure. It makes it possible to deduct the cost of the transaction at one time, contrary to the deduction provided for by Article 238 bis AB of the General Tax Code, which is spread over five years. The enterprise thus ensures a tax saving corresponding to one third of the cost of carrying out the work or its acquisition cost (taking into account the rate of IS). 

The tax benefit is identical in value to that of the deduction for the purchase of works of living artists (deduction of the entire purchase transaction), but without applying a ceiling or five-year averaging. This mechanism of deductibility by loads of great flexibility, is adapted to the widening of the scope of application of the Charter, for semi-perennial works activated the time of the yard.

Deduction for the acquisition of original works of living artists

Any company with a regulated reserve account on the liabilities side of the balance sheet may also favour the mechanism for acquiring works of living artists (account 10648 "Acquisition of original works of living artists"). It makes it possible to deduct, per fifth for 5 years, the amount of the purchase of the work, in the annual ceiling of €10,000 or €5 (per thousand) of the turnover excluding tax when the latter amount is higher, less the total of patronage payments. Information on this benefit is available at: www.service-public.fr/business-professionals/vosdroits/F32914. Further details on the deductibility conditions can be found at this link. The reference texts and the 15252*05 form of reduction and tax credits are downloadable. 

The ceiling applied to the acquisition of a work of art within the framework of a corporate collection is part of the sponsorship scheme: www.culture.gouv.en/Sites-thematics/Mecenat/Entreprises/Le-régime-fiscal-general. To be noted, in order to benefit from this deduction by acquisition, the work must be exhibited in a place accessible to the public (they may be employees), with the exception of offices, for five years and subject to appropriate communication. The general public must be informed of the place of exhibition and the possibility of access to the work of art.