These measures were expected to help those involved in culture, stalled, engine drowned, more fuel since confinement. We did not know in what form Emmanuel Macron and his Minister of Culture Franck Riester would communicate this Wednesday. It was ... confusing. First, the president invited himself by surprise at lunchtime. At 1 pm sharp, BFMTV films the end of its meeting in videoconference with artists that we do not see, but whose channel reveals some names: the singer Catherine Ringer - we will hear the Head of State quote "Catherine" - actress Sandrine Kiberlain or filmmakers Nakache and Toledano, as well as theater directors and choreographers.
The president, boosted, rolls up his sleeves, literally, touches his hair a lot, plays with his tie and multiplies formulas and encouragements: “We have to get on the tiger, tame it. "The tiger is the virus, and the cultural world must find ways to return to the scene, other scenes:" I will expect a lot from you, "he said several times to his interlocutors. Intermittent workers, artists or technicians, paid by the number of hours, and who feared losing their compensation because of the stopping of the shows, can breathe a little: their rights are extended until August 2021, which they work or not.
A "white year", to use the expression of the season. The minister will use that word an hour later. But had he heard the president, seated to his left? "I don't like this idea of a white year , coward Macron. I need things they need to invent for our young people. We need intermittents at school. And maybe they will even do their hours this way, ”he adds with a smile.
President wants a "learning and cultural" summer
The artists are invited not to consider themselves in technical unemployment but to share their knowledge, their experience, with the pupils, from this May. In the absence of planks, the platform. And this summer, as there may not be any classic "summer camps", said Emmanuel Macron, the world of culture is encouraged to keep young people occupied.
Because summer must also be “reinvented”. A blank page that artists from all disciplines are called upon to brighten up with their ideas. The host of the Elysée wants a "learning and cultural" summer. Its grammar is lyrical or a little absconse, but the knowledge wants in any case entraining: it is necessary “to recast a cultural ambition for the country. The nation needs it. ”
"I am not so much a theoretician of the drama", curiously launched Emmanuel Macron to the stars and directors he saw on a screen - but not us - to signify that if the crisis had been "terrible", he preferred to think in the aftermath who sing, literally, with the performers, who poetize, with the authors, who stage the return of life, with the actors.
"We have to invent an extraordinary season"
He also announced a large public commission program for artists under 30, painters, visual artists, sculptors, photographers… An idea inspired by the New Deal after the 1929 crisis in the United States, that Jack Lang - who brought us said he found the president "excellent" - had issued in our columns on April 27.
The head of state, very literary, quoted "Robinson Crusoe" who, to stay alive, had not "made a big theory about the sinking", but sought "tools, ham and cheese in the ship's hold "to survive. “There will be no cultural season as we knew them. We have to invent an extraordinary season ”.
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Out of the norms… We then waited for Franck Riester to appear on the news channels to concretely detail these measures. But the Minister of Culture, on the steps of the Elysée Palace, was already discreetly live ... on his Twitter account and the social networks of the Elysée Palace. Not on TV. Franck Riester responded to a single unnamed and invisible interviewer. He provided some figures: 50 million euros in aid for the National Music Center, an organization created last January, to support this sector, as well as additional support - not quantified - for canceled festivals.
A solidarity fund is also created for authors and artists, with a dedicated site from mid-May where they can enter their files to be reimbursed the rents of a painter's studio or a theatrical studio or writing. At the end of April, this fund was endowed with 80 million euros.
Finally, film and television filming will resume drop by drop in May, but especially in June. There too, a public compensation fund, linked to the National Cinema Center and "also supplemented by the regions", according to the Minister's wish, should help production companies.
Any good news for now? From Monday, bookshops, record stores, libraries, media libraries, art galleries and some small museums will be open. A list that was nice to hear.