“If you don't make enough noise, I'll go look for the Black Blocs,” one protester quipped.
On the steps of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, this Tuesday noon, dozens of people chant: "Air, air, air for Culture!"
"Some wear clown noses, others signs on which are displayed protesting, worried or provocative slogans:" We are more essential than your contempt "," Say, when will you reopen? "
Say, at least do you know?
"," Kidnapping alert: Roselyne Bachelot, 73, minister "...
Around the Place de la Bastille, thousands of demonstrators have gathered to protest against the prolonged closure of places of culture until at least January 7, announced last Thursday.
“We are prevented from working!
explains Aurélia Tastet, actress and author, a fabric mask stuck under her red nose.
I do street theater: we have put in place health measures that would allow us to play without any risk.
I do not accept being told that I am not essential when it is allowed to go to a store to buy day cream.
"
"Let atheists go to their places of worship"
Deputy director of the Nouveau Théâtre de Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), Véronique Bellin shares this feeling of “injustice”: “We are forced to remain closed despite an effective health protocol and we let people rush into the shops to buy Christmas gifts… It's a social choice.
"Around her, many posters annoy the fate reserved for cultural places when churches, mosques and synagogues are open:" Let atheists go to their places of worship ", proclaims one of them.
Several demonstrators denounce the "contempt" of the government and its "ignorance" of the sector: "It is intolerable to warn us three days before the scheduled date of reopening, when we rehearsed our shows and we reorganized ourselves. to welcome the public in complete safety, ”protests Lucie Chataigner, director of the Théâtre des Bergeries in Noisy-le-Sec (Seine-Saint-Denis).
As a member of the National Syndicate of Public Scenes, this place will also join the appeal for “summary freedom” that many professionals are preparing to file at the Council of State to request the reopening of the rooms.
Place de la Bastille, many slogans were demanding, worried or provocative.
LP / Aurélie Ladet
"Financial aid will not save the most fragile companies and artists," says Lucie Chataigner.
The only way to help the cultural sector is to let us reopen… ”In the crowd, we can see the red hair of actress Véronique Genest.
“I've been asked twice to stop the show I'm playing
(Editor's note: the play“ Betty's Family ”)
.
It's incomprehensible.
If we are in danger in a theater while we are masked, spaced out and our temperature is taken at the entrance, then we are in danger everywhere!
And we have no prospect… ”
A little further on, Gilles Lellouche and François Civil, who will share the poster for the film “Bac Nord”, discuss with their producer Hugo Sélignac.
“When I see the world in shopping centers, I tell myself that the situation is ubiquitous, assures Lellouche.
By closing the rooms, we let people get into the habit of going to the platforms.
While, in such a complex and dark time, in this withdrawn society, it is so important to have places of culture, moments of reverie and sharing!
"
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"We are there out of solidarity with cinema operators, theaters, museums, who have made so much effort to be irreproachable in terms of health," says François Civil.
“We are disappointed and worried, but we are privileged, adds Hugo Sélignac.
There are people here who are in much greater distress than ours.
"A few meters away, a Morris column still announces the release on December 23 in theaters of" Bac Nord "...