Three hundred and fifty years after the creation of the Académie de France in Rome, which later became the Villa Medici, a century after the Casa Velázquez in Madrid and thirty years after the inauguration of the Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto, the United States revive the idea of a major artist residency abroad.
Baptized "Villa Albertine", announced on July 2 by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian, it wants to be both full of ambition and a light horse in terms of operation.
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This villa will not really be one, in the classic sense of the term, since it will not be a unique place of residence:
“No city, not even New York, has an American cultural monopoly, and it would have been difficult choose only one to rent premises, not to mention the high cost of this approach ”
indicates Gaëtan Bruel, future boss of Villa Albertine, which will be launched in the fall.
“Albertine” will therefore rely on the cultural services of the French Embassy, ie 80 people based in Central Park, New York.
It is these latter which will help, each year, sixty residences, carried by creators, thinkers or even directors of French institutions or museums.
“We will finance original research projects, calling for land and meetings. And we will be tailor-made, in terms of financing, ”
continues Gaëtan Bruel. Ten cities where French cultural services are already present, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, New Orleans or Chicago, will be able to support artists or writers, whose residency will represent 20.00 euros in aid, on average.
For the first edition, the embassy should launch with several personalities, including the comic book author Quentin Zuttion, who will cross the United States by train to portray American teenagers, Sélène Saint-Aimé, singer and double bass player, who will immerse himself in the musical history of New Orleans. For his part, the photographer and visual artist Nicolas Floc'h will explore the Mississippi watershed, for a project combining anthropology, climate sciences, geopolitics and culture.
"The United States is a wonderful land of exploration, inspiration and recognition for the French - if we know how to support them"
summarizes Philippe Étienne, French Ambassador to the United States.
The American “new world”, which continues to make many Europeans dream, is not, in its vastness, easily accessible.
Visas are distributed in a trickle, with or without the Covid-19, and life is very expensive there.
"Surprise"
Beyond the help that will be given to these few dozen "lucky" people each year, the embassy hopes to help bridge the cultural gap that has been created between France and the United States. Although the two countries have good diplomatic relations, museums and institutions on both sides have different ways of doing things, even of thinking. Apart from the differences in funding methods - very focused on public money in France, on private money in the United States, the place given to diversity, women or minorities in exhibitions or productions, no is not the same. And if the Americans gladly mock the classicism and the immobility of the French, the latter do not understand the “woke” culture which is in the process of surging. "L
Americans are also looking to other geographies than ours, and the way they continue to look at us, especially our culture, is not always free from certain misunderstandings, ”
continues the ambassador. The sixty residences will also have for mission to "surprise" America, and to make it understand that France still rhymes with creativity and openness.