Jean-Paul Capitani, chairman of the supervisory board of the editorial group Actes Sud, and husband since 1996 of the former minister of culture Françoise Nyssen, died on Tuesday April 4 in Arles.
He was 78 years old.
While riding his bicycle, he hit a downtown bollard and fell to his death.
From the 1980s, Jean-Paul Capitani had contributed to the small publishing house Actes sud, founded in 1978 in Arles by the publisher Hubert Nyssen, father of Françoise Nyssen, and Christine Le Bœuf, gradually becoming a name and a place of choice among the major publishing houses.
Read alsoJean-Paul Capitani, minister's husband and happy boss of Actes Sud
In a few years, Actes Sud stood out with its first unexpected successes (Nina Berberova, Paul Auster, the future Nobel Imre Kertész), followed by the world bestseller Millenium
by
Stieg Larsson, before welcoming into its fold, according to the concept called "associate publisher" according to its then director Françoise Nyssen, the editions of Rouergue, Payot & Rivages, Jacqueline Chambon, Gaïa, Inculte, and to win several major literary prizes, including the Goncourt for Laurent Gaudé (in 2004), Jérôme Ferrari, Mathias Énard and Nicolas Mathieu.
Today the Actes Sud group has some 15,000 titles in its catalog, with a well-defined graphic identity, employs more than 200 employees and has a network of eight bookstores.
A figure in Arles cultural life
Born on December 15, 1944 in Arles, an agronomist by training, passionate about oenology with a weakness for organic wine, landowner, Jean-Paul Capitani had been at the origin in 1983, of the installation of the headquarters of Actes South within the walls of which he owned what is currently the Méjan bookshop and cinema, on the Marx-Dormoy quay.
In 2015, he created in Arles, with Françoise Nyssen, an experimental school, promoting independent research and an active learning experience under the name of École du Domaine du Possible, under the patronage of Edgar Morin and Pierre Rhabi.
An act completing the vitality restored to the cultural life of Arles, of which Jean-Paul Capitani had been the main architect.
He was also at the origin of many major cultural events in Arles,
Ten years ago, during a rare interview, he declared:
"I am from Arles, extremely attached to my city, to what happens there and which we have developed considerably throughout the year with the cinema, bookstore, exhibitions, concerts.”
However, the all-out development of this flagship of French publishing has not been without a few hiccups, while arousing local jealousy and opposition, particularly regarding town planning rules not respected by the Actes Sud group, a case revealed by
Le Canard enchaîné
, in 2018, after irregularities pointed out the previous year, about the Parisian premises of the Actes Sud group, rue Séguier.
Jean-Paul Capitani and Françoise Nyssen, after having presided over the destinies of the publishing house, had decided in September 2022 to transmit the witness directly to three of their children (born of two unions).
Anne-Sylvie Bameule becoming Chairman of the Management Board, Pauline Capitani (born in 1987) and Julie Gautier respectively occupying the positions of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer of the group.