The other evening, at the International Festival of Films on Art, I saw the luminous documentary Geese by Jean Paul Riopelle by Jean-Luc Dupuis on the late automatist painter, whose centenary we are highlighting. Scenes shot at the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec showed a boy literally dazzled by theTribute to Rosa Luxemburg. His cry from the heart in front of the imagination, the love and the power of the jets, the lines, the flights of Riopelle crossed the screen. He had never seen such a beautiful work, swore that these huge panels populated by geese would remain engraved in him forever. At the Outremont theatre, the public sighed with pleasure as they listened to him.
There was enough. The news from schools and CEGEPs is maddening: crazy danger for the French language! General knowledge in freefall! Exacerbated violence. Overworked and often poorly trained teachers! The whole pedagogical system sends out distress signals. So when a teen or tween lets himself be touched by the grace of art, culture lovers applaud. In the name of the creative shock capable of propelling sensitive minds out of a world too narrow for them.
So many questions arise. Soon, will brains have mutated under the crackling of a thousand screens? Will the artistic landscape become purely virtual? Which muses will inspire future generations? Will we dream tomorrow in French in Quebec? And what French, exactly? Social upheavals blow up structures before building new ones. Everyone floats in weightlessness. Yet the lights of art help to live when the ground shakes. May they radiate and quickly in future projects!
You don’t often meet young people in the evening at the theatre, at a concert, at a show, in front of an auteur film. Apart from school outings, at the museum either. Rare and how precious birds. When some show up with their friends in front of an exhibition or a play, it surprises and delights. Sometimes parents drag teenagers to a cultural activity, complaining or not. At the exit, we hear the guy or the girl chatting, lighting up or growling louder. Still, the artistic germ grows better in fertile soil. Access to vibrant and inspiring culture is expensive. Not all parents are wealthy or even interested in art. Better to create, as it were, winning conditions.
So, when the idea of a cultural passport for young people ends up germinating in the political arena, we applaud. Opening the doors of artistic institutions in order to introduce the next generation to national works (and give them the desire to discover foreign ones) was essential.
Tuesday, in his budget, the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, therefore announced the creation of the famous digital pass for Quebec cultural goods and services for young people. And this, at a low price, without there being any question of free access up to a certain threshold, as in France or Belgium. It remains to discover the terms of the formula. One thing is certain, it will challenge the Anglo-Saxon surge in music on its own scale, as elsewhere, filling in the way some school gaps, if possible.
Without solving the whole problem, far from it. So many initiatives must converge with the same goals: to train bright minds and keep the common culture and language alive on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Extensive program!
This is also the mission of the Caquiste pub on the endangered peregrine falcon, accompanied by a dissonant speech in Franglais. Arousing in some by the absurd the furtive desire or not to raise the quality of their language would be the beginning of a beginning. Go for the fun concept! Alas! Most of our leaders have a poor command of syntax, pepper their speeches with English words and often lack culture. Enough to reduce the scope of the most virtuous messages. So many of the chosen are scratching our ears with their hackneyed phrases. The columns of the temple begin to “shake” without shaking in the mouth of Minister Christian Dubé. Preaching by example would be less easy, certainly, but more honest.
In the eyes of some, the protection of French in Quebec should rest solely on better political ramparts. But everything is linked. Without raising the levels of language and culture of young people and adults alike, protectionist decrees fall into the void. Another dream: that of a governmental concordance between the actions, the words and the deep convictions of its members. How many of them seek to better handle French and to enlighten themselves with artistic lights by imposing themselves as models? When is the cultural passport for elected officials?