“For us to build a society together, we may need to re-establish culture as an essential meeting place,” believes Jean Viard.

The importance of culture in summer, with festivals. Summer will be sporty with the Euro, the Tour de France, the Olympic and Paralympic Games. On France Info, daily meetings, “Summer Culture”, without forgetting the chronicles, songs, books, series, science, gastronomy…

A final episode of Social question before the holiday break. This weekend, there is the possibility of enjoying two major events: the start of the Avignon Festival and the return of the film festival. And why not both, by the way…

franceinfo: Culture is vast, should we not restrict ourselves to what we think is our own cultural space?

Jean Viard: Once again, we moved the dates because of the Olympic Games. Avignon opens a little earlier than usual. So Avignon, you know, is post-war. In 47, we opened festivals everywhere. Because basically, the resistance said: we must bring culture to the people, to the workers, and we are going to do it during paid holidays. So that was the big idea, there were plenty of small festivals that didn’t last long. This one was maintained, but it was really this idea that we had to take culture out of the theaters of Paris, to send it where there was a popular audience.

And what’s more, when you look at Avignon today, for example, there are still only 3% of workers, employees who go there, in fact, it has become the great theater place for theater lovers, mostly women at 65%, it’s a huge cultural success, it’s a magnificent adventure. The democratization aspect deserves debate, and we mustn’t hide it. And at the same time, we must tell ourselves that there are 7 million French people who attend a show during the summer, while they often don’t go during the year. So many music festivals, including small ones, pollute much less, because people come from the surrounding area, and travel much fewer kilometers.

So the proliferation of small festivals, when they are of good quality, is extremely positive in ecological terms. I am very sensitive to democratization and I think that summer is a time when the most popular world – those who go on vacation, there are still only 65% ​​- there are also those who do not go, of course, but it is already more popular than during the rest of the year. I think that it is still a great success of the summer vacation.

Are preconceived ideas about culture and different forms of culture dissipating little by little?

It’s not that they are dissipating, it’s that there was a movement of democratization after the war which today has stopped a little. We have a real problem at this level. So, we invented clever things like the Culture Pass; suddenly, young people entered bookstores, went to shows because they have a Pass for 200 or 300 euros, we have to invent ways. Young people, their culture is the one they have on their tablets, on their screens, etc. plus possibly rave parties, or music, and therefore to make them part of cultural practices, and not simply observation.

First, culture should be accessible on the Internet. I advocate that shows and subsidized theaters should be able to be followed on the Internet. Like we follow football matches. Of course, it’s not the same to go to the match or watch it on TV. Well, there are a lot more people who watch it on TV, because the stadium is not huge. We have the same problem as the theater, and we call it living theater. It’s surprising, does that mean that the others are dead theater? So it’s still complicated.

The expression live performance means that in fact it is not cinema, it is people on stage, all these questions are completely linked. And so I believe that there is a real debate on democratic access, particularly for young people. So, there are places, particularly outside Paris, because Paris is over-equipped in cultural matters, compared to the provinces, compared to the countryside, and for us to form a society together, it is perhaps necessary that we put culture back as an essential place of meeting.