This text is part of the special Feminine Leadership notebook
While the cinema sector was shaken by the #MeToo wave after the outbreak of the Weinstein affair, denunciations were quick to be heard in the visual arts sector. With his documentary MeToo in the art world: #notsurprisedFrench director Aurélia Rouvier takes stock of this phenomenon which has led to changes in the United States, in France and elsewhere.
“I found it interesting to focus on the field of visual arts because it is that of images. It is a sector which has often conveyed a representation of women as a muse more than as a subject, through the few examples of artists supported in the history of art,” explains M.me Bouvier.
The documentary follows the chronological framework of the events generated by the #MeToo movement, with the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the United States as a starting point. A few weeks later, it was the turn of the co-editor of the renowned magazine Artforum and icon of the New York contemporary art ecosystem, Knight Landesman, to announce his resignation in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment against him. “He was the first arts figure of this stature to fall. And that interested me all the more, because there was a very rapid reaction from the art world on a global scale,” underlines the director.
The same month, more than 7,000 people from the industry signed an open letter entitled Not surprised to denounce sexual harassment and the silence that dominates in galleries. “I find this letter incredibly powerful, extremely well written. She says everything in a few words,” adds Mme Rouvier.
The images give voice to different women and transport the viewer to New York, then to Zurich, in Switzerland, via Paris and Rouen. A way of showing the situation in its entirety, believes Mme Rouvier.
If #MeToo has led to the fall of several big names in the arts world in North America, it is not the same for France, the director nevertheless believes. “I have to say it’s not easy. For now, I’m not sure that the movement really took place in France, at least in the art world, although there were things,” she explains. She highlights the case of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where, after investigation, only one professor out of the six targeted by allegations left the organization. In 2022, however, the establishment appointed a woman as its head for the first time in its history.
The director does not know the exact causes why France is putting up a certain resistance that is more marked than in North America to the #MeToo movement, but nevertheless notes a change. “Indeed, things take longer to evolve. There is a sort of culture of silence which is stronger. I don’t really know how to analyze the underlying reasons behind all this, but it is undeniable that there is a gap compared to the United States,” she observes.
More women in art
In 2021, a survey published in the Journal of Cultural Economics also concluded that female artists represented only 3 to 5% of major collections in Europe and the United States. Two years earlier, a study by researchers from the University of Oxford and Erasmus University in Rotterdam estimated that works created by women sold for 42% less than those by men.
The documentary MeToo in the art world: #notsurprised highlights that the majority of establishments, galleries and art schools are still currently run by men. Would a greater number of women and people from cultural, sexual and gender minorities promote a better balance? On this subject, Mme Rouvier is categorical: “I am convinced of it. They must not replace men, but we must be able to have this confrontation of discourse,” she believes. The director also highlights the work of certain museums in the French city of Rouen which have adopted a charter for gender equality or which offer a contextualization of certain works by male artists representing women.
Continue the discussion
While #MeToo has allowed a certain freedom of speech and greater listening in the arts and elsewhere, what remains of the movement today? “I was surprised to hear from women that, ultimately, speaking was not easier five years later,” she laments.
She nevertheless observes an evolution in schools. “The students were made impressively aware of these issues. We see changes little by little, even in the programming of institutions, she notes. It may not be moving fast enough, but it’s moving. »
The director wants viewers to have a certain awareness while watching her documentary. “Women are not fewer or less talented. They just didn’t have the same conditions [pour s’épanouir dans leur travail]. And we have to know how to hear that because we must also be able to give women role models in society. »
The documentary will be broadcast on March 4 at 8 p.m. on Planète+.
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