When Omicron began to sweep over a bewildered world, the Quebec cultural community stoically agreed to seal off its performance halls and cinemas. A few protests flared up here and there, but the common front against the formidable viral adversary held firm. Then, when the pandemic seemed to run out of steam, its suddenly exasperated chorus launched the same cry: “We have applied control measures so far with great rigor, without contamination as a result. The public needs meaning and beauty. Let the bolts jump! »
Here is this past “omicronian” peak. Our captains have rounded the dangerous Cape Horn, the mist is dissipating somewhat, but be careful! On February 7, these rooms will reopen at half capacity (500 seats at most), as François Legault assured on Tuesday in a press briefing. Soon, we will be able to see a film, a play, a chamber music concert or the show that sings to us. Hallelujah!
The fact remains that the creative teams barely have time to adjust their flutes before the restart and that some directors of performance areas doubt that they can hold up with such a reduced gauge. Would they completely fill their halls, by the way? Slow will be the recovery, with a frightened population and a virus still running around without consulting either you or the neighbor.
Lanterns to see far away
Artists and guardians of their temples demanded from the Minister of Culture, Nathalie Roy, a long-term recovery plan and sat down to discuss it. Beyond the now official recovery dates, they need lanterns to see into the distance, better resist new shocks and develop plans B if necessary. Yet another variant is hatched so quickly. Everything remains to be done to mend their fragile fabric, which shows the rope under existential crisis as much as pandemic.
The artists are out of breath. Their institutions are tottering, the habits of the public are mutating like a virus stalking a raging web. Without a telescope, how can you see the famous light at the end of the tunnel? Would it be lit by a simple lighter, this flame?
The cultural community will have to learn to live with the pandemic. In this sign, it is necessary to save the decorations and the inspiration which is faltering. What to do tomorrow and the day after tomorrow to seduce the public and believe again in possible communions? Yesterday paved the way for him so badly…
Struggling for ages with a crisis of values that finds its apogee in our times of withdrawal, culture is feeling vague on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Outside the field of comedians, pop concerts and a few popular disciplines, interest in the arts is relentlessly withering. The promises of a better world fly over their counters, except in the entertainment department.
Culture is not a social value. Excessive consumption, yes, even as environmental abuses call for a reduction in our lifestyles. Sport is also popular, and everyone talks about it with bows in their voices.
François Legault likes to talk about how physical exercise was a pillar of his life. We applaud this, without forgetting that the mind has needs as glaring as the body. Everyone rightly admires the high-level athletes flown to the Beijing Olympics. For their part, the artists are often treated in a haughty manner, like puppets in lantern hats, less essential than medals and lawn mowers. An imbalance that eats away at our collective roots. We should review our priorities. Everyone shouts it!
Because it was forged over time, this crisis of values there. After eight decades of compulsory schooling in Quebec, the poor state of the common language and the level of general culture at the level of the daisies raise the red alert. For lack of linguistic and artistic references, go and enjoy a good book, grasp the influences of a painting or music and applaud Molière’s pieces without escaping one out of two lines.
Apart from cultural institutions that are quick to organize youth mornings in the heart of their cenacles, who offers children a little of this enlightenment? We sow ignorance in all the winds. The shortcomings of the school environment reflect on the whole social body by turning off the radars of the rising generations and confusing their screens. If society was on the wrong track…
The less artistic nourishment is offered to young people, the more they will feel helpless in the face of the future. Tomorrow, we will have to survive under worse climatic and sanitary conditions than today. Then, the owners of big polluting cars will no longer be the kings of the world. But enchanters and storytellers capable of seeding creative minds, maybe so.