Manifesto of total risk (2): that the Minister of Culture urgently bring together the living arts.
Absolutely and intimately convinced that the artist’s body is his territory, that this territory carries our stories and our aspirations, that it is rich in possibilities and bears our culture, let us risk less concrete and more emotions.
Firmly and intimately convinced that our language embraces our land, that this French language, a colorful and generous legacy, four centuries old, is attached to the roots of our identity, that this language weeds with its evocative power our furrow for the future, let us risk less indifference and more independence.
Certainly and deeply convinced that we are facing a historic threat, that our very small French country is threatened with insignificance and engulfment, that we are the custodians of its cultural survival in this human biodiversity, let us risk less absence and more of presence.
Politically convinced that the artist must roll up his sleeves, that the artist must plunge his hands into the paste of being, that he must rediscover within himself the status of fully committed citizen artist, let us risk more audacity and less standing still. We know that we must go out to meet our fellow human beings again, that greater democratization of culture is possible, that with energetic measures it is possible to make it shine better and that, certainly, education is our great ally.
Since culture is a radical bridge between the essence of the world and its hope, since we, artisans of the living arts, are the spearhead of this consciousness, and since the tool of our creative freedom is our language , let us affirm our unfailing desire to perpetuate it here and now.
Like agriculture, which cannot be done without farmers, culture dies without artists of the living arts. Without agriculture and culture, there is no common story, only a territory without soul and a people starved of stomach and spirit. Let’s risk less talk and more plowing. Let us risk less of appearing and more of being. Let’s risk fewer silos and more culverts. Let us risk less artifice and more justice.
This is why we are asking the Ministry of Culture to organize as soon as possible a meeting of all the artisans of the living arts, in order to strengthen funding and better balance hierarchies, so that the most precarious among us are no longer left behind.
We demand fair representation during these exchanges, to ensure that the voices of the most vulnerable will be heard, listened to, respected and that together, we will find new avenues to ensure the survival of our culture.
Once for all.