France: the cultural sector in disarray

Text by: Isabelle Chenu Follow

In France, the Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to all the festivals, all the concerts that were to punctuate the summer. Cinemas, theaters, and more generally the whole performing arts sector are preparing to live long months without work. The measures to be announced on Wednesday May 6 by President Macron are therefore particularly awaited.

Publicity

In France, culture represents 1.3 million people and 2.3% of gross domestic product. A sector at a standstill and which will be for many more months. If the bookstores prepare to reopen next week with a lot of health precautions, two months of closure risk causing many bankruptcies.

The impossible

The whole chain of the book is seized, the outings are postponed, the copyrights with, the book fairs canceled. The concert halls have no illusions, they will be the last to reopen. A crowded crowd, standing and singing, is not for tomorrow. Theaters, operas, are silenced. A report by Professor François Bricaire, transmitted to the authorities, recommends the distance between spectators, the wearing of masks, the elimination of intermissions, the systematic cleaning of musical instruments, a distancing of the actors and adapted staging. Suffice to say the impossible.

Artistic creation broken down

The live performance is hit hard, spring and summer are traditionally festival seasons across the country and work hundreds of thousands of intermittent show performers. Still filming, impossible repetitions, artistic creation is also broken down.

The sector needs a major plan to project itself and is waiting for measures to rise to the crisis.

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