False suspense? Certainly. Tonight, in the main courtyard of the Palais des Papes, at the premiere of “DÄMON,” Angelica Liddell’s new creation, the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati will be nowhere to be seen. Could it have been otherwise?
In a ritual manner, every summer, for the first performance of the show which opens the courtyard, the minister is there, seated in the first rows, alongside the mayor Cécile Helle and the director of the Festival (since the last year, Tiago Rodrigues). This year, Rachida Dati has a slightly valid word of apology: in fact, coming to the electoral furnace of Avignon, the day before the first round of the legislative elections, while the cultural world, vigilant and worried, is mobilizing against the RN , today, in the city of the popes, would have been audacious to say the least. The artists and technicians who take to the streets this Saturday, June 29, do not necessarily have flowers (other than spicy ones) to offer to the ministers of “Macronie” in office (and in office for a few more days). The teleportation of the former Keeper of the Seals, from the 7th arrondissement of Paris to the Place du Palais, was in fact far too risky in terms of security. Added, what is more, to the famous duty of reserve during this electoral period. Very practical nonetheless.
There was also talk of Ms. Dati coming to Avignon-sur-scène on July 4. That is, between the two rounds of the legislative elections, another sequence that seems highly inflammatory at the moment “T”. Here too, it is hard to imagine the tenant of the rue de Valois arriving in the middle of the festival when it will be time, possibly, to prepare her suitcases. On arrival, this 78th Avignon Festival could therefore go ahead without the presence of the Minister of Culture. A rarity. The prize for presence, in no way staged, but, truly in the idea of meetings with the artists of the In and the Off, goes, by far, to the former minister Rima Abdul Malak. A true specialist in the sector, who knew her files like the back of her hand, and who had stayed on site for several days to survey the Festival. And not only in the context of calibrated media moments, as Ministers of Culture (or even François Hollande when he was President of the Republic) too often do when travelling to the capital of theatre.
Regarding Rachida Dati, who loves challenges, but who also knows how much she does not quite embody the consensus in the cultural world since her nomination last January, she must have suspected that some artists were preparing her arrival in Vaucluse with a very personalized welcoming committee. On the side of AF&C, the association that oversees the Off Festival (1666 shows this year), once the inherent disbelief at the nomination had passed, there was in any case a reaction last winter: “AF&C hopes that Madam Minister will be able to overcome the private/public divides and overthrow the agreed barriers to bring together the issues of independent entertainment with those of so-called “public” entertainment in order to defend popular culture and the French cultural exception within the framework of a coherent and equitable cultural policy”, declared Harold David and Laurent Domingos, the two co-presidents of AF&C.
If Rachida Dati finally came to Avignon-sur-scène at the beginning of July, it would be a huge surprise.
