Emmanuel Macron has chosen: it is Paris which will host the future “European or international house of press cartoons”. This new place should open its doors in the 6th arrondissement. However, the project currently appears to be at a standstill.
Announced in 2020 during the president’s wishes to the press, the project to create a house of press cartoons seems to be at a standstill. The government had announced that it wanted to found a unique place around the caricature and press cartoons, linked to press freedom. “ It will be a house, not a museum. The objective is to make it a living place, of pedagogy, of education in media and caricature, of refuge for cartoonists threatened in their country too. », specified theElysium.
On January 11, 2021, Emmanuel Macron declared that this house would be established in Paris, in an old school, rue du Pont-de-Lodiin the 6th arrondissement of Paris, not far from Notre-Dame de Paris.
This project saw the light of day after the attacks of January 2015 in Charlie Hebdo : the satirical newspaper was targeted by terrorists, after the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. A few months after the announcement of this project, Samuel Paty was murdered. This press cartoon house is therefore a tribute to the victims, but also to the journalists and cartoonists who continue to demand their freedom to express themselves.
The ” European or international press cartoon house » (the final name has not yet been established), should accommodate expositions, animationsmedia education. It will also be a place of refuge for foreign designers, we learn in West France.
Paris City Hall has agreed to sell this school free of charge. The work and developments to transform the building should amount to eight million euros. A sum much lower than the other projects in the running. The government also wants to provide a budget for the security of the building. “ It is possible that this location is considered a target », Warned the executive.
Originally, Emmanuel Macron announced an opening around 2022 or 2023. official government website assures that the house will finally be open to the public in 2026. Will the government meet this date? According to our colleagues from the newspaper The Worldthe project would be off since January 2024, with no resumption date in sight.
Is the house abandoned?
According to daily information, the project for this house was abruptly stopped with the arrival of Rachida Data at the Ministry of Culture last January. A meeting scheduled for the end of January 2024 on this issue was canceled and never rescheduled. Associations promoting press drawings reportedly contacted the minister at the beginning of the summer to find out the progress of the project, without receiving a response to date.
Change of priorities in government, risk for security artists and employees of the house: a few reasons can be given to justify this abandonment, without any of them having been confirmed. Still according to Le Monde, the Ministry of Culture promises that the House of Press Cartoons will see the light of day. “ I do not see the president abandoning this project, on which he personally came forward, moreover three months before the ten-year anniversary of the Charlie attacks », Says someone close to Emmanuel Macron.
The stakeholders concerned hope to soon receive encouraging news on the progress of this project.
