False suspense? Certainly. This evening, in the main courtyard of the Papal Palace, at the premiere of “DÄMON”, the new creation by Angelica Liddell, the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati will be absent. Could it be otherwise?
Ritualistically, every summer, for the first performance of the show that opens the court, the minister is there, sitting in the front rows, alongside the mayor Cécile Helle and the director of the Festival (since last year, Tiago Rodrigues). This year, Rachida Dati has a somewhat valid excuse: indeed, 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, from today, in the city of the popes, would have been audacious to say the least. The artists and technicians who are taking to the streets this Saturday, June 29, do not necessarily have flowers (except prickly ones) to offer to the ministers of the “Macronie” in office (and in office for a few more days). The teleportation of the former Minister of Justice from the 7th arrondissement of Paris to the Place du Palais was, in fact, far too risky in terms of security. Added, what’s more, to the famous duty of reserve during this election period. Very practical, moreover.
There was also talk of Ms. Dati coming on July 4 to Avignon-sur-scène. Or between the two rounds of the legislative elections, another sequence which seems highly flammable at the “T” moment. Here too, it’s hard to imagine the tenant of rue de Valois arriving in the middle of the festival when the time will probably be to prepare her suitcases. Upon arrival, this 78th Avignon Festival could therefore move forward without the presence of the Minister of Culture. A rarity. The prize of presence, in no way staged, but truly in the idea of meetings with the artists of In and Off, returning, from a long way, 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 stayed on site for several days exploring the Festival. And not only in the context of calibrated media moments, as the Ministers of Culture (or even François Hollande when he was President of the Republic) too often do, traveling to the theater capital.
Concerning Rachida Dati, who likes challenges, but who also knows how much she does not quite embody the consensus in the cultural world since her appointment last January, she must have suspected that certain artists were preparing her arrival in Vaucluse with a committee very personalized welcome. On the side of AF&C, the association which oversees the Off Festival (1666 shows this year), once the disbelief inherent in the nomination had passed, we in any case reacted last winter: “AF&C hopes that Madame minister will be able to overcome private/public divisions and overturn the agreed barriers to bring together the issues of independent spectacle with those of so-called “public” spectacle in order to defend popular culture and the French cultural exception within the framework of a coherent and cultural policy. fair”, 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.
