Petit Bulletin LYON - Lyon Info: Patrice Béghain, Georges Képénékian and Loïc Graber - Lyon: three former Culture Assistants react to the drop in the Opera subsidy - article published by Vincent Raymond<

Patrice Béghain, Culture Assistant (2001-2008) to Gérard Collomb: I have never had the habit of publicly judging the decisions of my predecessors or my successors, whether it was when I was DRAC or deputy.

Georges Képénékian, Deputy for Culture (2008-2017) of Gérard Collomb: Nathalie Perrin-Gilbert says that it is not a punishment. But it's still a punishment for her: she was so angry all these years about the report that we had made on the expenses of Serge Dorny, despite the clarification that I had tried to manage recognizing that there had indeed been anomalies, I worked with Serge Dorny. But there is something vengeful about her.

Loïc Graber, Cultural Assistant to Georges Képénékian (2017-2018) and Gérard Collomb (2018-2020): There are problems of form and substance in this announcement. The first problem, of form, is haste: the City, an ex-officio member of the Opera, says nothing in December when the budget is voted; and a few days before the municipal council, takes the floor without the slightest consultation with the actors concerned, without the slightest dialogue with the elected officials we still have a culture committee which meets before the municipal councils and announces this decision in an authoritarian way . Which is quite problematic, for the democratic respect of the opposition, but also for the respect of the actors of the Opera the Board of the Opera does not only include elected officials, but also qualified personalities, members of the staff Everyone learns of this decision through the press. In terms of method, that poses a first problem for me.

"Shocked by the brutality"

Patrice Béghain: The only thing I can say is that my concern when I was a deputy was twofold... Supporting the major broadcasting institutions and of creation of the City in their missions, and include them in a dynamic of cultural action by proactively seeking out people who, for a host of reasons, do not frequent these cultural institutions. This was the meaning of an initiative that I took one of the things I am most satisfied with during my seven years in office: the Charter for Cultural Cooperation. Unfortunately, the memory of the initiatives is lost (laughs). This is a device that we had imagined with my colleague Louis Lévêque in city policy, supported by the State and the Region, and which encouraged the Opera, the Théâtre des Célestins, the Auditorium and museums to carry out this very active and dynamic policy in the city.

Georges Képénékian: We're knocking down the Maison de la Danse for its ambition, we're going to tackle the Opera she hasn't tackled the Salle Rameau yet, but at the first opportunity she will I'm deeply shocked by the brutality , the suddenness and by this vision which concerns the doctrine. A few years ago, I said that if we removed opera from the cultural ecosystem, the money we give it wouldn't go where we think, I could take it word for word. Because that's what will happen. For ten years, I heard that the Opera had to be transformed by transferring the equipment to the Metropolis, because it is not just for the people of Lyon. But it's not easy! We would have to reinvent something, we would do it differently and that goes for the Célestins too. Today, it would be an additional cost to change the status of this thing: you would first have to take over all the staff.

Patrice Béghain: For my part, I have never opposed support for institutions of creation and dissemination with the mission of expanding audiences, winning over and spreading influence not internationally, but locally. I think that's the basis, in a city like Lyon, of a cultural policy. Institutions like the Opera, which has existed for decades, even centuries, are the backbone of this policy, but they cannot content themselves with playing in between themselves and that is the difficulty. I must admit that the people who were in charge at the time sometimes the same as today fully played the game. We must not oppose these places of permanence which have visibility in front of them with the rest of cultural life.

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Loïc Graber: The second problem is the domino effect: today the City of Lyon is withdrawing €500,000, we know because it has already happened that the other financial authorities are just waiting that to remove marbles, in particular the State, which is looking for ways to save money. So, we can very well imagine that the State withdraws €500,000 as well. I don't know what the Region will do, because we are currently in a political game. Other communities can do the same. In the end, it is not €500,000 that the Opera risks losing, but several million euros out of a budget that is certainly large, but which remains fragile in relation to the objectives given to it. This domino effect is quite catastrophic for me.

Georges Képénékian: And when we defend all of culture, we send a message. Where will the adjustment variable be? Because the Opera won't stop creating, or else it will become that of Montpellier, even of Saint-Étienne, of Nantes We were one of the international places of creation spotted. And we did it with infinitely less resources I'm not even talking about the Bastille compared to Barcelona or La Scala. It was just a heroic trick from Dorny, so it's violent for him what's happening. Schumpeter is often quoted at the moment, “creative destruction”, but at times, when it destroys too much, we don't recreate. And in the culture, where people are on their knees, frankly… It's weird that she herself talked about punishment; we end up thinking that this is indeed what she does.

"In terms of timing, something difficult to understand"

Loïc Graber: The third problem is the question of temporality: we are in the midst of an economic crisis for cultural players, whether they are big or small. This is not at all the time to announce a drop in resources for an actor. Especially since behind it is not just the Opera or the CA, but 430 employees! This is not nothing: it is the largest cultural employer in the City of Lyon today and several dozen regional structures depend on the creations of the Opera. It's an entire ecosystem that will find itself permanently impacted especially if other subsidies are also reduced by this domino effect. It happens that at the same time, we have a private group, LDLC, which announces aid of €200,000 to cultural actors and the City which reduces its aid to cultural actors by €500,000 In terms of timing, there is something difficult to understand.

Patrice Béghain: These major cultural institutions provide stable jobs. The Opera is made up of several hundred artists, technicians who have know-how, a skill, who are not in precarious conditions and it is the same for the Célestins and the other theaters of the City . It is very important to think, when we consider the major cultural institutions, that they are places of stable and important employment. You have to be careful with this data.

"Not just costs, for God's sake! »

Georges Képénékian: How many people live in the Opera? It's not just costs, for God's sake! The whole culture is costs. It is the smallest budget of European operas: with two Awards for the level of creation of the Opera! It's a small feat. Serge initiated the presence in Vénissieux, where we wanted to make this factory. It is the opposite of the Opera locked in on itself: if it was at the beginning, it very quickly understood that there were other issues. He fed all this territory. Saying it's a cost Of course not many people go to the Opera. But we just have to shave Fourvière, too: after all, it's a cost, so we're sure that the two million tourists won't come to Lyon either.

Loïc Graber: What worries me the most is that we learn in your article that this is only the beginning: the Cultural Assistant is trying to recover around 3M€. We start with the Opera, but tomorrow, which structures, which actors, will be affected? We know that others will be and it is quite problematic. Behind this, what cultural policy is today carried by the City of Lyon? Behind the admittedly large envelope in terms of subsidies given to the Opera, there is a set of actions, of objectives to which it must respond but we could take a certain number of institutions, any other large cultural equipment. I am thinking of all the work done with amateurs which is a request from the community through the Maîtrise ; that done with other artists, in particular through the Studio system, with current music with the Péristyle and the Opéra Underground, in collaboration with the other venues the Marché Gare in particular. All the interventions of artists in schools which are carried by the Opera in the districts in policy of the City, all the educational actions In short, there is a set of actions which meet the objectives that the City sets for its institutions cultural, for which it provides the means. However, by eliminating these means, does this mean that we are eliminating these actions? I find this completely absurd when we are in a logic of an inclusive culture, towards all audiences, especially the youngest, those furthest from culture. If we eliminate or if we reduce the share of subsidies precisely targeted towards these actions, that means that we no longer want to do them. Today is for the Opera. Tomorrow, if the same choice is made for the Célestins, for the Auditorium, for the theaters in delegation which also lead a policy of access to culture, it will really become catastrophic in terms of public policy.

Georges Képénékian: I am thinking of the entire ecosystem that lives from the Opera. It's the creation that suffers first, because you can't close the structures or fire everyone. There are 1,500 City officials working in cultural institutions. To say that we are going to help the companies, I agree! We must strengthen the share for each other. But it is not only because we are going to give money to a company that it will change gear. Not all avenues of research produce vaccines. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, but you have to stop believing that by knocking out the big ones we're going to encourage the emergence of the little ones. It's not just a question of money.

“What is the cultural policy of the City of Lyon? »

Loïc Graber: The Opera case is symbolic of a signal sent. I am very worried about the consequences of this signal for the Opera, of course, but above all for all the other cultural actors who see suddenly their operating model and their objectives called into question. I expect extremely clear and firm explanations from the executive. What is the cultural policy implemented by the City of Lyon? No longer highlighting cultural institutions, no longer giving them the means to act as close as possible to territories, audiences and especially those who are furthest away. If it is only to host, to broadcast concerts and shows, we also lose the quality of attractiveness, influence and creation of the City.

Georges Képénékian: We can lower all ambitions, but Lyon has no vocation to live only curled up. It is because we decide to regenerate that it regenerates. But I am not opposed to rethinking the principles.

Patrice Béghain: Things may be different in a city other than Lyon, which does not have this powerful and historic network. It seems fundamental to me to bear this in mind in a big city like Lyon, which, it seems to me, has not had the majority which has administered the city of Grenoble since 2014 which, on the contrary, is left to what I consider to be a veritable rampage of cultural policy. I hope we won't take that route in Lyon, and I don't think so.