STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
policies in a new context, they allow us to take stock and suggest that in no case is it a question
of trying to impose one model (whether French, Spanish, Anglo-Saxon or whatever) over
another. But over and above those differences, the European countries’ cultural policies are
based on a common approach, ‘linked to the development of the cultural sphere itself and of its
economic and social role’ 148 .
1.3. Common denominators
Certain fundamental principles do in fact underlie the common approach that marks western
European cultural policies. Anne-Marie Autissier identifies them in her article entitled
‘Politiques culturelles des États européens: pour une nécessaire refondation’ 149 . Those common
denominators are as follows:
• the necessary artistic freedom;
• culture, as an object of public policy;
• the need to preserve and restore the established heritage and the national repertoire of
artistic works (principles regarded as ‘guarantees of the exercise of democracy’ 150 );
• institutionalisation of cultural authorities;
• support, however unequal, for contemporary creations;
• recognition of regional cultures and languages;
• predominance of local authorities as the main source of funding for cultural
activities.
The common cultural priorities of those policies lie in:
• ‘the primacy given to heritage as the foundation of national identity’ until the late
1970s (e.g. Italy);
• cultural democratisation, which leads to ‘access for all to culture and gradual
opening up to contemporary art forms, in particular live performance, […]’ (inspired
by the Swedish social democratic model);
• encouraging ‘all forms of artistic expression, whatever their origin, provided they
enrich the national public space’ (Belgium and the Netherlands) 151 .
Finally the author makes it clear that these common approaches have had a strong influence on
the ex-Communist countries of eastern Europe that are now EU Member States or new
neighbours. It should be pointed out that art and culture played a major role in the propaganda of
the Communist regimes, which led those countries to acquire cultural facilities they cannot now
abandon. That approach also explains their current cultural landscape, in which the visual arts
and theatre are generally poorly supported, if not neglected, whilst the independent (nongovernmental)
sector has been kept alive thanks to outside support 152 .
148 Autissier, Anne-Marie, ‘Politiques culturelles des États européens: pour une nécessaire refondation’, in
EspacesTemps.net, Textuel, 29.03.2006, http://espacestemps.net/document1917.html p. 3.
149 Ibid., p. 1.
150 Ibid., p. 1.
151 Ibid., p. 5-6.
152 Ibid., p. 15-16.
117
PE 375.307