STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
financial support on the basis of new measures and by encouraging local authority support.
Another aim of Temps des arts de la rue was to decompartmentalise the various artistic
disciplines by promoting links between live performance networks and by experimenting with
new relationships with the arts 179 . In more practical terms, the Ministry labelled dedicated sites
of street arts (which became street art creation centres) and significantly increased the
proportion of the national budget earmarked for the creation and production of street arts.
Street art companies can also turn to other mechanisms administered by the Ministry, although
these are not specifically dedicated to them. Some organisations allocate promotional aid, such
as the Office national de diffusion artistique (ONDA), which helps to promote performances,
and CulturesFrance (ex-AFAA), which may help companies to become more widely known
abroad by paying for their transport costs. Professional copyright agencies may also support
projects to create and disseminate works: ADAMI, SPEDIDAM, association Beaumarchais
(society of playwrights and composers – SACD) 180 .
Lastly, we should highlight the important role played by local authorities in this process of
legitimation. In fact, although the French State traditionally plays the central role in cultural
matters, which is reflected in large-scale intervention through the Ministry of Culture in
particular, local authorities remain the main source of funding of culture 181 . Either they include a
cultural section among the mechanisms under their responsibility (national contract, municipal
contract, State-Region Plan contract) or they set up support mechanisms for creation, production
and promotion and help with the running and equipment of festivals. The predominance of
festivals within the system for promoting street arts also means that the municipalities are ‘the
principal commissioners of street artists’ 182 .
It is also worth pointing out that the artistic approach of street arts, i.e. to project the
performance into the urban space within a specific spatial and social context, is intrinsically
linked to the town, seen as both a particular area and a population. For the town, street arts
therefore represent a ‘qualititative issue’ in regard to the way they understand and use the urban
space, a ‘local issue’ to the extent that they lead to a rediscovery of the local area, for example
through parades, ‘a federative issue’ in that street performances promote contacts and
partnerships, a ‘citizens’ issue’ in that they (re)establish the dialogue between inhabitants and
between inhabitants and their living environment 183 . The current mood of decentralisation tends
to reinforce that creative confrontation. We shall see that this remark is far from confined to the
French case.
3.1.2. Belgium
In Belgium the culture/state relationship is marked by the principle of subsidiarity: the state does
not intervene directly in cultural affairs. It does, however, act by general regulation and by
awarding grants. So the federal state has no cultural powers as such. The trend towards
federalism that began in the 1970s led to the birth of territorial entities, the regions (Flanders,
Wallonia, Brussels-Capital), and linguistic communities (French, Flemish, German-speaking).
179 See Le Temps des arts de la rue: bilan d’étape du programme 2005/2007, op. cit.
180 Le Goliath 2005/2006, op. cit.
181 See national statistical survey conducted in 2000-2002 by the Ministry of Culture and Communication /
Department of Studies, Prospects and Statistics (DEPS), Notes of the DEPS – No 21/July 2006 –
MCC/DDAI/DEPS – Public Statistics – www.culture.gouv.fr
182 Dapporto Elena, Sagot-Duvauroux Dominique, Les Arts de la Rue, Portrait économique d’un secteur en pleine
effervescence, op. cit. p. 25.
183 Ibid., pp. 321-325.
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PE 375.307