STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

5.4. Tools
40
Street Artists in Europe
The analysis of the questionnaires showed us that no programmer had personally turned his
attention to the study of his festival’s audience. The sociological evaluation, the qualitative
approach to publics and their personal motivations remains a very rare practice. As of this date,
there is no large-scale study that makes it possible to respond to the question of publics on a
European scale.
The studies available are above all local 72 . They were carried out in different European
countries, demonstrating the concern of the actors in the field to acquire knowledge to
complement their own intuitive and pragmatic knowledge. Street arts festivals have no shortage
of publics. The crowd is present, in Brighton (England), Aurillac (France), Sibiu (Romania),
Malta (Poland) and Bologna (Italy). These thousands of people who crowd the streets elude
more precise knowledge. Who are they? Are they spectators? Bystanders? The surveys adopt
very diverse approaches depending on their country of implementation. Pierre Bourguignon,
mayor of Sotteville-lès-Rouen (France), who had a study 73 done in 1998 on the publics of the
Viva Cité festival, refrained from taking a ‘marketing analysis’ approach. In his opinion, such
studies should be used to envisage “how our cultural practice, our cultural action can be more
focused vis-à-vis the only challenge that is worthwhile for us, that is, being constantly involved,
with our fellow citizens, in the construction of the living space” 74 . In England, research is
focused more on the public’s satisfaction and, especially, on the economic and social feedback,
on the event at the heart of the city. Despite such divergences in viewpoints, the figures and
results produced supply solid expertise at the service of project sponsors. Knowledge of street
arts publics also constitutes a critical tool for the recognition and the legitimisation of the sector
that has made the relationship with the public a major aesthetic challenge. Yves Deschamps, a
historic actor in the street arts sector in France, stresses it with pragmatism: “All forms of
studies, whether they are quantitative or qualitative, are justifications for going out to conquer
(…) the means to make available to artists so that they can meet the public that is not talked
about, the one that is not quantified, namely, about 80% of the population!” 75
5.5. Specific Actions
Festivals, were, in the 1990s, the focus of criticism. Certain major festivals like Aurillac
multiply the show offering at the same time in the city, but do not necessarily target
“readability” for the spectators, especially as concerns the shows in the ‘off’ programme.
Consequently, it must be mentioned that festivals today have a difficult time fulfilling their
cultural democratisation mission. In France and Belgium, many actors in the field have turned
their attention to this problem. Associating it with the aptitude of street artists to invest the
public space and, more globally, a given territory, they have envisaged new forms of encounters
between street artists and their potential publics.
In order to reach other publics, the actors in the field are attempting to go beyond two types of
logic: the unity of siting (a single city) and the unity of time (a very short period, usually during
the summer). With this dynamic, the question of the public is taken up to a greater extent from
72
See bibliography.
73
SCP Communication, Viva Cité, 1998. Synthesis of the study available from Atelier 231, Centre national des
arts de la rue, France.
74
Bourguignon, P., cited in Gonon, A., “De la connaissance à la reconnaissance”, in La relation au public dans les
arts de la rue, L’Entretemps, col. Carnets de rue, Paris, 2006, pp. 111-112.
75
Ibid., p. 112.
PE 375.307