Declaration of cultural rights

Assembled at the General Meeting of Culture in Paris on June 17th 1987, we, artists and creators from all fields, pledge our unshakeable attachment to our art and to the culture of our country, appeal to our people and to the people, artists and creators of the whole world. A people who lets the business world dominate its imaginative cultural life condemns itself to precarious liberties.

For years France has been engaged in such a process going from strength to strength which makes us fear the worst

The encouragement necessary for contemporary creation, both the outward and inward sign of a nation’s wealth, all too often plays second fiddle to the demand for profitability, which both public and private cultural industries seek through the never-ending merchandizing of culture. At the same time, the effort made by the State to reserve and develop original culture is weakening and following the same pathway. The waste of talent and ideas, and the consequent devaluation of the status of the artist and interpreter add each year to the rate of unemployment affecting, as is the case with many others, the artistic professions.

What is currently produced in the cinema and the theatre, on the television and the radio, in the fields of dance, music, songs and the circus, as regards plastic arts, graphics, architecture, photography, literature or poetry proves that it is not a question of talent – it is alive and well- but more a desire obstinately adhered to: to separate human beings into two unequal groups: on the one hand a small number whose control over property and power would endow it with artistic authority and on the other hand an immense multitude of consumers doomed to accepting standardized products which for the most part have come from abroad and are faceless and soulless. Such people would be the cultural hostages of surveys and audience numbers beyond which nothing would be considered. In such a world, artists would merely be hangers-on.

Against this frightening inversion of values between money and culture, against the cynicism of the decision-makers, whoever they may be, we call for a worldwide ethical awakening of the arts.

We claim that no nation attached to its cultural values can revive its past or shape its future without the constant discoveries of artistic creation, without liberty of confrontation, without willingness to make of them the common good of the artists and their people.

To the grey uniformity of commercial ambitions, we oppose a rainbow of sensitivity and intelligence, a multi-faceted opening of the culture the people of the whole world.

For months now, we have been exchanging our fears, indignation, hopes and convictions in the largest meeting of artists that France has seen for decades, which in itself, constitutes a not inconsiderable event.

Today, knowing that nothing is ineluctable, we feel the time has come to voice loudly and clearly the most indefeasible demands of the artistic world.

These demands are called, the boldness of creation, the obligation for production, burst of pluralism, the willingness for national mastery, asset of a widespread public, need for international cooperation.

The Boldness of Creation
Firstly, because in the beginning is the creator. Te dealers come second – if they come. To reduce a work of art to the level of a product is to destroy. Thus, for both the artist and the public, works of art must take precedence over money in order to free the imagination from financial considerations.

The Obligation for production
Secondly, because obligation is a release from a free market which is too often oppressive. A national obligation for production in both public and private radio and television broadcasting companies to give part of their resources to new works of art. The obligation for record companies and publishers to commission and produce contemporary creation for subsidized firms.

The Burst of Pluralism
At the same time because nothing exists which is not pluralist. Pluralism of culture in the space and time of a nation, pluralism of the arts should all be of equal standing, pluralism of aesthetics and techniques, of tastes and colours. Pluralism which does not aim to dismember but rather to decompartmentalize so that each can be himself whilst learning about others.

The Willingness for National Mastery
Equally and particularly broadcasting and distribution; for what would pluralism of creation be worth if there was a monopoly of distribution? To encourage distribution, independent from the multinationals and the State is independent is a condition of equal opportunities in order for works of art to reach their public.

Asset of a widespread public
As well as to communicate with and to encourage the public. Decentralisation has expressed for a long time in this French artistic tradition of the constitution of a wide circle of ‘connaisseurs’. This real dimension of artistic freedom must now, more than ever, be conquered.

The Need for International Cooperation
Finally and notably European, since the cultural identity of France which is of the utmost importance to us, is, like any other identity, all the richer because it mingles with the most diverse heritages. But in order to mix, it must first exist and it is this right to life of our cultural personality that would be threatened in a European cultural space where financial participation had the upper hand.

All this can and must arouse a public and national sense of responsability towards culture, a new concept in Europe. A public and national sense of responsibility which would enable culture to be taken out of the hands of the business world, to respond to the new challenge of unacceptable segregation, to transcend desire and pleasure, knowledge and goodwill in a decreasingly anonymous society. A public and national sense of responsibility requires funding and consequently demands the financial support of the State as well as contributions from cultural industries. We suggest the generalisation of support funds from public credit and private profit with priority given to contemporary creation. These are, for us, the fervent demands of culture, in accordance with the aspiration of our people and of people the world over.