Even Macron no longer believes in the illusion of the “next world” – The HuffPost

Yves Herman via Reuters

COVID-19 – Four months after his last speech, the President is preparing to speak again this Tuesday, November 9 at 8 p.m. “Take stock of the health situation” with the slogan “vigilance”. The day before the tone was lighter for Emmanuel Macron who, during a reception with artists at the Élysée, joked about “the world after which looks furiously like the world before ”, alluding to one of his expressions from 2020.

Emmanuel Macron received Monday, November 8 the 264 winners of the public order of 30 million euros called “New Worlds”. During this reception, the Head of State paid tribute to these artists for having “pushed the boundaries” between disciplines and created “new worlds”.

“During the start of the epidemic, we talked a lot about the next world,” he continued. “We may be in the world after, but it looks like the world before, with additional constraints and the same things that we didn’t really want to see the world from before, but who are still there, stubborn, ”he smiled.

“The dream of an ancient world”

“I don’t know if a new world is possible”, he added, “but what makes the present world unbearable is to think that the desirable is the old world, or a fantasy idea of ​​the old world. or rather the dream of an old world which has never been, but which appears more reassuring than the world in which we live ”.

This State order, decided after the confinement of 2020, is based on a “call for creation” to offer artists, in all fields (design, writing, live performance, music, visual arts, etc.) to support them in their creation, in connection with heritage sites under the guidance of a committee chaired by Bernard Blistène, former director of the Center Pompidou, and in partnership with the Conservatoire du Littoral and the National Monuments.

264 projects were selected out of 3,200, often carried by collectives (85 in all, ie 430 artists). 60% of the artists selected are under 40 years old.

“What dictated our choice is a balance between the disciplines, the scope of the projects and the expression of the conscience of the world in which they live”, explained Mr. Blistène to the press.

Among them, a sound recording in prehistoric caves restored in the form of an opera; a large protean canvas making speak the founding texts on the separation of Church and State; a “work-ship” from an assembly of old sails hosting cultural events on ecology; a radio fiction based on the arrival at the beginning of the 16th century of a Rhinoceros in Marseille; a project from Reunion Island to “record the sounds of the earth” or a piano concert related to the Apocalypse tapestry in Angers.

The visual arts are represented at around 29% while 26% of the projects are at the crossroads of several disciplines. Performing arts and music are represented at 22%, design and applied arts at 14% and writing at 9%, according to the Élysée.

See also on The HuffPost: Macron’s “plan for culture” relies heavily on artists