Palais de Tokyo's Growing Pains; Antipub in Court; More
GROWING PAINS AT THE PALAIS DE TOKYO
The Palais de Tokyo is "in danger of growing"—or at least that's how Le Monde's Geneviève Breerette puts it. France's cultural minister, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, has asked Bernard Blistène to complete a study on the Palais, and Breerette speculates that Blistène's report—due this week—is likely to recommend that the venue become a full-fledged public museum. No news on the fate of founding directors Nicolas Bourriaud and Jérôme Sans, but Blistène is expected to make suggestions about the use of space in the building and about programming and education at the Palais.
While Aillagon confirmed the Palais's role as a contemporary-art institute, Blistène seems bent on expanding its purview to include "not just emerging artists" but "all artists working today"—a clause that will allow the Palais to turn its attention to the older generation of artists who were to be exhibited at the Jeu de Paume, which is now dedicated to photography, video, and multimedia. "Without saying it explicitly," writes Breerette, "some are worried that the Palais de Tokyo will become a classic institution—a large art center run by bureaucrats."
While it's not clear who will be running the Palais in 2005 when Bourriaud and Sans's contracts end, Maurice Lévy, who heads the Palais de Tokyo's board, has only good words for the founding directors. "Their artistic direction is appreciated because it mixes genres, is open, and attempts to turn things over and reveal," Lévy told Le Monde. "It can function without heavy administration. Decisions can be made quickly, a project can be decided in ten minutes. That's all very positive." Jérôme Sans agrees: "One must maintain this flexibility, which has been missing for decades, if one is to keep the idea of a place for emerging creativity."
The Palais de Tokyo's planned expansion must be financed with partners other than the state. Currently, Marin Karmitz is looking at renting out one of the empty screening rooms in the building for his movie chain MK2, while Pierre Bergé, a former head of Yves Saint Laurent, is interested in renting space for a fashion project. But in a separate interview, government official Martin Bethenod insists that the culture ministry must be prudent about such private-public alliances. "The idea is to occupy the entire building," Bethenod told Le Monde. "We're not going to designate just anyone as a tenant, but organize a competition for the use of the spaces."
Breerette seems to believe that the fate of the Palais de Tokyo could make or break Paris's commitment to contemporary art. "Institutions with the mission of promoting and letting people know about contemporary art are not legion," writes Breerette. "If one of them disappear or fails, the lack becomes evident."
ANTIPUB IN COURT
Maurice Lévy—who heads not only the board of the Palais de Tokyo but also France's advertising conglomerate Publicis—must have had a busy week. As Le Monde also reports, Publicis's affiliate Métrobus and the Paris public-transport company RATP took sixty-two individuals to court for vandalizing advertisements in the Paris subway. The defendants are allegedly part of the Antipublicitaire, or Antipub, movement, which protests corporate advertising systems and the commercialization of public space. Only four of the accused fessed up to the crimes—for which Métrobus and RATP are demanding €922,000 ($1.12 million) in damages—although the lawyer for Métrobus and RATP found it difficult to believe that four individuals could manage to deface 2,440 ads in December 2003 alone.
Despite the focus on vandalism, the Antipub movement managed to turn the trial into a debate on the role of advertising in contemporary society. As Il Manifesto reports, the Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani (best known for his Benetton campaigns) went to Paris to testify on behalf of the group, although he did not get a chance to speak in court. Nevertheless, Toscani voiced his support in the corridor after the trial. "It's better to deface the ads than to pollute the spirit," the photographer told the paper.
As Le Monde reports, Métrobus and RATP seem to have anticipated public support for the defendants. Two days before the trial opened, RATP held a press conference—at the Métro station Liberté, no less—to announce that forty-seven advertising panels in twenty-four Métro stations throughout Paris would be open to the public for "free expression" over a period of ten days. One of the "liberated" panels, at the Métro station Quatre-Septembre, featured the comment "Forty-seven panels out of thirty thousand, for ten days. Give us some room!" The trial resumes on April 28.
RICHARD RORTY ON THE "WAR ON TERROR"
Last week, the Einstein Forum in Potsdam held a timely conference on "Terrorism, International Law, and Democracy." The Tageszeitung's Jan-Hendrik Wulf was on hand to hear how international intellectuals are responding to the current wave of terrorism. As Wulf reports, the American philosopher Richard Rorty views President Bush's "war on terror" in terms of losses, rather than victories, for democracy. "The widely held belief that the war on terrorism is potentially more dangerous than terrorism itself appears to be fully justified," said Rorty, who went on to compare the current American government to the Third Reich. "As I heard about the attacks on September 11, my first thought was: The Bush administration is going to use this exactly in the way that the Nazis used the burning of the Reichstag." In the latter instance, a permanent state of war was declared, and democracy crumbled under the premise of being saved.
SLAVOJ ZIZEK ON THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
What does Slavoj Zizek have to say this week? Die Zeit publishes the prolific philosopher's views on religion and his critique of religious tolerance. Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ offers an appropriate point of departure. "Many say: Even if the Bible says that Jewish crowds demanded Christ's death, one should not show these scenes," writes Zizek. "Yet this only suppresses aggressive religious passion, which swells and grows stronger." Zizek claims that the repression of strong religious manifestations has given culture, rather than religion, a central role in society and has transformed religion into a secular lifestyle. "Maybe 'culture' is the name for all the things that we practice without really believing in them, without 'taking them seriously,'" writes Zizek. "Isn't that also the reason why we look down at fundamentalist believers as culturally hostile 'barbarians'—because they dare to take their convictions seriously?"