Carla Bruni Takes On Culture; BMW Backs Out of Art Basel
CARLA TAKES ON CULTURE
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy—top model, pop singer, leftist sympathizer, and most recently wife of the president of the Republic of France—could turn out to be art's best ally in a government hostile to culture. According to Le Monde's Raphaëlle Bacqué, Bruni-Sarkozy played a key role in reversing her husband's plans to nominate his former aide Georges-Marc Benamou to head the Villa Médicis in Rome.
Benamou, Sarkozy's cultural adviser, had to be quickly removed from the presidential team after making a major error in press protocol, which allowed France Télévision to scoop the government on Sarkozy's own nominations of two public television directors. According to Bacqué, Benamou has also been vocal in his criticism of the minister of culture, Christine Albanel, who was chosen by Sarkozy for the job, as many believe, of dismantling the ministry. Although Benamou's nomination was never officially announced, the rumor was met with a wave of criticism. A letter of protest quickly garnered a host of signatures from formidable figures in the French cultural world, including art historian Georges Didi-Huberman, artist Sophie Calle, filmmaker Patrice Chéreau, and philosopher Alain Finkielkraut.
Bruni-Sarkozy, who is Italian and apparently read parodies of the nomination published in the Italian newspapers La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera, commented to friends on "this very French idiosyncracy of removing an adviser by nominating him to a magnificent job." Bruni-Sarkozy's intervention did not stop with such asides to friends. "In the end," writes Bacqué, "she took it upon herself to warn her husband of the emotions evoked by the hypothesis behind this nomination in cultural circles, which are often close to the political left, where she counts many of her friends."
The end of Benamou's nomination might just be the beginning of yet another career for Bruni-Sarkozy: patron of the arts. Aware of the hostility felt by artists and intellectuals towards Sarkozy, Bruni-Sarkozy has used hospitality to melt the divide between her circle of leftist cultural friends and her husband. "Since her marriage to the head of the state," writes Bacqué, "she has organized several dinners at her place in the sixteenth arrondissement in Paris, in order to introduce him to some artists." The First Lady is said to be "troubled" by the "consistent incomprehension" between the realm of culture, the political right in general, and her husband in particular.
As for the nomination of the head of the Villa Médicis, the government has unveiled a commission to decide the nomination in more democratic terms. The commission will be headed by the former director of the Opéra de Paris Hugues Gall and includes as its members architect Paul Andreu, writer Edmonde Charles-Roux, director Patrice Chéreau, composer Pascal Dusapin, historian Marc Fumaroli, ambassador Jean Guéguinou, the rector of the Académie de Paris Maurice Quenet, the director of dance at the Opéra de Paris Brigitte Lefèvre, and the general administrator at the Comédie Française Muriel Mayette.
BMW BACKS OUT OF ART BASEL
BMW will not be sponsoring this year's Art Basel. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung's Holger Liebs reports, the luxury-car manufacturer, which provides VIP shuttles at both Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach, is "ending the partnership." While Liebs speculates that the presence of Audi cars at Design Miami might be a reason for the shift in policy, BMW would not confirm the rumor and reconfirmed its engagement with contemporary art. In addition to artist grants at Leipzig's Baumwollspinnerei, BMW supports a curatorial workshop for the Berlin Biennial, along with the "Art Car" series of models constructed by contemporary artists, most notably Olafur Eliasson. No word whether BMW will be ending its sponsorship with other art fairs, including the Frieze Art Fair and Paris Photo.