Marginalised and stigmatised, contemporary art struggled to establish itself in French public cultural policy, whose criteria and philosophy, at its inception in the postwar decades, prioritised decentralisation of the performing arts.
Described as being in crisis, these policies were undermined by both the (admittedly foretold) advent of the society of the spectacle, the crisis in academic and high cultural forms, budget cutbacks and the contaminating influence of neo-liberal commercialism.
The paradox of contemporary art is that of all the artistic and cultural disciplines it is the least affected by the crisis, yet is the first victim of its consequences.
This talk should make it possible to define the reality of a project-based cultural mode, a relation to societal issues, modes of production, criteria of assessment and, finally, a status as tool of economic development that would, if taken into account, provide the basis for reviving these public cultural policies.