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Abstract
Off artistic spaces, such as artistic squats, techno traveller's party places and underground circuses, are flourishing in cityscapes. In the context of a growing emphasis on the role of creativity, a large urban neobohemia is assumed to be deeply interested in all kinds of creativity and forms of artistic expression. These off venues are used as tools in city's cultural policies. To understand these developments, it is necessary to review changes in the cultural policies of French cities over the last 30 years. The goals of cultural policies have moved from the supply of resident-oriented cultural services toward meeting the needs of newcomers and visitors. The city, as a built environment and a social fabric, is becoming the playground of cultural policymakers. We will put into perspective this shift in the attitude of planners and authorities toward these off spaces by examining the regeneration project of La Chapelle–Stalingrad area in Paris.
Acknowledgements
This paper received the Eura Young Scholar award at the Eura Conference, ‘The Vital City’, held in Glasgow in September 2007. I would like to thank the award committee and especially Rob Atkinson for their support.
Notes
1. The institutional organisation and the duties of the Minister of Culture will probably change during the next few years under the pressure of the newly elected conservative government.
2. For instance, the recognition of the historical importance of modern architecture buildings is a very new process, not yet widely shared by the public. Encouraged by the recent listing of the City of Le Havre (built after World War II by Auguste Perret according to the Athens Charter principles), a few heritage preservation organisations are now calling for the conservation of some masterpieces of the 1950s' large-scale urban programmes, whereas local authorities (and the population) widely dislike them and would prefer to see them demolished.
3. According to Peterson and Kern, univore is the opposite of omnivore. The univore consumes only one of various cultural styles. The neologism omnivorism also comes from Peterson and Kern.
4. For instance, I witnessed a group of 10 young men, wearing professional ‘men in black’ uniforms, turned away at the door of the Shunt, an artistic off venue in London Bridge underground station (London, UK).
7. This case study is based on several interviews (with planners, city representatives, local organisation leaders, artists), personal observations, the analysis of planning and other officials documents, and a press review
8. ‘Wastelands, Laboratories, Factories, Squats, Multi-discipline Projects: A New Era of Cultural Activity’, www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/actualites/rapports/lextrait/eng.pdf (English summary of the report is available online).
9. For many critics, it is becoming a kind of popular fair, where art is just an excuse for a long night out.
10. Other places (such as Point P or the Theatre de la Gaité) that also represent new cultural amenities projects were also opened this night.
11. Landlords are responsible for any accident occurring in their building.
12. Now turned into a park.
13. In French jurisprudence, the mayor has a wide range of duties. For example, if a child dies in a playground, the mayor could be responsible. The same problem occurred when the city bought artistic squats in order to regularise them. Here, the mayor is directly and personally responsible. When buildings are owned by a company, duty and guilt is spread throughout the hierarchy.
14. Usines Ephémères is a off cultural organisation that has been redeveloping empty places and turning them into artistic places since the beginning of the 1990s. As they are no longer squatting, and are dealing with local authorities, they are considered by some of the off scene as traitors.
15. Under this procedure, different firms are in competition regarding the design or the implementation of the park. A commission (composed of elected representatives from different parties and state representatives) chooses the contractor based on their proposal.