“Low cost culture”: for Arnaud Idelon, the future of culture is on the margins

In a few weeks, the cultural third place Le Sample will close its doors after five years of existence in Bagnolet (Seine-Saint-Denis). The end of a collective adventure,“weakened by budget cuts and at the mercy of the real estate market†,Âto which Arnaud Idelon devotes a few lines inCulture low cost – Dernière démarque, his brilliant new essay.Â

“I write from the anger of seeing these territories of possibilities disappear gradually in the indifference – or the powerlessness – of institutions, when it is not the contempt or the complacency of some of these authorities calling us to do our ‘work of mourning†,Âwrites the one who also co-founded this mecca of festivals, joyful events and prawns. But that is not his only cause for concern:“I write from lack. The lack of consideration by the institution of what is happening in the margins. The lack of meta-reflection of the worlds of culture. The lack of anticipation of the coming catastrophe. The lack of imagination to try to counter it and the lack of imagination to oppose it.â€Â 

Polycrise

It is in fact all of the threats weighing on the cultural sector today, whether endogenous or exogenous, that the teacher addresses in this text, which aims to be at once a documented assessment, an exercise in self-criticism and an invigorating resource. Culture considered “non-essential” by the executive during the Covid-19 pandemic, budget cuts that it is now fashionable to justify for political reasons (remember Christelle Moranais, the Horizons president of the Pays de la Loire region who, in 2024, assumed no longer wanting to subsidize associations“very politicized, who live off public moneyâ€â€¦), reactionary offensives on the part of far-right tycoons (Vincent Bolloré, Pierre-Édouard Stérin…), development galore of AI and sad-to-burst algorithmic bubbles, phagocytization of counter-cultures by the commercial economy, generalized precariousness… The dangers are numerous and diverse, Arnaud Idelon using the term“polycriseâ€Â to describe this situation which became paroxysmal in 2025, but of which he identifies the first seeds in the 1980s, the “return on investment†Âbeing since then“the compass of public action†. 

And if the situation appears disastrous to say the least for workers in the sector and from a stronger contemporary creation – all the more so in a context where the far right is fully investing in the cultural battle in the run-up to the 2027 presidential election -, according to him, it has become essential that the worlds of culture themselves begin a process of introspection (let us note all the same that, since the publication of its book, the collective “Zapper Bolloré†has published inLibé a forum denouncing a risk of“fascist takeover of the collective imaginationâ€Â dans le cinéma). “They have locked themselves into the discourse of defending their means, gradually forgetting the ends, caught in beliefs, myths and fetishes which prevent us as much from being self-critical as from equipping ourselves with the tools to overcome the pitfalls in which we are caught…says the author ofBoom Boom Dancefloor Politics (ed. Divergences, 2025), everything is also included in this observation.Â

Reinventing in the margins

Among the dogmas to which it is urgent to“twist the neck†,Arnaud Idelon cites, for example, the idea that the cultural sector“would be at the forefront of contemporary social issues†–Âgender equality, fight against VSS, anti-racism… even though this one tends to“hallucinate its progressivism by renewing the same inequalities and systems of world domination that[il] dénonceâ€. In the same way, the programmer believes that the famous French cultural democratization is a failure.“No, culture as it is implemented today does not speak to everyone and gradually widens a gap between ‘initiated’ audiences and ‘distant’ audiences – to use institutional nomenclatures. Yes, it is up to the worlds of culture to probe its ‘Why’ and – above all – its ‘For whom’ and ‘With whom’†,Âhe said, citing several examples of initiatives“dissentersâ€Â which show the capacity of culture to do otherwise and to reopen desirable futures (the Lieu-Dit in Clermont-Ferrand, the Houdremont cultural center in la Courneuve…).

As many“minority presents†Âand unifiers, invented within the margins, which it would be a question of multiplying and amplifying – as he nicely underlines, culture is never as stimulating as when it summons anger, turmoil and joy.Â

Low cost culture – Latest mark, by Arnaud Idelon, Éditions Divergences, 150 p., 16€, published June 5.