CULTURE IN GRENOBLE: NEW FACE, SAME SCHEMES

Alexis Monge (PCF) takes up his duties as deputy for culture of Grenoble with an expression that says it all: “we do not make culture an ideological tool” (the Dauphiné Libéré). Formula which, in the mouth of an elected official from the Greens/LFI majority, after twelve years of management which has precisely made culture the ideological tool of the municipality par excellence, lacks neither aplomb nor irony. It would be wrong not to take him at his word.

40,000 SPECTATORS: THE SLATE BEFORE THE PROMISE

To understand the scope of the promise, let’s start with some figures. The Grenoble Municipal Theater welcomed 54,000 spectators per season in 2002/2003. It only accommodates 14,400 today. Between 2017 and 2019, the cultural budget was cut by 4 million euros, the music and live performance budget halved. It is on this field of ruins that we owe to the Red/Greens that Alexis Monge arrives to promise liberation.

THE CHARTER, OR IDEOLOGY BY CONTRACT

To receive a subsidy from the City of Grenoble, a cultural actor must demonstrate their commitment to “ecological transition”, “democratic transition”. Understand: conformity to the ideological grid of the municipal majority. This charter imposed by the former cultural assistant Lucille Lheureux on creators and companies is the most precise symbol of what “make culture an ideological tool“means concretely. Yves Aupetitallot, former director of Magasin-CNAC, summed up the result of this policy with a clear formula: “a field of cultural ruins“.

PROGRAMMING IN STEP: ANATOMY OF A DISASTER

Frédéric Martel, journalist from France Culture, had in his time documented the result: “distrust, fear and political violence have reached men and women of art“. The program of the municipal theater placed under the supervision of the majority constitutes the perfect synthesis: violence against women, patriarchy, climate change… Delphine Gouard, director appointed by Lheureux, is forced to apply the line. Before her, the Tricycle collective had been expelled from the 1théâtre 45 and the Théâtre de Poche to allow total political control of the equipment.

The criteria that Grenoble cultural actors must meet to hope for aid from the municipality…

“WE CLEARLY DO NOT WANT A PRIVATE THEATER”: THE DOCTRINE CONTINUES

Monge is in reality part of the same logic. He said it unambiguously to the Dauphiné: “we clearly do not want this place to be used to host private theater“. It is word for word the doctrine of Lucille Lheureux. The ideological justification – the private theater would be by nature inferior, even contaminating for the mind – is entirely renewed. It does not matter that this obsession has emptied the theaters for twelve years. It does not matter that Guy Sisti, the former director who filled 54,000 spectators and therefore knows what works, has always defended the complementarity of the two logics. Doctrine takes precedence over results.

THE “RESISTANCE CLAUSE”, OR INSTITUTIONALIZED IDEOLOGY

Asked about the accusations of ideological cultural policy, the deputy brandished his defense: “we advocate freedom of creation and acquisition, which is in the resistance clause that we voted for at the start of our mandate“. This is where all its hypocrisy lies: this clause is precisely the instrument by which the majority conditions its support to its political criteria. Defending freedom of creation with an ideological tool, designed to constrain it and promote theses red/green, it’s less an oxymoron than an admission.

THE PALAIS DES SPORTS: “MAINTENANCE” TO HIDE ABANDONMENT

Asked about the sports palace, the deputy believes that it must be maintained “in good condition“: We wonder if he has already been there: all the professionals are unanimous on the fact that it is in a catastrophic state, with concerts which were almost canceled at the last moment due to a lack of at least satisfactory operating conditions, and a ridiculously low number of dates.

Monge promises a “reinforced maintenance plan“. A wooden formula which means nothing other than continuing to spend on operations to hide the absence of a real rehabilitation plan – which would cost, according to the study commissioned by the city itself in 2022, between 50 and 60 million euros. The city obviously does not have the means and refuses ideological of opening up to the private sector buries any possibility of modernizing the equipment.

LA GRANDE BIBLIOTHÉQUE: “WE DISPLAY IN CONTINUITY”

The large central library project in Chavant, launched under Piolle and widely contested by residents – who still demonstrate regularly against this excessive centralization project which would lead to the closure of 2 additional libraries! – will be continued. Monge assumes it with the disarming frankness of a man who does not measure what he admits: “we appear in continuity“. A continuity which, let us remember, has already led to the closure of two local libraries in 2016 and to a 50% drop in attendance between 2017 and 2021. They therefore continue as if nothing had happened on this downward slope which consists of burying the logic of proximity access to culture.

THE FORMER MUSEUM IN CHARGE OF THE GRENOBLES!

The Old Painting Museum at Place de Verdun would be transformed into “center of urban and mountain cultures” – hip-hop/mountain association decreed by the majority as obvious, as if that did not lend itself to a minimum of debate. The question of financing the work (at least 20 million euros just to bring the building into compliance) does not worry the deputy in any way : he wants to appeal to “citizen savings”! In other words, to call on the people of Grenoble to finance from their own pockets a project that the city does not have the means to assume. We imagine that taxpayers, already squeezed by the highest taxes in large cities, will rush to support the project…

CONTINUITY IN NEW CLOTHES

As a good communicator, Alexis Monge achieves the feat of stringing together words – “coopération“, “artistic freedom” – contradictory to the reality of what its operation will be. Because behind it, the color is already announced: the exclusion of private theater is maintained, the Piolle projects are renewed, the ideological resistance clause serves as a guarantee. The cultural liberation of supervision of the Greens/Reds is still not in order and on this subject as on so many others, Ruffin once again extends the operation of his predecessor.