Nice: Art is also in the street
Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice, has decided to severely restrict and censor the activities of the city’s street performers.
The danger is thus that this kind of censorship spreads and results in the eradication of all forms of expression and spontaneity in the town, which has already been suffering a lack of energy this summer.
The City Hall is to set up a “Cultural Commission” which will create system of rules to which artists must adhere.
This means that all artists will have to pass an exam. This fundamentally opposes the entire nature of art; under what criteria will they be judged? Who will make up the panel of Judges? Art is subjective enough, and to try to compare a Michael Jackson impersonator to a living-statue of Johnny Depp to a xylophonist is the classic apples-versus-oranges test.
What of the artists who fail this sham-trial? Surprisingly, most performers come from other countries and spend the summer holidays in Nice performing, it will not be worth their while if they have to go through the stages of obtaining a license. The consequence: empty streets.
Already there has been an authoritarian incident. Pictured above is a little street in Vieux Nice, studio of the Albanian Artist Paulin Nikolli. Without warning one day, the police arrived, and took away all his art.
He is before the courts today.
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September 9th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Good article. It’s a slippery slope to 1984, and it seems the French have taken the plunge. I know Bath doesn’t have such license requirements and it certainly makes our streets more enjoyable.
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September 9th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
You’re exactly right; it’s because of my experience in Bath that this issue is of particular interest to me.
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