RIP - art-space evictions

I am sick of having to adjust the listings on the I V Y paris alternative venues  listing in "What's Hot", they keep getting shut down. 

RIP the Barbizon  where you could see FREE Theatre (Beckett, Jean Genet…..), debates and films. The venue was available free or at a low cost for anyone with an artistic project they wanted to realise.

Eventually it'll be UGC and MK2 partout.  You better go an check them out (scroll down in arts and film venues) before they disappear completely.

        
Workers brick up the squatted art venue Le Barbizon. Photograph: Dominique Faget/AFP

Good article here from the Guardian (UK)

"The raid on Le Barbizon and the threat of a string of other police evictions of squats artistiques has panicked culture officials at Paris's city hall, who believe the capital's long tradition of squats and illegally occupied buildings are crucial to breathe life into its stultified arts scene."

I'd agree with that 100%.  The problem is the cost of rent and finding a place to work. That's why spaces like La Générale are so important. And as for the political shift that's behind all this, look no further than Sarkozy.....

"This is all about Nicolas Sarkozy," says Thierry Wurtz, the theatre director who ran Le Barbizon. He sees the crackdown on the squats as part of centre-right interior minister Sarkozy's campaign to be president. Sarkozy has already scored points, evicting hundreds of immigrants from France's biggest squat in the south of Paris. "He's just making a public show. I don't think he gives a shit about culture or artists."

Are you kidding me, of course he doesn't.  Finally, the irony is that all the young artists coming here just leave when their funds run out, sometimes a planned residence can end after 3 months because of the cost of living and difficulty to find space.  The Mairie is supportive but:

"Arts leaders at Paris's city hall believe that work produced in squats could be a cure for the art establishment's malaise. The city of Picasso, Monet, Degas, Lautrec, Rodin, Van Gogh, and birthplace of just about every major art movement of the past 100 years, is now feared by critics to be in the artistic wilderness. Its scene has been in slow decline, stifled by bureaucracy and state control of spaces, and unable to compete with London, New York or Berlin.