Odile told me: “Ben, you need to submit your proposals for Nice European Capital of Culture before midnight tonight, so here they are, my opinion and proposals.
BEN FOR NICE CITY EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE – WE CAN’T NOT WIN!
When I compare the assets of Nice to other cities, We can’t not win! Unless, as an official once told me, Nice is “non-competitive” because it is too well placed! They must choose a city that needs it more than Nice.
SO LET’S BE CLEAR – INFRASTRUCTURE QUESTION: It is clear that in terms of hotel infrastructure, Entertainment venues, Event spaces, Nice is extremely well equipped.
ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE QUESTION: In the extent that Nice’s candidacy would also include Cannes and possibly even Monaco, The cultural activities already in place are countless. I know few cities in the world with so many internationally renowned cultural activities: The Nice Jazz Festival, The Cannes Film Festival, The Mouans-Sartoux Book Festival, The Monte-Carlo Rally, etc. Eight casinos along the 80 Km of the coast.
CONTEMPORARY ART HISTORY QUESTION Nice and its surroundings have been the ground, the breeding ground, for three essential art movements. “Fluxus,” started in 1962 with George Maciunas and Ben, continued with George Brecht, Robert Filliou, and “La Cédille qui sourit” in Villefranche, which now have retrospectives worldwide. “Support surfaces,” with Viallat, Valensi, Dolla, etc., who gave birth to this movement. “New Realism,” with Arman, Yves Klein, Martial Raysse, Bernard Venet, Gilli, etc., and today with La Station, Sous station Nux vomica, etc., we can say that Nice continues to push boundaries.
MUSEUMS QUESTION Always, if we were to compare Nice with other French cities in contemporary art, excluding Paris, Nice beats all the other cities. It’s a bit tedious to list them, but we have, on one hand, the necropolis museums of Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Léger, Chéret, etc., and on the other hand many contemporary art spaces: Villa Arson, MAMAC, municipal museums… The Av Museum, etc.
SO, REMAINS THE PROGRAM…
A question of imagination, energy, willpower.
Here are some proposals. And to start with:
IN CONTEMPORARY ART
I PROPOSE AN ART BIENNIAL AT THE EXHIBITION CENTER: Why not inaugurate a major biennial? And so that it does not resemble the Lyon or Venice biennials, It needs to have its own backbone. I propose an international high-end biennial with the theme “the limits of contemporary art.”
I PROPOSE A COLLOQUIUM AT ACROPOLIS This biennial, which would take place at the exhibition center, could be accompanied by a congress or symposium at Acropolis on the same subject “the limits of contemporary art.” Nice would then become the place where contemporary art is questioned: For or against?
ART EVENTS Still around the theme of contemporary art, we can achieve: A trail of itinerant exhibitions in the city’s hotels, A trail on the theme of design in the Dalpozzo district, The project of Odile’s squares and cubes trail, The star trail with sculptures by Noël Dolla…
IN POPULAR CONTEMPORARY ART, I PROPOSE
PROJECT MONUMENTAL SCULPTURE I propose, like in Hollywood, where you see the name “Hollywood” on the hill, that we install a beautiful writing by Ben “Nissa, the Bella” or “be free” or “live free” or another phrase that could be seen by plane from all along the Promenade des Anglais. (See drawing)
PROJECT LARGE SCREEN CINEMA I propose to make a film where the entire population would be filmed for two or three seconds and could come to see it on a big screen in a popular square in Nice.
HYDE PARK PROJECT I propose that in one of Nice’s parks, we install two or three pedestals 10 meters apart. These pedestals would allow any individual to express themselves freely within the law, like at Hyde Park. This would create an area of interest open to all. I could build the pedestals like sculptures with a phrase such as “step on this pedestal, tell your truth” or “step on this pedestal, for or against?” This would underline among other things that Nice is a city where freedom prevails.
TRADESPEOPLE’S WINDOW DISPLAYS PROJECT I propose to mobilize all tradespeople with a contest for the best window display on one of the themes chosen by the candidacy (baroque, light…) Offering 1000 euros to the winner.
LIGHT (Odile’s proposal) One or two blue nights in homage to Yves Klein. A huge beam of light would start from each end of the city and converge in their center. We would commission several thousand small blue laser lights to be distributed by tradespeople for a symbolic amount, to create a mobile collective work at Place Masséna and the Promenade des Anglais.
IN POPULAR ART
I PROPOSE A FESTIVAL OF OCCITAN MUSIC Nice is used to festivals at Cimiez, It has the necessary space to receive the musical groups, So I propose a festival of Occitan music. The target audience would be traditionalists, but also young people, Today more and more people, old and young alike, are interested in roots. So the idea would be like the Celtic Music Festival that attracts 500,000 Celts to Lorient in Brittany, to imagine the arrival in Nice for a week of half a million Occitans. I am confident if the information is spread as it should be, Occitan culture enthusiasts would come from all cities of Occitania (fifteen million inhabitants) and twelve major cities: Bordeaux, Marseille, Aix en Provence, Toulon, Béziers, Toulouse, Avignon, Pau, Tarbes, Nîmes, Arles… In all these cities, there are groups that sing and defend the Occitan language and culture. Attention, it would not be a folklore music festival but an expression of a living culture in all its diversity with its Occitan rap and rock groups, with bands such as Cardabella, Los de Nadau, Marsilla sound system, Nux Vomica, Robau capeu, la Talvera, to name just a few.
To the argument that there is not enough material to have an Occitan festival, I will reply that it is false, there are more than 500 groups! Moreover, the realization of this Occitan music festival would absolve us towards Europe. Indeed, let’s not forget that European institutions are very open to the defense of cultural identity of regions and require these regions to value, develop their own cultural heritage and not just play the card of importing avant-garde products from outside. As for the venue, this festival could take place in the arena of Cimiez but also on the Promenade des Anglais, at the Théâtre de Verdure and the Chateau, and even for street singers everywhere in the city.
To the argument of some not to limit this festival to traditional Occitan music but to open it to all peoples of the Mediterranean, I respond: I am against it because experience shows us that it ends in tourist exotism. For the Occitan music festivals project to succeed, it must include a real cultural mobilization. If this idea were ever retained, I am ready to submit a list of 50 Occitan music groups to you and to provide a free poster. I could make a CD presentation of these 50 groups.
TO CONCLUDE A FEW POINTS
It is important for Nice to create a lobby to support Nice’s candidacy as the European Capital of Culture. This lobby must encompass all the dynamic cultural and economic forces of the region and not be the monopoly of a political party or individuals representing a political party. Many want the candidacy of Nice to succeed but refuse that their involvement be perceived as a political commitment. Thus, this pressure group must bear the signature of all artists but also of all cultural leaders, all economic actors, all leaders from both the left and the right. We must not hide from reality. Nice has an unjustified reputation politically. By making Nice a European Capital of Culture, it would also be an operation of rehabilitation.
ON THE GEO-POLITICAL PLAN
Finally, by choosing Nice and its region, an equilibrium is restored in relation to the nation-states of the Mediterranean, Italy had Genoa, Spain had Barcelona, for France it becomes important to construct a cultural arc around the Mediterranean, where France would be present. In this context, only Nice or Marseille can be chosen, with the additional point for Nice that it can revive economic dynamism with Italy. That’s it, I finished before midnight on July 20 with my proposals and my position.
