Political decisions, institutional charisma and artistic scenes: Which reciprocal actions?
The explanatory value of the concept of scenes is fruitful if we consider that the existence of artistic scenes and the competition they establish between themselves at the international level have influenced first rank political decisions. Such was the case with the nomination of Jean Vilar at the Théâtre national populaire in 1951, in the context when the European theatrical scene was being structured around other prominent theatrical venues such as the Piccolo teatro, founded by Giorgio Strehler in Milan in 1948, or the Berliner Ensemble, founded and directed by Brecht in 1949. Such was also the decision to create an Art Center on the plateau of Beaubourg by the French president Pompidou, at the time when Paris was losing its status of international capital of the arts, to the profit of an artistic effervescence in New York and elsewhere in Europe (Kassel, Darmstadt, Cologne, Düsseldorf), in cities which were establishing between themselves in the 1970s a merciless competition in arts and culture.