At breakfast time, the mattresses they sleep on each night have been neatly stacked in a corner of the room. On the table, leaflets, a book by Bernard Friot devoted to “salary for personal qualification”, a schedule with upcoming appointments. On the buffet, grapes, tangerines, apples offered by supporters, as well as pastries donated by local merchants. Since Sunday evening, around twenty artists have taken up residence at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon to protest against the pension reform. No question of sleeping at the foot of the sculptures or under the paintings of the great masters. The group took refuge in a room adjoining the exhibition halls. But in the meantime, the museum remains closed to the public.
Pencil in hand, Vincent crunches the daily newspaper in his logbook: the Monday press conference animated behind a cord of CRS, the meeting with the deputy in charge of culture, the visits of journalists. He presents himself sadly as “the top of the top of precariousness”. “No unemployment, the RSA for four years”, he summarizes from the outset. Each month, he scrupulously records his hours with Pôle Emploi: “Between 180 and 250 hours without any pay. »
“I pay to work”
Graphic designer, photographer, draftsman, artist-author, the 30-year-old is however multiplying the projects “which are worth it” but for which the structures have “no subsidies”. “Making a painting can take me six months. Six months of preparation which are not paid, ”he underlines. Residences in Paris? “They offer good visibility” but the reality is harsher. “The lighting of the premises, the transfer of the works, the accommodation on site, everything is my responsibility… In fact, I pay to work. »
After a Master’s degree in political science and a career started in foreign affairs, Agathe, 37, took advantage of a gap year to reorient herself and follow a five-year course at the Beaux-Arts. “Thirteen years of study. I am the most educated in my family,” she recalls. His CV is his pride, his “barrier against contempt”. In “full emergence” for two years, the artist-author admits that the period is nevertheless “ultra-precarious”. “I give it my all to seek visibility, but visibility is not what makes us eat. She doesn’t pay the bills, either,” she says.
The first year, after leaving school, she “worked continuously for eleven months out of twelve”, going to knock on every door, chaining creations for exhibitions or residencies. In the end: 6,000 euros in income. 2,000 euros the following year. “Already, if you touch 1,000 euros for an exhibition that required four months of preparation, you can consider yourself well paid, she continues. For example, I was paid 180 euros for a creation in situ. It was the same sum for all the artists involved in the project. I do it because I need to eat but if you don’t have the RSA in relay, it’s dead, ”she laments.
“I will never be retired”
Like Agathe, Victor, 30, has “little income” despite eight years of training. A graduate of the National School of Fine Arts “with the congratulations of the jury”, holder of a CAP in carpentry, the man has a “sharp tooth against the myth of the romantic artist”, and refutes any sentence of guy: “It’s not a job. He defines himself as a “cultural worker” and pleads, like his colleagues, for having at least the “same social achievements as the intermittents du spectacle”, namely “obtaining a continuous salary for discontinuous work”. Because that is one of the main problems. Recognition of working time is not taken into account. However, concerning the basic pension, artists are attached to the general scheme for employees.
“To get a quarter, I have to work four years,” calculates Agathe ironically. “If I work at full rate today, which is impossible as you will have understood, I will be retired at 74,” observes Vincent. And to let go, resigned: “I will never be retired. »
“Unless you have a lot of orders, you can’t have a pension when you’re an artist,” rebounds Jérôme, 40, visual artist and performer, graduate of the Émile Cohl school. To supplement his meager income and “get out of it”, he made the choice to lead conferences, workshops and turn to teaching. “About ten hours a week” but it remains “precarious”, he notes in turn. “If you don’t earn enough money, you can’t contribute to a supplementary pension fund,” he summarizes to underline the complexity of the situation. In 2022, the threshold of 9,513 euros was set to be attached to Ircec. He doesn’t have them. “We would have to be affiliated with the intermittent regime,” he insists. As is John, a 43-year-old bassist.
“We are not going to ask a footballer to play until the age of 64”
“I am the least to be pitied,” analyzes the man who started practicing at the age of 9. But today, his body is “in the red physically”, due to the weight of the instrument and the positions he must adopt to play it. Difficult to continue until 64 years. “We are not going to ask a star dancer to pursue his career until he is 60, nor a footballer to play until he is 64. We all know it, after a certain number of years, the bodies are burnt. This rule also applies to many practitioners and artists,” he notes.
“In the golden age of the intermittents du spectacle, the stamps could amount to 400 euros per service. Today, it is 100 euros on average. Suddenly, people do not stop because the loss of income is far too dry. But at some point, the body really can no longer follow, ”develops John, before pointing out the “absurdity” of the pension reform.
“It’s all about political choices,” he said. The revenue on which the government was counting by making gifts to the big companies of the CAC40 is not up to par, so we make the proles work longer. All of this makes no sense, all of this has no place…” Determined, the collective asserts that it will continue its actions “as long as the government does not back down”.