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#FAbdx - Account of the session: Are creators entrepreneurs like any others?

The debate gathers Tonjé Bakang, Founding director of Afrostram, Stéphane Richard, CEO at Orange, Manuelle Gautrand, Architect, Léonard Anthony, Associate director at Susanna Lea Associates and co-founder at Editions Versilio, Sana Ghenima, CEO Sanabil Med, Glenn O’Farrell, CEO of groupe Média TFO, Aurélien Bellanger, writer, Michel Kacenelenbogen, Actor and founder and co-director of the Brussels theatre Le Public, Raphaël Pichon, Conductor and founder of the Pygmalion ensemble, Françoise Benhamou, University professor, member of the Cercle des économistes, Thomas Paris, Researcher in Management science at CNRS and affiliate professor at HEC Paris, moderated by Isabelle Giordano, General director of UniFrance Films, Journalist.

Tonjé Bakang, founding director of Afrostream, develops the specificity of cultural businesses: “an energy which combines the audacity of the entrepreneur and the risk-taking inherent to artistic creations”. Stéphane Richard, CEO at Orange, summarizes the necessary qualities so that a large business keeps an entrepreneurial spirit: it has to “be open to what happens outside, keep in touch with creators, be curious, take risks”, and in a “more and more risk-averse world”, not be afraid.

On this fear and constraints, architect Manuelle Gautrand considers that "France must be more open to the risks of contemporary architecture" and must have "less prejudice towards a visionary architecture that will be the heritage of tomorrow." To be a good architect, you have to be a good entrepreneur: and at the same time, "an architect is an artist, who gives an emotion beyond use". Leonard Anthony, co-founder of Versilio, has emphasized the importance of digital technologies and social networks. "There is a future of digital writing. We are watching, we are listening, this is a fundamental point" he says, while mentioning his role as a cultural entrepreneur.

Relive the debate:

In his speech, Glenn O'Farrell, president of the groupe Média TFO, adds a dimension to the idea of ​​cultural entrepreneurship because "we have to think about education entrepreneurship". Sana Ghenima, CEO Sanabil Med, focuses on the international dimension of cultural entrepreneurship: "Tunisia must be attractive in a multicultural world." To the question: How can we develop in Tunisia enterprise and encourage innovation? She replies that "it is in Tunisia like elsewhere, with some additional constraints and a smaller market." Her solution: "liberate initiatives and develop internationally".

Michel Kacenelenbogen, director of theatre Le Public, thinks that if "meeting people’s expectation is not the first goal of an artist", nevertheless "what is beautiful and faire can also be profitable". He concluded: "the world of culture needs entrepreneurship". Aurélien Bellanger questions the concept of entrepreneurship: "I wanted to be entrepreneur, but I was stopped by administrative procedures. I ended up giving up".

Raphaël Pichon makes the distinction for musicians between creation and interpretation "Enterprising is the birth sign of interpretation” while creation must "absolutely not meet any need; one has to extract oneself from the world." Manuelle Gautrand summarizes the challenge: there is a "moment of loneliness in the creative process; and a moment of openness and vulnerability while facing business".

Finally, economists Françoise Benhamou and Thomas Paris opened the debate on the issue of a new social model. For Françoise Benhamou, the world of culture was the precursor of three important trends: continuous innovation, which does not meet a simple need; working around project as well as non-linear careers, which were first developed in the field of culture, with increasingly short intermittence contracts; finally, the hybridization between a model of independent worker and one of salaried workers, and the conviction that the social model of the future will be hybrid.

For Thomas Paris, the act of creation is "subjective and characterized by risk-taking". Culture is full of this idea of precariousness, and offers a unique system, enabling the acceleration of creation, the specificity of each sector.