Performing arts and the need to look at them more closely and do things differently[Arts théâtraux, regarder et s'y prendre autrement]

The article proposes a synthesis of issues that emerged during an action-research process conducted with two groupings of professional organisations related to the performing arts, Autre(s)pARTs and U-Fisc, each of them being engaged in a collective reflection. It begins by going back over several aspects of the socio-economy of the theatre sector that are too little taken into account even though the 2003 crisis has put it in the limelight : a too crystallised organisation of this field, a stratified notoriety that is the source of strong inequalities, the unresolved tension between salaried work and the willingness to be independent, a too little regulated employment flexibility. It reminds the reader that the development of performing arts is to be understood in a context where three distinct conceptions of the public interest in the arts and the relationship between democracy and culture are at stake. By having a go at renewing the relationship between art, people and their territories, many companies or cultural venues get involved in the invention of a new paradigm for a cultural democracy that still remains far from being a reality. It presents elements of an argument for a more heteronomous approach to performing arts, one that would be economically more secure for the people working in that sector, including salaried employees with intermittent activity. It ends with a plea for a theatre sector organisation giving more space to the artistic practices carried out more closely to the people and their areas of life.