The Marquise of Sarajevo

At a time when Bosnian girls are being thrown into furnaces after collective use and when it can already be predicted that half of the population of Africa will not survive AIDS... how do things look with the production of creative video in France?
At a time when the production companies are in agony, when some of them are expending their energies in mystical cancers or waiting for approval of their projects, when officially recognized artists are painting blue skies - miserable modern Giottos - on commission from highway vendors... how do things look with the conditions of production in France? Oh, well.... Everthing 's great, Marquise: many, genuinely
many people in France are making videos: filmmakers, directors, visual artists, opera directors, choreographers, m usicians, art students, North and South Americans.... There is a wide variety of projects as far as themes and techniques are concerned, for video is a somewhat cowardly concept which moves just as easily through the field of contemporary art as it does across the carefully mowed lawns of television. The production of videos, in France as elsewhere, ranges from the "creative documentary" to the inter-active electronic sculpture, from the virtual installation made of synthetic images to homemade editing.

So who is producing videos in France? Practically everyone, Madame Marquise of Sarajevo: artists, students, art schools, culture centers and regional resource centers, festivals, museums, centers of creative video, the Culture Ministry and its many sub-departments (D.A.P., C.N.A.P., C.N.C., Arcana!, D.R.A.C.), other ministries, regions and municipalities, various associations, sometimes even production companies - and (it has been known to happen!) television networks. There is no market for creative video. Television (even if it hasn't always been so) and the art market (even if it will not always be so) generally have a ridiculously small effect on the financing of creative videos in general. Creative video is financed in France direcfly by state subsidies, either directly through the ministries and their subordinate institutions, or indirectly through several more or less independent institutions. For those who want to make videos in this country today, there is a labyrinth of possibilities: They can apply for state subsidies from all levels of go-vern- ment. They can gain access to the various "creative cen-ters" dedicated to video, to cultural centers and regional resource centers. They can try to get agreements on coproduc-tion or advance sales with tele-vision networks such as Arte or Ca- nal+ (hopeless but nonethe-less necessary - on principle); cautiously approach the dino-saur I.N.A. or independent pro-duc- tion companies (but it's naturally advisable to check first and make sure that they still exist); or try to get free access to large and small pro-fessional studios. They can pace the halls of banks and the corridors of ministeries (don't forget the sandwiches), study or teach in the art schools, search out a patron, drug a naive film produ cer (there was a recent case of this in Brittany), invest in increasingly cheap amateur equipment, work part-time at MacDonald's in order to save up the necesary money, etc.

Subsidies Video production in France is supported largely by the state (For details see page 132 pp).
Creative Centres There are several independent yet subsidized "Creative Centers" which can offer a variefy of specific services.
Culture Centers and Resource Centres At the beginning of the nineteen-eighties the regional Blouses of Culture and the Cul-tural Action Centers were the most important production sites for creative video. The Culture House of Saint-Etienne, very well equipped, still produces some creative video. Today several Resource Centers have profession (BETA SP) equipment which is used for training and the co-production of projects.
Large Stud io s and In d u stry There are countless large, midsized, and small professional video studios in France, and not infrequently artists succeed - whether through co-productions or more direct methods - in acquiring access to the equipment available there. The big studios MIKROS, U.M.T., DURAN and SOFT have copro-duced a relatively large num-ber of creative videos. At the same time there seems to be practically no connec-ti- on between industry and creative video. The patronage of business, a fixed component of the general art scene, is virtually unknown in video. Perhaps video sculptures will have an effect... The Independent Producers The activities of production centers such as the C.I.C.V. in Montbéliard and FEARLESS, and entities dependent on the Ministry of Culfure such as AR-CANAL,are of great importance - as is the work of smaller initiatives that cannot all be listed here.

Conclusion
Networks and Co-Productions
Very frequently works benefit from the functioning of a dynamic production network. Many are co-productions of an agency of the Ministry of Culture, of an independent producer, an art center, and various partners.
French television broadcasts creative videos only very rarely - one reason why video still has the chance to remain an art form. - Television and artistic creativity do not go together, and it remains to be hoped that there will be only a few broadcasts with insufficient demand in order to prevent a influence on production which would almost unavoidably be damaging. UFO programs, ghetto broadcasts - in a word, broadcasts about (video) art. If creative video were to become completely dependent on television, it would be in danger of degenerating into a self-regulating, commercial product integrated into general programming. Thus it is the task of state sub sidies to finance electronic art (as all other forms of art). The situation is not new (for artists have always in worked in the courts of princes and prelates), and art and culture will always depend on sources of financing. Apart from state commissions - the domain of the princes - or large institutions such as the Pompidou Center, creative video was always financed in ways that avoided the trap of excessive centralization; a large number of structures and personalities who were capable of original actions alternated in this task. If there is a genuinely dynamic development of video in France, then it is here, supported by the active networks and interactions of a multitude of artists, producers, studios involved in creative video, large and small studios, broadcasting and distribution associations, festivals, galleries, art schools, etc. - all with their different means, specific approaches, and own goals. All these projects - almost all of them - are built on passion, energy, and an immense amount of work that often compen sates for the lack of funds. Nothing is gained for good, and this dynamic development is fragile. The period of 1991/92 has seen the weakening - and in some cases the disappearance - of many of the important participants in the video scene. Only the state can really finance creative work. At the same time, though, it is the expansion of the creative energies of the individuals and structures of production, creation, and distribution that will ensure con-ti- nued exploration of the richly varied worlds of electronic art.