"I was looking for the support of Françoise Nyssen, I was dismissed"

The mail arrived Tuesday evening July 3 at 8:58 pm in the box of his first circle. Shock title: "Goodbye". Shocking text: "Good evening my friends, I was going to seek comfort at the ministry, always a little traumatized by this violence that struck me. The minister did not receive me, except a cold and brittle head of a cabinet. In the hours that followed, I felt very tired and let go. The artist takes over. I wish you to meet and see you elsewhere. And long live the art we do and not the culture that is made to us. Affectionately. Jean-Marc. "

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Against all odds, while Jean-Marc Bustamante, artist and director of the Beaux-Arts in Paris since three years old, has just been publicly attacked by a small group of students on the day of the awards ceremony. While he has been burned and copiously insulted, he pays the price of anger. Woe to the one by whom the scandal comes? He explains it exclusively to Figaro .

"I am tired. When I was attacked by the students, during the awards ceremony with Agnès B, my first reaction was to minimize, to want to see in this enfarinage something artistic, funny, harmless. But, after the fact, I felt bad enough, in fact abused, deeply depressed. It's been weeks since I've seen this cabal come up against me. She was born to one of the ultra-feminist professors who created a kind of session within the School of Fine Arts, relying on the debate raised by #metoo and the old house quarrels. I brought all the possible answers, but in fact, there was no debate, "explains this 66-year-old artist, renowned for his collegial energy, his frank nature, often not very diplomatic.

"I felt bad enough, actually abused, deeply depressed"

Jean-Marc Bustamante, after being badaulted by students

"After the fact, I needed to talk about it with my supervisory authorities. A few weeks ago, I had confirmation that my position as Director of Fine Arts in Paris would be extended by one year, the maximum given my age (laughs). So I was very surprised to be called rue de Valois. The minister was present, but did not want to receive me. This surprised me, because I always had cordial relations with Françoise Nyssen before she was a minister. His chief of staff, Laurence Tison Vuillaume, received me in his place, rather freshly. She told me from the outset that "the minister was annoyed by the Beaux-Arts de Paris" and therefore I will not be renewed as planned in late September. I was stunned. I was seeking support, I was dismissed, "says Jean-Marc Bustamante, on sick leave and on the departure for an urgent medical rest in the green.

"I was stunned. I came to seek support, I was dismissed "

Jean-Marc Bustamante, after an interview with the chief of staff of Françoise Nyssen

There is little mystery in Paris that Sylvie Corréard, adviser Culture and Communication in Matignon to Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, does not appreciate it. The name of this woman of influence appeared as a strong link in the controversy against Jeff JKoons, in the columns of our colleague Harry Bellet of the newspaper Le Monde .

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This Wednesday morning July 4, Jean-Marc Bustamante wears handsome but has a broken voice.

"In three years, we have done great things. It's too short, but that's what matters to me. Recently, I managed to get Mexican sculptor Abraham Cruzvillegas, French director and photographer Clément Cogitore, among our teachers. On the other hand, I did not manage to get the jury to accept the candidacy of Laure Prouvost, a really interesting artist who will represent France at the Venice Biennale in 2019. Reason invoked? Too fashionable! And yet, I managed to convince her to introduce herself while she is overwhelmed by her own work. Same thing for the wonderful couple of artists Morgane Tschiember and Douglas Gordon! To bring great artists to the Beaux-Arts with their vision, their freedom, their audacity, their generosity, has always been my creed. But it seems that one prefers the pedagogy most commonly admitted to art. I tried to fight against this reluctance, this administrative inertia that stole the Beaux-Arts in Paris. They prefer to get rid of me. No doubt they did not experience the corrosive performances of the artist Jana Sterback who had knitted a masked hood and prepared a brave and insolent character at the Ubu Roi. No doubt they misunderstood the savage intervention of Alberto Sorbelli, a Roman artist who intervened without concessions for the political correctness at our last colloquium, The Forced March of Art ", summarizes in his own way always quixotic.

"I tried to fight against this reluctance, this administrative inertia that stole the Beaux-Arts in Paris. They prefer to get rid of me "

Jean-Marc Bustamante

This sudden turnaround comes after three years of very interesting exhibitions, from Per Kirkeby to Richard Deacon, from Images in Struggle, the visual culture of the far left in France, 1968 (Eric de Chbadey police station) with baroque follies by Gérard Garouste, rabelaisiennes, grotesque, fantastic and terribly alive, in the glbad courtyard.

"I had a lot of fun living this school, even though my mission as a director has taken precedence over my artistic work, which I am now returning to. We obtained the label Museum of France. We were working on the reorganization of our site, our museum functions and our heritage, boosted by the successful model of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. We had begun to work hard even though all our contacts in the rue de Valois were disappearing, one by one, in an inexplicable fainting of public officials. It's sad. "