Contenu du sommaire : Vieillir dans l'art. Revisiter les trajectoires des artistes “modestes”

This article discusses the situation of Finnish visual artists, taking as its starting point ideas presented by Hans Abbing in his book Why Are Artists Poor (2002). The empirical data derive from a survey on young artists conducted at the end of 2017, including both open and closed questions. The questions chosen for analysis concern the definition of art and artists, the nature of the job of artist, the preferred and actual earnings methods and the role of grants. The article argues that although voicing in many respects pragmatic views concerning their job, many visual artists act upon the mythical conception of artist. Hence, they fall victim of their own ideology, only adding to the precarious situation for their part. In a country where the art market is lagging but the public training and support system is well developed, artists expect the state to provide for their practice and defy attempts to foster entrepreneurship. Obliterating the idea of selling products on the market, visual artists have started to redefine their role as public service providers that should be compensated for organizing exhibitions for the people. Visual artists moreover cherish the idea that art should be open to everybody. In these circumstances, in line with Abbing's theory, the number of artists keeps on rising and their economy worsening despite increases in government support.

There are more aspiring artists than available positions for artists in artistic la­bor markets. For fiction writers, the publication of a first book often means getting the first big break in their literary career and entering the literary world as a published author. However, few writers succeed in their aspiration to become published. This article draws on interviews with 59 writers in Sweden, to explore the tension resulting from the passing of time while aspiring for, but not having, the first big break. The aspiration among writers is an orientation towards attempting to publicly communicate their fiction writing through a published book. Interruptions to the aspiration can create existential dilemmas of unfulfilled aspirations. The unfulfillment of the aspiration may be existentially responded to through “urgency” or “floating”, where the writer actively pushes for success or loses the aspiration. The article addresses aspiration in situations where artists' chances for success are uncertain and are decided by gatekeepers. The theoretical framework developed is useful for understanding aspiration over time vis-a-vis existential dimensions of artistic careers which do not conform to an aspired for, ideal career.

The question of the temporal dynamics of artistic careers has often been accredited with the ambition of detecting the patterns leading to critical and/or public recognition. Thus the logics structuring the rhythms of the careers of artists with more “ordinary” destinies remain little known. Moreover, analysis of the weight of variables like gender, educational capital and social origin on the dynamics of these careers remains relatively unexplored. In order to mitigate this double lack, we intend to focus our attention on the social anchorings of the careers of “ordinary” male and female Swiss musicians. If we can locate common motivations (like an increasing intensity of work during their twenties), specialization in one of three markets of “ordinary” professional musical practice (creation/teaching/animating) intervenes early in their careers and appears strongly related to the assets the musicians bring to their art.

This paper utilizes qualitative and quantitative analysis to examine the careers of foreign (non-EU) musicians living and working in Europe, and in particular, the second phase of a career in classical music of Japanese musicians in France and Poland. It focuses on the endeavors of both male and female musicians to remain in the profession, in the face of a number of interrelated sources of inequality (i.e., socio-cultural origins, ethnicity, gender and class) (Winker/Degele, 2011) that have a structuring impact on their professional and life decisions. This analysis foregrounds ethnicity (nationality), socio-cultural origins, and socially contextualized gender as the most significant elements in the second stage of the career-making process. In other words, this article takes an intersectional stance (Crenshaw, 1995) to examine the process of performing a “modest” career in music for male and female Japanese migrant artists as a process of “working out a compromise” between what is desired (a passion for music and aesthetic satisfaction), what is professionally achievable (in France and Poland), and what is expected upon an eventual return to Japan.

The first experiments in business theatre aimed at solving internal “dysfunctions” in companies were launched in France in the late 1980s. However, these plays were performed by professional actors and actresses who played fictitious characters related to the world of work. What social logics motivated these actresses and actors to choose to exercise their dramatic skills in the business world? Do they define their activity within artistic auspices, in the role of consultant or on a “breadwinning” mode? Are these social logics affected by the moment in the actors' trajectories, particularly the second part of their career, the post 35-40 phase? And if so, why and how? Answering these questions in turn enriches our knowledge of the trajectories followed by these “modest” actors over the years, men and women who exercise their theatrical trade far from media projectors and prestigious theatre stages.

This text analyses the conditions for maintenance of activity by modest artists in the second part of their careers who, despite an absence of income associated with their artistic practice and a low level of recognition, continue to define themselves as artists. This article is based on two studies by interviews carried out among artists and professionals of art. Access to recognition presupposes successfully overcoming a certain number of hurdles by actors of legitimation of contemporary art. In the light of this model of professional ascension, as they advance in age artists who do not move through the various levels of recognition will end up consigned to the professional failure side. How, consequently, is one to continue to call him or herself an artist or maintain creative practice despite limited recognition and the impossibility of living from one's art?

This article approaches the strategies used by artists working in the dance and circus sector to prolong their on stage activity. If maintenance in a career is complex for all artists, it is that much more so when the activity exposes their bodies to wear early on. Two dimensions are examined: on the one hand, how artists readapt their trade to spare their bodies (by means of a “negotiation” under the auspices of their collective work agreement); and on the other, how multi-activity and self-employment mitigate forms of precarization in their trajectories. The data studied also illustrate a process of redefinition in ways of envisaging themselves as artists at the very time stage activity is no longer exercised or not in the same way. More generally, our analysis here will focus on the objective resiliencies of ageing used by choreographic and circus artists, and the ways in which reference to on stage artistic engagement can be extended beyond actual stage activity.