Lyon. Culture: “We have no visibility”

“I have been out of work for almost a year. I do not live, I survive, ”testifies a 25-year-old lighting manager. Like him, several hundred people mobilized this Tuesday, January 19, as part of a national day of action for cultural professions. In Lyon, the procession marched in music, in the early afternoon between the opera, the Célestin theater and the Comédie Odéon theater. “We are fighting to save our places,” assures Julien Poncet, director of Comédie Odéon. “We know that the whole sector is in significant psychological distress, as well as financial suffering for a certain number. We must all say that we exist and that we feel an injustice with regard to the closure of our places with regard to what we can see elsewhere in the commercial system. “Cancellation of shows should not mean a loss of income for the artists”, emphasizes Pierre-Yves Lenoir, director of Celestins. “We have no visibility,” Julien Poncet added. Cédric Van Styvendael, mayor of Villeurbanne and vice-president of culture at the Métropole de Lyon, came to give them their support: to let the cultural sites open and welcome the public ”.