Le Merle
Austerity

Co-edited by Edith Brunette & François Lemieux

Vol. 3, nº 1
(in English and French)

Summer 2015

In 2011, a right-wing coalition government in the Netherlands announced drastic cuts in public support for the arts and culture as part of an austerity agenda. Absent an effective opposition, the government succeeded in cutting the funding of numerous projects, gutting cultural organizations that were vital to the cultural milieu. Artists, writers and cultural workers discuss the circumstances, the effects of the cuts, and what dampened artists’, students’ and political groups’ attempts to fight them. This issue draws attention to the circumstances, but also to the various artistic and political initiatives that emerged from that struggle.

Coedited with François Lemieux, this issue of Le Merle brings together contributions by Koen Brams (ex-director of the Jan van Eyck Academy), Edd Schouten (artist and choreographer), Rune Peitersen (artist, co-founder and president of Platform Beeldende Kunst), Gaby Felten (artiste), Aetzel Griffioen (educator and philosopher) and Alexandre Poulin (Ph.D. candidate at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis). Their texts highlight a collective research for agency at a time when policy is aligned on economic criteria, including in the cultural sector.

Available on Le Merle website
lemerle.xyz

Le Merle is a semiannual journal created by Montreal-based artist François Lemieux, combining texts by artists and writers interested in the political and its nuances between words and deeds.