La pièce rouge [...]

Angus Maguire's drawing is about human relationships in society. It is made available by the Interaction Institute for Social Change, an American association that defends the rights of discriminated populations(1). Realizing the impact of unequal treatment, the artist presents scenarios that could improve accessibility to a cultural event, such as a baseball game. Through the notion of pedestal, evocative in the sporting context, the author makes us understand the advantage of an equitable distribution of benefits, in compensation for inequalities between individuals. Joking about the situation, he finally presents an ideal scene where the view is no longer obstructed by the fence. If there are no more obstacles, there is no more problem to solve.

In her book Art and Democracy, the philosopher Joëlle Zask explains that “unrecognized people have no public existence. Access to the common world is closed to them”(2). We must start by recognizing the excluded as full citizens, who should enjoy the same rights as others. Therefore, it is necessary to organize things to facilitate access to public areas, taking into account the specificity of each person. Since the 1970s, museums have understood the need to adapt their content, formerly considered elitist, by democratizing access to collections, with signage adapted to the public(3). They gradually transformed into immersive environments of playful discoveries. The visitor can become an actor of his discovery by moving freely in these spaces, not only as an assisted consumer. Today, new technologies, interactive terminals, digital tablets, augmented reality, are used as seduction tools for new audiences, especially the youngest(4).

But specialists agree that digital technology cannot solve everything and that the sensory discovery with the works of art must be preserved, especially for audiences with disabilities, such as people suffering from an attention deficit disorder, or blind people. In 2012, a study made "a theoretical analysis of the functioning of attention during the tactile aesthetic experience" in Parisian museums(5). At the Louvre, an installation of 16 replicas of sculptures that can be touched has met great success with disabled visitors. At the Rodin Museum, it is even allowed to touch a group of original works, without using gloves. But there is still a lot to do to make the visits really accessible, by having better trained guides to welcome these audiences, or by facilitating access to transport to get to the museum(6).

The question of accessibility to culture is an essential point for many professionals in the visual arts. The artist Thomas Hirschhorn writes: "I want a work that involves the other, which in turn allows him to be active"(7). He is known for having proposed the participation in the construction of monuments to a population unfamiliar with contemporary art. For my part, I organize exhibitions for families, who do not frequent art centers and museums, for economic reasons or because of geographic distance. I offer them a workshop of artistic practice entitled Jeu de mains, Je, Demain(8). They can thus learn the technique of molding and participate at the same time in the realization of a collective creation. In 2016, I molded the hands of the children of the Nelson Mandela public primary school in Rennes. Then, I built a sculpture whose surface consists of all their imprints. It is located in the Beauregard district near the school. Sometimes this workshop can become a performance. So, in 2017, in two days, I took 350 hand prints of visitors during a street festival in Saint Malo. It's my way of recognizing their dignity.