This Manifest proposes

• to every person who wishes it within civil society the means to assume, either singly or in association with others, the role of commissioning a work of art from an artist; it also proposes to give such persons the means to assume the role of legitimizing an investment in its creation which will be requested of the community. In this way, it is up to the person in question to understand and to state a reason for which art is meant to be.
• to the artists, to create within a real context and to act with the people who will give worth through use to the forms and concepts created.
• to the mediators who establish connections between the works and the public, the possibility also to be mediators between the artist and the patron in person, and, beyond them, among all the players who will happen to be involved. Guaranteeing the respect for the requirements of the demand and of the creative activity, this mediator shall evaluate with the players the relevance and feasibility of the project. He will also suggest the suitable medium and artist as well as offer the technical, legal and financial expertise required to act.
• to the political actors and the trustees of public or private organizations whether they are non profit organizations or not, to take into consideration the initiatives of the patrons and to accept the mediation between them and the community in which the work will establish itself; they may also, should they so wish, personally assume responsibility for a commission in association with others.
• to researchers in various fields, to put into perspective the undertaken action and to base it on an intelligent reading of the situations at stake the stakes that will be better shared.

In committing to an equal sharing of responsibilities, all players agree to manage through negotiation the tensions and conflicts inherent in public life within a democracy. The work of art thus ceases to be merely the emblematic expression of someone’s individuality to become the expression of autonomous persons who have decided to form a community in order to invent new ways of relating to the world and to give to contemporary creative activity a shared meaning.

François Hers
*the implementation of this Manifest began in 1991.