****** End of the Audiovisual Library: our audiovisual heritage in liquidation ******
***** While the FWB gives up, our neighbours invest: France, Germany, the Netherlands support their media libraries as the pillars of identity and education. *****
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- Published on 03-11-2025 à 17:06
- Updated on 03-11-2025 at 17:09
[ Pinching to the heart for those who have spent an incalculable number of hours in a thrilling and endless treasure hunt, through PointCulture bins. ]
An opinion of Maxence Lemaire, teacher and user from Brussels
October likes revolutions. One of this year's events is brutal: the
government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation has decided to abolish
the programme contract of the ASBL Médiathèque Nouvelle, ex-Point
Culture. Concrete translation: closure of the centres, loss of 55
professionals and uncertainty about the fate of the 400 000 Belgian
and foreign references in music, cinema, documentary and young
audience. Our audiovisual heritage, the fruit of 70 years of work, is
thus placed in liquidation.
To_read_also
The_Federation_Wallonia-Brussels_advertise_the_end_of_the_Media Library_News,55_jobs_threatened:_"We_have_summer_shocked_by_this_decision"
We are told that the population has given a clear mandate to right the
budget bar. Of course, but no party program announced the dismantling
of the Media Library. As a result, voters did not give any blanks to
erase our sound and visual memory.
Change, is it destroying? The real reform would be to modernise the
preservation and accessibility of these funds, to better link them to
digital. In the face of the economic storm, the courage is not to
squander a few percent of the budget, but to keep these islets of
breath, which are the arts, sources of vitality and
humanity. Preserving our cultural gems is through such an act that
true power is expressed.
***** False Pretext *****
We object that the Media Library has become obsolete in the face of
streaming. It's a false pretext. Libraries are not closed on the
pretext that there are libraries, nor are they closed because Amazon
sells games. The mission of lending and conservation has nothing to do
with sales logic. Music platforms are private operators subject to
market and algorithm laws. Powerful today, they can disappear
tomorrow. Belgian creation is drowned under the label
"Benelux". Moreover, many references available at the Audiovisual
Library no longer exist in commerce or online. Public service is the
only guarantee of the sustainability of our heritage.
To_read_also
The former Media Library
It is claimed that the Audiovisual Library duplicates other
institutions. Where can we borrow from another audiovisual catalogue
today? Nowhere! Pressenties, the Royal Library of Belgium or the State
Archives have neither the mission of the loan nor the expertise
required for such collections. To entrust this fund to an unprepared
operator is to condemn him to oblivion, it is a first-class burial.
While the FWB gives up, our neighbours invest: France, Germany, the
Netherlands support their media libraries as the pillars of identity
and education. Muntpunt, the Flemish media library shines in the heart
of Brussels, a modern and welcoming flagship rooted in its time. Thus,
everywhere else, it is understood that a strong cultural heritage is
the backbone of a nation. Why would we be the only ones who would
deprive us of it? It would be a cultural exception backwards, a
negative exception.
***** One error *****
Certainly, the transformation of the name of La Médiathèque into Point
Culture was a mistake, contributing to its invisibility. But after
recent sacrifices (reduction of centres and staff) and a return to its
designation of origin, the Médiathèque Nouvelle is gradually regaining
its identity and raison d'être, particularly with the opening of its
pole in Auderghem (Brussels). She deserves to be accompanied.
Love who we are. Keep them, these films and these musics created here
or elsewhere: they carry what we were, what you are, and will shed
light on what we will be. Will the future of the Wallonia-Brussels
Federation be written without audiovisual memory? Will Belgian
Francophone amnesia be our European exception? Think further than your
initializer: if Churchill defended the culture under the bombs, only
spreadsheets hover over your advisors, so it should be less
difficult. Let their gum serve repentance rather than erasure.