French star: ‘Covid was very damaging for culture, but it was very good for art’

The quote comes from the French pianist Lucas Debargue, speaking in Moscow.

Here’s the full muse:

‘I say something what might sound provocative. Pandemic was very damaging for culture, but it was very good for art. Art is a spiritual matter, it’s a matter of life and death. It’s not only entertainment. Of course, for entertainment it was disaster – and it’s still disaster. But art is dealing with inner life, what happens in one’s soul. It has nothing to do with surface, how famous you are, how many people read your books or listen to your CD.

‘Artists for me are like family who are keeping some very old spiritual values on earth. They are also kind of doctors. For me, an artist should be able to live being aware of big problems like this pandemic now and still create as much as possible. Even when in these horrible conditions, when you live in very little space – you can still have the space inside of you.
Some people might say – if you have nothing to eat, no job – you have no time for your inner space. But I fight against this idea. Because

‘I have proofs throughout history of humankind. There were great people who were able still to compose, paint, write even in awful conditions. [—]

‘I don’t understand why nowadays so many places, concert houses are not reopening with the strict protocol when we know that we are able to respect this strict protocole. But I also want to see another aspect of the same situation. For me art cannot be ruled by pandemic. There were already many pandemics in human history and art only got enriched by that. [—] I try to get some hope from this.’