Cannes 2026 Dispatch, Part 1: Breaking False Unities – Notes

The Death of Institutional Neutrality: Why Art is No Longer a “Safe Space”

For decades, the global art world operated under a comforting illusion: the idea that museums, galleries, and biennials were neutral territories. These spaces were framed as Habermasian marketplaces of ideas where diverse opinions could coexist without friction. However, recent events at the Venice Biennale and the Cannes Film Festival suggest that this era is officially over.

We are witnessing a decisive shift. The “neutral” institution is increasingly viewed not as a fair arbiter, but as a shield for the status quo. When collectives like the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) disrupt exhibitions to protest “art-washing,” they aren’t just protesting a specific government; they are challenging the very premise that art can—or should—be separated from the political violence of the real world.

Looking forward, the trend is clear: cultural institutions will either evolve into explicit sites of political engagement or face increasing obsolescence. The boundary between the “creative act” and the “political act” has dissolved. In the future, the value of a work of art may be judged not by its aesthetic merit alone, but by its refusal to maintain a “false unity” in the face of crisis.

From Media Monopolies to “Techno-Fascism”

The anxiety surrounding the concentration of power—exemplified by the Vivendi group and Vincent Bolloré’s influence over French media—points to a deeper, more systemic trend. We are moving beyond simple economic monopolies into an era of ideological vertical integration.

When a single entity controls the news, the publishing houses, the cinema screens, and the streaming platforms, they don’t just control the content; they control the imaginary. This is what critics are beginning to call “techno-fascism.” It is a fusion of technological power and affective management, where algorithms and vertical integration modulate our desires, attention, and perception of truth.

As generative AI continues to integrate into this pipeline, the risk grows. We aren’t just looking at the standardization of films or books, but at a capillary form of control where the “permissible” opinion is baked into the software we use to consume culture. The future of cultural resistance will likely center on “de-platforming” the imagination—finding ways to create and distribute art outside these integrated corporate loops.

The Möbius Strip: Life in the Age of the “Post-Image”

We have entered a phase where there is no longer an “outside” to the image. As seen in the hyper-referential cinema of Jane Schoenbrun, our emotional alphabet is now formed through a continuous loop of media references. We don’t just watch movies; we live our lives as if they were remakes of movies we’ve already seen.

This “Möbius strip” effect—where the subject and object of vision exchange places—suggests a future where the concept of “authenticity” must be entirely redefined. If every image is a remake and every emotion is a cinematic trope, the search for a “pure,” unmediated reality is a fool’s errand.

The next wave of influential art will likely stop trying to “represent” reality and instead lean into this saturation. We will see more works that treat life as a self-referential circuit, exploring how we can find genuine human connection through the artifice, rather than by trying to escape it. The goal is no longer to find the “truth” behind the image, but to navigate the images to find a new form of subjectivity.

The Trap of Aesthetic Nostalgia

In times of extreme political volatility, there is a recurring temptation to retreat into “pure culture”—the belief that art is a spiritual realm superior to the “dirtiness” of politics. This is the fantasy of the 19th-century bourgeois ideal, where culture is a sanctuary.

However, history warns us that this retreat is often a blind spot. When we imagine a culture that stands “above” history, we ignore how that very detachment can pave the way for authoritarianism. By refusing to reckon with political modernity, “pure” culture often provides the psychological cover for the very forces it claims to despise.

The trend for the coming decade will be a clash between this nostalgic retreat and a rigorous, historical accounting. The most enduring works will be those that refuse the “consolatory ghost” of a lost spiritual world and instead embrace the friction, the contradiction, and the violence of the present moment.

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