Portrait of a Public Service as Intermediary: The ANPE Spectacle of Paris

In his study of the Parisian ANPE Spectacle, the author seeks to examine the issues inherent in the intervention of a public service tasked with acting as an intermediary in the artistic job market, which has different characteristics from the markets usually dealt with by the agency. Based on a socio-historic survey of both administrative archives and interviews, the article brings to light the inherent conflict of the guiding objectives of bureaucratic management of private art agents, and restricting access to this particular agency.