Culture is a powerful agent of influence that all governments seek to tame from the beginning of their administration. From promoting friendly artists to punishing wayward celebrities, everything is allowed in the cultural battle that each administration seeks to wage, especially because since the trench of culture It is where the atmosphere of the time can be best translated and any political message consolidated. The same thing can happen the other way around: the main stronghold of resistance can also arise from culture. Humor, music, theater, cinema or any artistic expression can synthesize a message that celebrates or demolishes a government. This is why managing the link with culture is a difficult and complex task that can create allies or enemies, but one thing is clear: no one is indifferent.
In the administration of Javier Mileiwho must manage this field is Leonardo Cifellia well-known theater producer who took over as Secretary of Culture and who reports to Minister Sandra Pettovello. In the last of the President’s public fights he had a secondary role, but no less important, because he is perhaps the best example of what a good student must do if he wants to be applauded by his teachers.
It turns out that actress Cecilia Roth spoke about Milei’s government in the Spanish news agency Efeminista and said: “I believe that the Government is censoring. I know it, I see it, I feel it, I know it. You cannot talk about the civil-military dictatorship, you cannot talk about gender in cinema, you cannot talk about climate change and there cannot be any film in which it appears. Lali Esposito. In no public place can films that have these four issues be shown. They censor, literally.” Milei picked up the gauntlet and here Cifelli’s role comes into play. “I’m with Leo Cifelli – he praised him in a tweet – and he tells me that the great actress Cecilia Roth only sells 600 tickets per week. Therefore, it must be explained to her that she is not in demand because she is not wanted, not because of censorship. Obviously it is easier to cry censorship than to accept its failure.”
On this point it is important to clarify that the play “The Mother”, starring Rothis shown four times a week at the Picadero Theater, which has capacity for 260 people. That is to say, Roth is selling 60 percent of the tickets. This level of occupancy, according to the Argentine Association of Theatrical and Musical Entrepreneurs (AADET), places it in the top ten of the most viewed theatrical works in the City of Buenos Aires. Added to this is that, due to the criticism that Milei launched at the request of the information that Cifelli diligently brought to her, Roth’s play sold all the tickets in the last week, so it will probably rise in the ranking.
To end ticket sales, the actor Gustavo Garzonwho shares work with Roth, in an interview with La Nación told of her importance at the box office. “I know that, more or less, I sell thirty tickets per show. No more than that. I verified it in the towns, on the tours I do. I have a small audience, but I don’t fill a room. We depend on Cecilia, who is a convening figure and she does sell the entire audience. We are the support so that she can display her talent. She is international and I am domestic. It’s reality. The show is her. He is on stage all the time and uses all kinds of acting resources to take his character as high as possible. What he does is admirable,” he said.
Past
Leonardo Cifellilike the majority of those responsible for Culture at the national level, arrives with the premise of optimizing resources and transforming public management into an engine of development for Argentine cultural industries. The minister is known in that world because he worked in the theater and music industry since he was 18, where he says he has worked in more than 100 theater productions.
FHe is the producer of iconic works such as “Dracula”, directed in the country by Ángel Mahlerand also collaborated with artists such as Valeria Lynch. This link with Mahler and Lynch had a chapter in public office in 2016, when the former was Minister of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires during the first administration of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. Cifelli was Mahler’s chief of staff in the Buenos Aires administration and in those years the criticism I received was that they hired friendly artists like Valeria Lynch. Even the comparison with Kirchnerism was that, just as the national government had favorite artists like Fito Páez, the City also had its own, such as, for example, Raúl Lavié.
Now, with Javier Mileithe story is different, there is not so much money to spend and part of its management consists of rationalizing money and even reducing expenses. In an interview with Eduardo FeinmannCifelli said he managed reduce Tecnópolis costswhich amounted to 1,600 million pesos annually. Another measure was that there be cultural spaces that generate their own income through the rental of facilities for private events, to guarantee their self-sustainability.
Another cut that Cifelli implemented was the reduction of subsidies in the cinemawith the argument that previously productions of little relevance were financed. Roth, for her part, a diplomat, did not want to blame Cifelli and preferred to say: “I am surprised that the Secretary of Culture participates in this type of attacks. It seems that their role is to provide information to feed these criticisms, instead of defending culture as a space of freedom and diversity.”
Cifelli on its social networks shares not only institutional content, but also posts from influencers and troll accounts that enhance the official discourse. One of the last posts on the social network X (ex Twitter), at the close of this edition, was a heartfelt farewell to the actress Alejandra Darin after his death. She, however, did not have the best opinions about the Government in matters of cultural management. “This government is an attack on culture because it is an attack on everything, and it has to do, it seems to me, with dominance. We have turned from citizens into victims of devastating policies, where lies are the currency. The only way out is to respect each other and assert our rights,” Darín said in an interview with Página/12 last November.
A government that seeks to fight in the cultural battle has in Cifelli one of its best references, not because of his firepower, but because of his remarkable ability to align.
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