NYK—mag 0425
02. Welcome to MaMA
Inside the elegant rooms, a short introduction set the tone for the days ahead. Rebecca Graversen welcomed the group, followed by Marc Thonon, founder of the French label Atmosphériques, who unfolded how the French music market is built on an intricate web of representation, legal structures, and union regulations. Afterwards, Johan Dalgaard, a Danish musician who has lived and worked in Paris for more than twenty years, gave a musician’s view of the same landscape. Together they drew a map of an industry that has institutionalised professionalism in a way that feels both highly structured and deeply cultural.
At MaMA Music & Convention, systems and structure was also visible everywhere. Delegates were scanned in and out of every venue using systems operated by several staff members and security guards. Simultaneous translation headsets were available at international panels, with events clearly marked for language accessibility. These gestures of precision and clarity were unfamiliar from a Danish perspective, where small-scale informality and trust-based organisation often shape cultural events. Here, there was a sense of care through order. A choreography that made everything run smoothly, yet silently reminded everyone that this was a professional arena.
The system felt efficient, and in many ways admirable. But its perfection also exposed a different philosophy of how culture is managed.
In France, to perform as an artist you must legally be represented by a promoter or venue who becomes your official employer. The model stems from union work designed to protect musicians, ensuring that every performance is contracted, every artist paid, and that legal standards of wage and insurance are respected. It is a framework built for protection and sustainability, yet one that simultaneously tightens access. For an emerging or independent artist, the requirement of formal representation can become a gate — an administrative threshold that decides who gets in.
By contrast, the Danish ecosystem relies heavily on flexibility. Musicians and curators navigate more freely between roles, often without intermediaries. The expectation of professionalism exists, but it’s not mandated through law. It lives in relationships, networks, and informal agreements. The price of this freedom, however, is that protection becomes voluntary. Payment standards vary, and support often depends on the ethics of organisers rather than legal obligation.
Comparing the two systems reveals a paradox that sits at the heart of cultural work: professionalism as both protection and restriction. The French structure guarantees financial fairness, yet limits spontaneity. The Danish model allows independence, yet risks exploitation. Each side carries both care and fragility. For someone working in a hybrid field between art, music, and curation, the question becomes less about choosing one or the other, and more about learning how to combine the best of both.
These contrasts don’t point to a right or wrong approach, but to different cultural architectures. In France, artistic professionalism is inherited from the national labour tradition, shaped by collective agreements and strong unions. In Denmark, professionalism is closer to a personal ethic — a belief in collaboration, shared risk, and social responsibility. Both are political, but their politics live in different places: one in the system, the other in the individual.
For NYK, the observation reaffirmed the path we’re already on. Our work is rooted in inclusion and independence. We operate on a small scale, yet with the ambition to create frameworks that make space for those who are rarely invited in. Seeing the French model in action reminded us why this independence matters, and why we continue to build structures that are light enough to move, but solid enough to guide people safely.
Professionalism, in the end, isn’t defined by how polished a system looks, but by how it treats the people inside of it. The challenge for organisations like ours is to grow without losing the openness that made us start in the first place.