Chantier Autonome Bégaudeau May 2026

1. Preliminary Note This text is a proposition, not a manifesto. It borrows from Bégaudeau’s own method: starting from the material, the awkward, the unfinished. The “chantier autonome” (autonomous worksite) is not a school, not an association, not a startup. It is a temporary, self-managed space for doing things badly but together, without evaluation or hierarchy. 2. Founding Diagnosis (Bégaudeau-style) “Today, even rebellion has an agenda. Even creativity has KPIs.” The current situation, as Bégaudeau has described in his essays ( Contre la pédagogie de l’évaluation , Un démocrate, bordel , and his chronicles), is one of institutional capture of the living . Schools produce docile evaluators. Workplaces produce flexible subjects. Art residencies produce grant-seeking project managers. The so-called “alternative” spaces copy the same toxic protocols: call for projects, selection committee, deliverables, impact report.