The back of the Desert
14 - 28 Jun 2012
THE BACK OF THE DESERT
14 - 28 June 2012
Students of the Creation & Research Workshop 'Opus Collection' of the National School of Arts of Paris-Cergy (ENSAPC) invest the Crédac from Françoise and Jean-Philippe Billarant’s collection of minimal and conceptual art.
"Dear Françoise, dear Jean-Philippe,
Your collection shown at the Silo, the place that you opened in the Marines in Val d'Oise in 2011 has been, implicitly, the backbone of our project. Asked to examine this body of minimal and conceptual works from the 1970s to today, we imagined the project The back of the Desert. Impressed by your flawless hanigng and by the proposals of our elders, we were touched by your generosity and desire to open your collection to a special experience. The stories you have told us during our meetings and the closeness you have with the works and artists have allowed us to generate new formal and conceptual dialogues with these historical figures.
What can be said about these works explored so many times? How far can we strip the effort to root out of these works the core of our productions? How to situate ourselves in relation to that legacy? For the student as to the artist, it is always a question of position. Based on our respective practices, we have foiled or replayed material, gestures and postures to confuse them, reverse them or extend them. We then play at tracing desire lines between the artists in the collection and three institutional sites. These paths, formed by the time, that connect and bring some points in a city reappear in this project in the form of geographical, intellectual and emotional intersections where young practices dare to meddle with those they quote.
Of these places and their crossings emerges a common landscape, suggested by the paradoxical title of the exhibition "The back of the Desert", a place that can exist only if created out of thin air.
Sincerely,
Méryll Ampe, Clarisse Bachellier, Maxime Bersweiler, Maxime Bichon, Juliette Broquet, Louise Folly, Virginia Gamna, Pierre‐Henry Kleinbaum, Olivier Lavenac, Alice Maillot, Sara Martinetti, Gloria Maso, Floriane Pilon, Allister Sinclair, Hua Yang, Alicia Zaton »
14 - 28 June 2012
Students of the Creation & Research Workshop 'Opus Collection' of the National School of Arts of Paris-Cergy (ENSAPC) invest the Crédac from Françoise and Jean-Philippe Billarant’s collection of minimal and conceptual art.
"Dear Françoise, dear Jean-Philippe,
Your collection shown at the Silo, the place that you opened in the Marines in Val d'Oise in 2011 has been, implicitly, the backbone of our project. Asked to examine this body of minimal and conceptual works from the 1970s to today, we imagined the project The back of the Desert. Impressed by your flawless hanigng and by the proposals of our elders, we were touched by your generosity and desire to open your collection to a special experience. The stories you have told us during our meetings and the closeness you have with the works and artists have allowed us to generate new formal and conceptual dialogues with these historical figures.
What can be said about these works explored so many times? How far can we strip the effort to root out of these works the core of our productions? How to situate ourselves in relation to that legacy? For the student as to the artist, it is always a question of position. Based on our respective practices, we have foiled or replayed material, gestures and postures to confuse them, reverse them or extend them. We then play at tracing desire lines between the artists in the collection and three institutional sites. These paths, formed by the time, that connect and bring some points in a city reappear in this project in the form of geographical, intellectual and emotional intersections where young practices dare to meddle with those they quote.
Of these places and their crossings emerges a common landscape, suggested by the paradoxical title of the exhibition "The back of the Desert", a place that can exist only if created out of thin air.
Sincerely,
Méryll Ampe, Clarisse Bachellier, Maxime Bersweiler, Maxime Bichon, Juliette Broquet, Louise Folly, Virginia Gamna, Pierre‐Henry Kleinbaum, Olivier Lavenac, Alice Maillot, Sara Martinetti, Gloria Maso, Floriane Pilon, Allister Sinclair, Hua Yang, Alicia Zaton »