The Magnetic Residencies artistic committee met on September 24, 2024, and selected artist Racheal Crowther for a residency at Bétonsalon as part of the 3rd edition of this program. Racheal Crowther will be in residence at Bétonsalon for 3 months, from April to July 2025. She will receive a grant of €2,500 per month, a studio-apartment at the Cité internationale des Arts, a curatorial support from the Bétonsalon team, as well as networking opportunities with art professionals to develop her research. The residency project Racheal Crowther is interested in the biopolitics that govern the public and private spaces we inhabit, and that constitute their physical and psychological boundaries. She explores the social constructions that underlie the material functions of these spaces, drawing on the social, commercial and institutional environments in which she herself has evolved. In her essay The Eternal Pursuit of the Unattainable (Montez Press, 2024), Racheal Crowther looks at the different uses and representations of perfume, from poison to counterfeit, and its power to influence consumer psychology. She demonstrates how the marketing of perfumes exploits the human yearning for something beyond the ordinary, and explores the issues linked to the socio-economic level that determines access to them, the expression of the gender identities that underpin them, and the history of the acquisition of olfactory materials. During her residency at Bétonsalon, she hopes to deepen her research into olfactory materials by studying the way in which odours are used to influence mood and behaviour, based on studies at the ISIPCA (Institut Supérieur International du Parfum, de la Cosmétique et de l’Aromatique alimentaire) and the olfactory archives of the Osmothèque de Versailles, the largest conservatory of perfumes in the world.

Bétonsalon is part of the Magnetic Residencies program, run by Fluxus Art Projects, built around tandem partnerships between institutions and residencies based in a French region (CAPC in Bordeaux, Frac Grand Large in Dunkerque, Frac Bretagne in Rennes and Villa Arson in Nice) and a British nation (Wysing Arts Centre, Cove Park, Aberystwyth Arts Center, Flax Art Studios). Artists from each of the five French regions are invited to apply for the residency based in an associated British nation; artists from each British nation can apply for the residency based in the associated French region. For the 4th edition of Magnetic, Gasworks (London) and Bétonsalon offer two 2-month residencies for two artists, one based in Ile-de-France region and the other in England. Bétonsalon welcomes applications which engage with practices rooted in an exploration of sensorial relationships to the world and offering collective tools to reassess the way our body and mind are affected by and respond to the multiple crisis we are currently facing. We support artistic research which aims to broaden our understanding of physical and emotional interrelations between human and non-human – through performance, immersive installation, film, sound, care practices, radical pedagogies, participatory experiments etc. – and to question the way social and institutional frameworks shape experiences with our environment. The residency offers: – Artist fees of 2500 €/month – A private furnished studio-apartment at the Cité internationale des Arts – A round-trip to and from Paris (local transports are also covered) – Administrative support and curatorial mentoring for the development of the research – Network opportunities (studio visits, meetings, exhibition visits) with art professionals, curators, artists, institutions, art centres and galleries in Paris Duration of the residency This 2-month residency will run from April to May 2026, followed by a one-month extension in June as part of the Institut Français x Cité internationale des Arts residency program. Application process – The Magnetic 4 call for applications will be open from 20 May to 14 July 2025 (midnight) on Fluxus Art Projects website. – Applications are not open to students, except for PhD candidates – Artists in both France and the UK are considered to be based in a region if they have an address (residence) within that region/nation – All applications must be written in English – Joint applications (duo, collective, etc) are not accepted Selection criteria This call is aimed at professional artists working in the field of visual arts who have already presented their work in several professional venues identified by contemporary art networks. Applications will be assessed by a selection committee on the basis on the artistic ambition within a professional practice rooted in contemporary visual arts, the relevance of the artist’s proposal within the residency’s context and focus and the motivation for an international residency at this point in the artist’s career. Timeline – 20 May – 14 July 2025: call for applications – First half of September 2025: selection committees with online interviews of preselected artists -17th October 2025: public announcement of Magnetic 4 laureates – April – June 2026: residency at Bétonsalon Accessibility As part of its commitment to accessibility for all, the Bétonsalon team is working to continuously improve the visitor experience and the support the artists with whom we collaborate. We are developing programs, tools and activities designed to provide inclusive support adapted to the needs of everyone. Access to the art centre without any structural restrictions and the ability to move around the various areas open to the public without any obstacles or hindrances are key requirements for full accessibility. Some office spaces, however, are only accessible by stairs. Some studio-apartments in the Cité internationale des Arts are accessible to people with reduced mobility via an elavator. However, this is not the case for all communal areas of the premises. Studios can accommodate up to two adults and one child under the age of 7. Any specific need linked to a personal situation (disability, medical condition, family, etc) should be indicated prior to the residency so that appropriate support can be provided. Further information on the Magnetic Residences program is available on the Fluxus Art Projects website.

ADAGP – French royalty collecting and distribution society et Bétonsalon – center for art and research (Paris), in partnership with the Archives de la critique d’art (Rennes) The artistic committee of the ADAGP / Bétonsalon research grant met on 10 June 2025 and chose No Anger as the laureate. They are the eighth artist to receive this grant after franck leibovici (2017), Liv Sculman (2018), Euridice Zaituna Kala (2019), Anne Le Troter (2021), Abdessamad El Montassir (2022), artist duo Irma Name (2023), and Florian Fouché (2024). The ADAGP / Bétonsalon grant is an endowment of €15,000 intended to support an artist in a research project over the course of several months. Bétonsalon – centre for art and research supports the artist in the research and production process. The artist receives €4,000 in fees and €8,000 for production. The artistic project Il ne faut pas oublier le futur [We must not forget the future] How can dissident bodies disrupt a patriarchal writing of the future, resist it, and turn hope into a political act? Invoking Donna Haraway’s cyborg figure, No Anger aims to propose alternative narratives to the relationship of human/machine subordination, through experimentation with forms of codependence and hybridity that escape the normative and validist visions of technology. In particular, it will involve rethinking the narrative of the destinies assigned to marginalised and invisibilised bodies through cyber-feminist hacking strategies that challenge dominant ontologies and temporalities. Following Nathalie Magnan’s reflections on the media construction of identities deemed subversive, this research aims to highlight the counter-visualities generated by the tactical media invested by activist collectives, as well as the representations of a minority common that they help to shape and spread. Looking at piracy and virality as tools for derailing, contaminating and reconfiguring dysfunctional networks and institutional structures, this project aims to cripple our imaginations by exploring “futurographies” that break with binary and technophobic schemas. Through the intersection of lesbian, queer and disabled experiences, No Anger aims to question the perception and encoding of ‘states of body’ based on a relationship of complementarity and reciprocity with the technologies that support and structure her daily life. Drawing on the visual grammar of Nathalie Magnan’s film Lesborama (1995) and the programme L’Œil du Cyclone (broadcast on Canal+ from 1991 to 2000), No Anger will make a film combining extracts from written and film archives in Nathalie Magnan’s collection with textual, vocal and performative experiments co-constructed with a robot. Deeply rooted in personal narratives, this work will draw multiple connections from the testimonies of people affected by these issues, enabling us to cross-reference visions of desirable and emancipatory futures within different communities and historical contexts.

  As part of the exhibition “The Untamable Hand” by Hedwig Houben, the artists in this programme have been invited to present a series of performances, readings and artistic practice workshops from which to probe the ambiguous territories of embarrassment, disgust and the body’s unexpectedness. Exploring the forms and resistances of the body in the face of aesthetic and social norms, this programme aims to explore the critical and liberating power of letting go. Programme: • 4pm to 5pm “From hysteria as symptom language to feminist poetics: arts, bodies, writing.” Lecture by Sofia Batko. • 5pm to 6pm Discussion with Hedwig Houben, Émilie Renard and Vincent Enjalbert on the exhibition “The Untamable Hand”. • 7pm to 10pm “Borborygmi” evening Readings, performances and DJ set With Nicole*, Lisa Lecuivre, Estelle Benazet Heugenhauser, Helena de Laurens, Star Finch and cl✰ra. We call “borborygmi” the sounds that, rising from our intestines, give voice to the liquids and gases of the food our bodies are trying—more or less laboriously—to process, transform and digest. We can agree, even though we’re not all equal when it comes to food, that a purée won’t sound quite the same as a raw bell pepper during digestion… Burrrp, beuuuurp, beuuuurglll are just some of the onomatopoeias that evoke the noisy churn of matter transmuting deep within the recesses of our guts. A machinery of flesh made up of acids and all sorts of fluids, these noises remind our minds—so quick to deny—that a functional body is one that produces plenty of miasmas and gurgles. The mystery of alchemy is long gone; the mechanics of a stool-to-be make themselves audibly known. The louder, longer, and more rolling the sound, the greater the embarrassment—and with it, the revulsion at the idea of letting others hear the workings of one’s inner self. Projecting its textured orality into the outside world, the body speaks and writes itself, offering up the rankness of its own language. Thus, much against our will, the sounds spill out and overflow, while brows furrow, nostrils flare, and upper lips curl in distaste. In her performance Borborygmus¹, Hedwig Houben speaks of borborygmi as a manifestation of the IT within her: “IT, she explains, standing before a table strewn with clay-colored, intestine-like forms, is this multiple, undefined, and evolving thing. (…) It’s as if something managed to get inside (my) body. But how? And who? And what?”² Beyond mere anecdote or aside, the borborygmus—or any other phonetic bodily discharge—evokes the language of a body that trembles, pulses, and undulates to the rhythm of its own “now”. A body momentarily become other, which runs wild and seems to do as it pleases. Something is made manifest that, in spite of us, inserts itself into our speech, derailing it—forcing a pause, a restart, or an awkward cough. Something needs to come out, literally or figuratively, provoking shame, self-disgust (or disgust at others), a loss of control, and a sense of estrangement from oneself. What do we do with this IT? Should it be tamed, silenced, allowed to do its thing, or given a space of its own? Speaking of another kind of release—the barf—American poet Dodie Bellamy writes: “barf is messy, irregular, but you can feel in your guts that it’s going somewhere, you can’t stop it… you’ve just got to let it runs its course.”³ And what if what disturbs us most isn’t this encounter with an autonomous interiority, but the looks from others—marked by discomfort, disgust, and judgment. Already, morality rears its head, building its foundations on a physiological reaction presented as “natural.” As limit experiences positioned on the fringes of the thinkable or the acceptable, discomfort and disgust evoke a moral dimension that disciplines, corrects, and holds bodies in place. Perhaps we need to shift our focus—to let this unruly body do its thing, in order to interrogate discomfort and disgust as powerful analytical tools for understanding the hierarchies and discriminations that their social and political uses enable. How can “letting go” become an intellectual position, a methodology with its own aesthetic and political priorities? What does it mean to insist on disorder, improvisation, and release—for what this provokes in ourselves and in others—as a means of cultural critique and political engagement? While we assume them to be spontaneous and beyond language, aren’t these bodily manifestations and the discomfort they cause shaped by our social habits? It is precisely because they dwell in—or are relegated to—the murky margins of our social behaviors, that we need to collectively examine them, that we need words to tell their stories, images to capture them, gestures to reenact them. This program seeks to deconstruct and question the behavioral and aesthetic norms that shape our imaginations. Elena Lespes Muñoz

Notations, protocols, scripts, drawings, diagrams, archives, assemblages, narratives… What if every performance were essentially bound to forms of writing? And what if these traces of an uncertain past contained within them the possibilities of distant futures ? In this lecture series, we will question the relationship between action and score across different fields of practice: artistic, institutional, activist. Artists will come to speak about their relationship to archives as performance scores; activists, about the techniques they use to transmit their actions; curators and archivists will present the tools they deploy to preserve them; exhibition curators will discuss the know-how they develop to (re)activate them.