"Les midideux" : 4 short talks

IN NOVEMBER / DECEMBER, FROM 12 TO 2 P.M.

From November 7 to December 13, Bétonsalon – Center for Art and Research, is plan­ning a series of 30 minute mini-con­fer­ences around Mandy El-Sayegh’s exhi­bi­tion, White Grounds. These lec­tures will be given by researchers from var­ious dis­ci­plines: Jean-Claude Serge Lévy (physics), Jean-François Ternay (science and media), Elisabeth Essaïan (car­tog­raphy), and Claudia Girola (anthro­pology).
The “mi­dideux” will be intro­duced by Guillaume Meigneux, Assistant Professor in Plastic and Visual Arts, who will pre­sent the issues related to White Grounds. Based on one of the themes approached by the artist, the mate­rials she used, or one of her key-con­cepts, the “mi­dideux” will attempt to estab­lish cor­rel­a­tive links between art, science and anthro­pology, in a trans­dis­ci­plinary way.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019, AT 12 P.M.

Details from Estimated at 296, Mandy El-Sayegh, latex and mixed media tiles, 2019. Image credit © Aurélien Mole.

Jean-Claude Serge Lévy, "Complexity and dis­order"

The occu­pa­tion of space and the prin­ciple of optimal filling of a volume (packing and cov­ering) are pow­erful geo­metric themes. The sym­metry of the Platonic solids, the motifs of Islamic art, as well as crys­tal­log­raphy, attest to this theory. The long-dis­tance cor­re­la­tions of this dec­o­ra­tion sug­gest an imbal­ance, a dynamic.
Jean-Claude Serge Lévy is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Quantum Materials and Phenomena Laboratory at the Paris Diderot University. Specialist in Solid-State Physics and Magnetism, he has been hosting the "Complexity-dis­order" Days for sev­eral years.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2019, AT 12 P.M.

Details from White Grounds 12 (artefacta), Mandy El-Sayegh, Oil on linen work with various materials, 2019. Image credit © Aurélien Mole.

Jean-François Ternay, "Circulation of sci­en­tific images of the body: appro­pri­a­tion and mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion"

Scientific and med­ical visu­al­iza­tions of the body, such as that of the brain or the human embryo, can cir­cu­late from the hos­pital to the anatomy museum, be reused on the Internet or in a magazine, and then appear in a TV doc­u­men­tary. Even today, the tra­di­tion of anatom­ical rep­re­sen­ta­tion that cir­cu­lates from medicine to art con­tinues. In that way, because so-called "sci­en­tific" images are often con­noted "truer" than others, they some­times try to make us forget that, as images, they are always the result of a con­struc­tion.
Jean-François Ternay is a lec­turer at the Paris Diderot University, and a director of sci­en­tific films.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2019, FROM 12 TO 1.30 P.M.

Details from Estimated at 296, Mandy El-Sayegh, latex and mixed media tiles, 2019. Image credit © Aurélien Mole.

Elisabeth Essaïan, "Plans and maps of archi­tects: making the void speak"

When ques­tioning the forms and modes of rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the void in plans and maps pro­duced by archi­tects, the pur­pose will be to see the extent to which the dif­fer­ences and changes (over time and within the cul­tural and geo­graph­ical space), in the modes and con­tents of these cod­i­fied rep­re­sen­ta­tions, provide infor­ma­tion on the view its authors have of the empty spaces, and the prac­tices that take place in those spaces.
Élisabeth Essaïan holds a doc­torate in archi­tec­ture, is a pro­fessor-researcher at the ENSA Paris-Belleville/IPRAUS-UMR AUSser Laboratory, and also a former res­i­dent at Villa Médicis.

Details from Estimated at 296, Mandy El-Sayegh, latex and mixed media tiles, 2019. Image credit © Aurélien Mole.

Claudia Girola, "The traces of a home­less life"

The pre­car­ious and exposed sit­u­a­tion in which home­less people are is, in itself, a com­plex expe­ri­ence that places them in a pro­cess of self-asser­tion "despite every­thing", that ques­tions this dom­i­nant image of the unattached indi­vidual, lit­er­ally at the edges of the world, imposed by the dom­i­nant rep­re­sen­ta­tion. This will aim to bring home­less people closer to us. May their mem­o­ries, their traces in the city space, their active pre­sent and their often-delayed future, illu­mi­nate, even in a dis­con­tin­uous way, the areas that con­nect us.
Claudia Girola is the ped­a­gog­ical director of the Master 1 Research in Sociology and Political Philosophy and a member of the Scientific Council and the Council of the Social Sciences depart­ment at the Paris Diderot University.