Practical sessions directed by Ève Chabanon
As part of Bétonsalon Academy 2020, the Center for Art and Research is developing a program for several universities of the 13th arrondissement of Paris, a dynamic student district.
Our neighbours from Inalco (University of Languages and Civilizations) have thus collaborated with artist Ève Chabanon on the elaborating mediation objects around her exhibition The Surplus. Over six face-to-face sessions and a rigorous work at a distance, constrained by the period of confinement due to the COVID-19 sanitary crisis, the students of the Communication and Intercultural Training Course of the LLCER Bachelors Degree at Inalco brilliantly transformed their projects in order to propose digital versions launched online on Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research’s website.
Discover the four projects :
"Art in exile", a pedagogic platform
"Zéro pointé", the review
Mapping of artisanal poetry techniques around the world
"Hands"
Questions of ethics and positioning towards the Other in the fields of the information and communication sciences are key issues: how to avoid the pitfalls of exotization, miserabilism and cultural appropriation when working with people in exile?
In what ways can mediation be made as lively as the long-term work carried out by Ève Chabanon and her collaborators; Yara Al Najem, Abou Dubaev, Olivier Iturerere, Nassima Shavaeva, Aram Ikram Tastekin, Abdulmajeed Haydar, the teams and students of the Lycée Julie-Victoire Daubié in Argenteuil?
How to bear witness to a specific time and space, how to involve the visitor in this human project above all?
The students were able to benefit from the artist’s experience and advice, from a tailor-made project follow-up, group by group, of the Art Center in order to carry out the logistical and administrative aspects, from exciting theoretical interventions and from training on project management tools.
Team:
Guest artist: Ève Chabanon
Conception and coordination: Nöemie Desseaux, Adrien Lecerf et Fanny Spano
Guest researcher: Jöelle Le Marec
Professor-researcher: Eva Sandri
Students: Imène Benmansour, Mélissa Bignon, Camille Bonsergent, Sule Cifti, Lucie Clavier-Chretien, Louise Courjault, Denise Di Gennaro, Rajaa Elmanaa, Anouk François, Clélia Frouté, Kimberley Garnier, Pénélope Girard, Anne-Laurence Hamer, Joséphine Lemercier, Lauriane Limonet, Sriyaphone Manivong, Amina Mansouri, Pauline Naillon, Korridwenn Ogier, Hanna Pasquier, Célia Pondi, Marine Sadikhossen, Hana Zouari, Pauline Ginisty, Aysha Zamuel.
Supported and funded by Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation.
"Art in exile", a pedagogic platform
« Art is a force to create, next to the real world, a more human world. » André Maurois.
Art in exile has many meanings: one which we retain is a metaphorical approach, and another is a part of a time and space. The time refer to cultural, societal, social and therefore, political events.
Europe is nowadays living one of the biggest population movement of these 70 past years. According to the French office of stateless persons and Refugees’s Protection, about 132 700 asylum applications have been registered in 2019, a 7% increase, compared to 2018. Among these persons are some artists that are forced to flee their countries. Through these artists’ voices, the countries at risk’s cultures can be perpetuated. This is why it’s important that artists can continue to practice their art.
However, since the 1980s, the number of artist has tripled in France but the employment opportunities have advanced slower. The result is that artists make less and less money and are increasingly financially insecure. This precarious situation is exacerbated for exiled people.
The exile got a strong metaphorical power, which is due, according to Sarah Sakji, to a feeling of exclusion, a break, a distancing. Going into exile is an opportunity to « think elsewhere », as Montaigne said. This evokes to her the artists who take sideroads and foster wandering as a process. Art is evasion, in itself, from wanderings emerge ideas, experiences, surprises, discoveries . It is when we don’t totally belong somewhere that we can unlearn how we see the world.
The Art in exile project took form as a part of an academic project, collaboratively between the Communication and inter-cultural studies 3rd year Bachelors Degree from INALCO 2019-2020’s class and Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research.
The projet Art in exile has been created as part of an academic project, a partnership between the Communication and intercultural formation 3rd year Bachelors Degree 2019-2020 from INALCO and Bétonsalon - Center for Art and research. Through Ève Chabanon’s exhibition The Surplus, a few students have been inspired by the artist’s collaborative professional career. They consequently decided to develop an event to highlight the topic of art in exile.
The event was supposed to offer different workshops and panels for this class, to allow students to develop their critical and artistic spirit, as well as to broaden their horizons.
Coronavirus health crisis changed plans, but the event project has been adapted, and was transformed into an educational platform, in which our artists-collaborators and other students from CFI L3 (Communication and inter-cultural formation) suggest contents for the plastics arts class. This platform will serve as a tool for Luce Mongo-Mboussa as part of her art class. This will also enable to create a link between her class and the artists. The purpose of the platform is to inspire the students on their productions using platform contents
Click here to access the Art in exile platform
Conception and realization by:
Clélia Frouté
INALCO student, project coordinator, prospecting, editing and monitoring collaborations,
Amina Mansouri
INALCO student, internal and external communication manager, editing, community manager, content translator,
Sule Cifti
INALCO student, graphic creation and panel co-responsible (planned for the event),
Rajaa Elmanaa
INALCO student, administrative referent, editing, internal communication assistant,
Imène Benmansour
INALCO student, budget manager, uploading responsible and panel co-responsible (planned for the event),
Hana Zouari
INALCO student, uploading responsible and panel co-responsible (planned for the event).
Special thanks to:
Eva Sandri, for having trusted us and given the opportunity to carry out this partner project, and for having advised us,
Ève Chabanon, for inspiring us,
Fanny Spano, for her support, setting up the project and Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, for having trusted us and for supporting us setting up this project,
Luce Mongo Mboussa, for her interest and motivation in the goal of carrying out a project with common objectives,
Guillaume de la Chapelle, Muhammad Hirzalla, Sarah Sakji, Mojtaba Ahmadi, Moggan, Alice Amoroso and to all the artists we mentioned, because thanks to them we were able to provide material,
All the students of our class CFI L3 2019-2020, for their contents and productions.
"Zéro pointé", the review
Zéro pointé is an art review on contemporary art, written by a group of students majoring in communication and intercultural training at the INALCO. The main goal of this review is to make this artistic time period accessible and understandable by an audience as wide as possible, whichever background they may or may not have in art history. In a way, this review reflects on the initiatory journey these seven college students took during these past few weeks: the questions they asked themselves regarding contemporary art and Ève Chabanon’s exhibition, and the answers they put together after thorough research. Coming out of reading these articles should hopefully leave you with a better understanding of contemporary art and many of its current and recurring questions.
Click here to discover the review Zéro pointé
Conception and realization by Hanna Pasquier, Célia Pondi, Joséphine Lemercier, Louise Courjault, Lauriane Limonet, Denise Di Gennaro & Sriyaphone Manivong.
Mapping of artisanal pottery techniques around the world
While pottery is a common artistic expression throughout the world, different characteristics and methods exist within this ancestral knowledge that are still largely unknown to the general public. In this project, we try to highlight some of them that appeared in different regions of the world, such as Asia, America, Africa and Europe. Whether it is the modelling and painting techniques or the firing technology, each craftsman proceeds following techniques that have been passed on to him across generations. All the essential elements that are required in pottery, which are the colours, the tools, and the clay besides other elements extracted from the ground, vary according to the climatic, geographical and cultural context of each country. Historical and cultural richness, which had been largely unknown up until now, are revealed through the various techniques presented hereby. Additionally, this project showcases similarities between the know-how of different countries. What specific techniques can be identified and how can they be distinguished from those found in other remote cultural areas?
As part of our work with Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, we have decided to focus on this artistic medium and tried to present in the most concise and simplest way various pottery techniques that will attract amateurs as well as professionals.
Click here to discover the techniques and their specificities
Conception and realization by Pauline Ginisty, Korridwenn Ogier & Marine Sadikhossen.
"Hands"
The movie Hands offers to show the making process of the hands presented in the exhibition Ève Chabanon’s The Surplus. This short movie focuses on the hands’ production. The artist stands within the exhibition space at Bétonsalon – Center for Art and Research. Sitting there, she achieves her piece in a snap : a hand. As it is for the others scattered throughout the space, she proceeds this way and lays them down beside ceramic cups, which she also imagined and crafted. Her movements are fast and brief, but every time, from her artwork, appears unique piece. None are alike. The hands arise from small rollers of red clay, slowly rounded up under the artist’s palms. She handles, separates, shapes and smoothes out the clay. Bit by bit, Ève Chabanon’s own hands turn red in contact with the red loam. The clay hands get a darker hue by drying. With damp fingers, the artist carefully creates her composition. Ten minutes goes by. The piece is done. Ève Chabanon leans it against a support. The hand curves. It will be one with turned-up palm. As it dries, the shape becomes clearer and more distinct. A couple of hours is enough. The hand is done.
Conception and realization by Mélissa Bignon, Anouk François & Pauline Naillon for Apomé Production.
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