Eldoradio

In the frame­work of the 30th anniver­sary of the lib­er­a­tion of the radio waves in France, Bétonsalon pro­poses a journey into radio space via the archives of Eldoradio (click here), which have been assem­bled by radio afi­cionados over the last fifty years. Several researchers inter­ested in this fond – whether for its quality as an archive con­sti­tuted out­side of insti­tu­tional cir­cuits or for its con­tri­bu­tion to the memory of radio his­tory – have been invited to explore it and to pre­sent the out­come of their research.

The var­ious con­tri­bu­tions con­sti­tute mul­tiple ways of inter­preting, anno­tating and some­times cor­recting the doc­u­ments on dis­play and the frag­ments of radio his­tory, which are rep­re­sented in the exhi­bi­tion. Offering a par­tial and non-exhaus­tive insight into the Eldoradio archive, the exhi­bi­tion doesn’t attempt to retrace 30 years of radio; instead, it hopes to con­front dif­ferent pos­sible uses and read­ings of doc­u­ments attached to a radio his­tory that yet has to be fully written.

In a nut­shell, the artist Franck Leibovici has chosen to rep­re­sent, in the form of a map, the struc­ture and con­tent of the archives put together by the mem­bers of Eldoradio. Thierry Lefebvre, radio his­to­rian, is con­fronting his book La Bataille des radios libres 1977-1981 (’The Battle of free radio 1977-1981’) (2008) to the doc­u­ments and sounds found in Eldoradio’s archive through a visual and sonic time­line. Two doc­u­men­taries by film director Isabelle Cadière are screened: Radio Lorraine Cœur d’Acier (2009) and a short film about radio and women, pro­duced for the exhi­bi­tion. Elisabete Fernandes, a stu­dent in Cinematographic Studies at Paris Diderot University, attempts to the retrace the tra­jec­tory of Radio Voka, an Antillean and Guyanan radio sta­tion active between June 1982 and August 1983 in the Paris region. The artists Louise Hervé et Chloé Maillet pre­sent Total restora­tion, a radio­phonic fic­tion pro­duced in the frame­work of France Culture’s Radiophonic cre­ation work­shop (ACR). Drawing from a selec­tion of sound record­ings, the col­lec­tive L’ency­clopédie de la parole pro­poses a newly-cre­ated sound piece, a public lis­tening ses­sion and an anal­ysis of the archives in the form of a public foot­notes dis­sem­i­nated in the exhi­bi­tion space. As for Eldoradio’s mem­bers, they have con­sti­tuted a playlist of their archive acces­sible via a jukebox, while Bétonsalon’s team has made a selec­tion of doc­u­ments (posters, stickers, press clip­pings, pho­tographs, magazines, etc.), which are com­mented and inter­preted by a range of radio ama­teurs and pro­fes­sionals. This exhi­bi­tion has also given rise to var­ious col­lab­o­ra­tions with stu­dents and pro­fes­sors of Paris Diderot University. Amongst others, the stu­dents in ’sci­en­tific medi­a­tion’ taught by Thierry Lefebvre, Cécile De Bary and Richard Millet have con­ceived Bétonsalon’s Journal No. 10, as well as a short doc­u­men­tary intro­ducing the organ­i­sa­tion Eldoradio, its mem­bers and objec­tives.

Les dif­férentes con­tri­bu­tions pro­duisent ainsi de mul­ti­ples manières d’inter­préter, d’annoter, de pré­ciser, voire de cor­riger les doc­u­ments exposés et les frag­ments de l’his­toire de la radio qui sont représentés dans l’expo­si­tion. Proposant une vue par­tielle et non exhaus­tive des archives Eldoradio, l’expo­si­tion ne vise pas à retracer 30 ans de radio, l’enjeu est plutôt de con­fronter dif­férents usages pos­si­bles de doc­u­ments liés à une his­toire de la radio trop peu écrite.

Numerous events including con­certs, lis­tening ses­sions, pro­jec­tions, talks, tours and work­shops have been pro­grammed throughout the exhi­bi­tion which will cul­mi­nate into a sym­po­sium organ­ised by the Radio Research and Studies Group (GRER) on 20 and 21 May at Paris Diderot University.

Download the press release (in French)

Last part of the timeline inspired of Thierry Lefebvre’s book, "La bataille des radios libres (1977-1981), éd. Nouveau Monde INA, 2008", eldoradio.fr archives © photos Aurélien Mole

For more infor­ma­tion on eldo­radio.fr click here