Running waters

Running waters
A res­i­dency crossed by The Bièvre river between Pauline Perplexe and Bétonsalon

The Bièvre River flows into the Seine in Paris, at the Austerlitz train sta­tion, after a 35 km journey through the depart­ments of Yvelines, Essonne, Hauts-de-Seine, Val-de-Marne and Paris, where it used to flow through the 13th and 5th arrondisse­ments. Its sources are in La Minière ponds, near Guyancourt. Once open to the air, it has suf­fered the fate of many small urban rivers: pol­luted, chan­nelled and dis­persed. It has been com­pletely cov­ered in Paris since 1912 and in the sub­urbs from Antony to Gentilly since the 1950s, with the excep­tion of short sec­tions recently brought to light. In Arcueil, The Bièvre flows under Pauline Perplexe, a former family house run by artists and con­verted into an inde­pen­dent place of artistic pro­duc­tion and exhi­bi­tion, and con­tinues under­ground, indis­cernible, near Bétonsalon, in the 13th arrondisse­ment.

The cov­ered riverbed of the Bièvre under the garden of Pauline Perplexe in Arcueil, March 2022 © Pauline Perplexe.

Taking as a pre­text and source of inspi­ra­tion the path of this under­ground water that links Pauline Perplexe to Bétonsalon, we will take advan­tage of this invis­ible link to cor­re­spond, send mes­sages in bot­tles, pursue artistic research and share it. Through monthly meet­ings com­bining visits, walks, work­shops, sur­veys of texts and paths, this pro­ject will be an oppor­tu­nity to share our prac­tices and know-hows. Each ses­sion will include an invi­ta­tion to a researcher, artist or activist, who will bring another approach to the issues addressed.

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UPCOMING SESSIONS

Session 7: "Gutters" Workshop
From October 31 to November 4, 2022, schedule to come
Pauline Perplexe, 90 rue de la Convention, 93400 Arcueil

Starting from the generic image of the gar­goyle, the aim is to observe the move­ments of cir­cu­la­tion and water con­veyance. From the gutter to the gutter, these obser­va­tions will allow us to think of forms induced by these logics of flow. The back of the gar­goyles of the cathe­dral of Strasbourg lets see the expres­sive­ness of the stone backs, tense or curved. Their inverted necks become the hollow recep­ta­cles of rain­water whose cir­cu­la­tion softens the rigidity of the forms.
The work­shop pro­poses to leave the imagery of the bes­tiary by keeping the notion of flu­idity, rigidity and inflec­tion of the forms allowing to guide, slow down or accel­erate the flow of the water. The rain­water that car­ries garbage and dead leaves pro­duces ero­sion, gen­er­ates a form that pukes or fil­ters, a form that can expand to become a canopy or draw the con­tours of a square. The pieces thus cre­ated will become gar­goyles of uses solving real tech­nical prob­lems.

Accompanied by artists Marie Bette, Romain Grateau and Sarah Holveck.
Free, open to art school stu­dents upon reg­is­tra­tion at paulineper­plex­e@g­mail.com

© Marie Bette

Session 8: Ceramics Workshop
Saturday, November 19, and Sunday, 20, then Saturday, November 26, and Sunday 27, from 2 to 6pm
Pauline Perplexe, 90 rue de la Convention, 93400 Arcueil

"The Bièvre flows, scar­i­fied by acids. Globulated with sputum, thick­ened with chalk, diluted with soot, it rolls heaps of dead leaves and inde­scrib­able residues which freeze it, as well as a lead which mud­dies, of films " - J.K Huysmans, La Bièvre, 1890.

From an artistic research con­ducted on the asper­i­ties of the pol­luted waters of the Bièvre as well as on the irra­di­ated soil of the Marie Curie lab­o­ra­tory in Arcueil, Charlotte Collin (ceramist) accom­pa­nied by Mathilde Rives and Sarah Holveck (artists) pro­pose a ceramic work­shop feeding on an imag­i­nary of tox­i­city based on a research of colors and tex­tures. Phosphorescent and iri­des­cent glazes, dif­ferent types of clays, lava cast­ings, mosses and recy­cled and crushed mate­rials: we will try our hand at dif­ferent tech­niques and recipes for glazing, forming shapes and cre­ating tex­tures.

Accompanied by artists Charlotte Collin, Mathilde Rives and Sarah Holveck.
Free, upon reg­is­tra­tion at paulineper­plex­e@g­mail.com

© Charlotte Collin

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PREVIOUS SESSIONS

Session 1: The Gobelins stream
Thursday, March 24, 12.30 pm
Manufacture des Gobelins, 42 avenue des Gobelins, 75013 Paris

It was on the banks of the Bièvre, whose waters were reputed for their dyeing qual­i­ties, that a scarlet dyeing industry was set up at the end of the Middle Ages, which grad­u­ally became the royal tapestry work­shops and the Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins. At the begin­ning of the 20th cen­tury, it was on the site of the former gar­dens of the Manufacture, and above the "ravine of the Bièvre", which had already been cov­ered/already cov­ered, that Auguste Perret erected the building of the Mobilier national.

Guided tour of the Manufacture des Gobelins, fol­lowed by a walk in the 13th arrondisse­ment.
With : Mathilde Belouali, Marie Bette, Yoann Dumel-Vaillot.
Free, upon reg­is­tra­tion at info@­be­ton­salon.net

Pauline per­plexe

Visit of the res­i­dency Running waters at the Manufacture des Gobelins, march 2022 © Bétonsalon - centre for art and research.

Session 2 : Aunque es de noche. Meditations on the Bièvre
Thursday, May 12, 10.30pm
Pauline Perplexe, 90 rue de la Convention, 93400 Arcueil

Free, upon reg­is­tra­tion at info@­be­ton­salon.net

© Yoann Dumel-Vaillot.

Session 3 : Bièvre River Walk
Sunday, May 15, 7.30 am
Émile Mousseau pri­mary schools, 44 avenue Jean Jaurès, 78350 Jouy-en-Josas

Organised by the asso­ci­a­tion of the same name, the 38th Marche de la Bièvre will take place on Sunday 15 May 2022, just as the party people are going to bed. We invite you to par­tic­i­pate with us, and we will meet at 7:30 am in Jouy-en-Josas to join the "Marche du Soleil": a 22 km route along the Bièvre, towards its source in Guyancourt, then to Les Loges-en-Josas and Bièvres.

This emblem­atic walk brings together sev­eral hun­dred hikers each year, some of whom start at mid­night from Notre Dame de Paris for the Moon Walk.

Free of charge, on reg­is­tra­tion at info@­be­ton­salon.net before Wednesday 11 May.
More infor­ma­tion on the Bièvre Walk: www.marche.bievre.org

© Christel Conchon

Session 4: Visit and dis­cus­sion in the exhi­bi­tion Cayenne by julien quentel, with the artist and the curator Franck Balland
Sunday, June 19, 3pm
Pauline Perplexe, 90 rue de la Convention, 93400 Arcueil

Exhibition vis­ible by appoint­ment from 11.06 to 10.07:
paulineper­plex­e@g­mail.com or 06 67 28 86 97

Session 5: Workshop with Loup Rivière from dance for plants
Thursday, July 7, from 2 to 6pm
Pauline Perplexe, 76-78 rue de la Convention, 93400 Arcueil

Loup Rivière from dance for plants pro­poses an after­noon work­shop in one of the two houses occu­pied by Pauline Perplexe, before their move at the end of the year, as a way to spend a moment in the inti­macy of the knowl­edge of a place. How do we make a place, and how do the places we make and unmake, that we trans­form, make us and unmake us, form us and inform us, trans­form us? We will take the time to tell each other the sto­ries of things, traces and mem­o­ries, and to watch our­selves move in the places we listen to (and per­haps deposit other sto­ries to unfold later).

This work­shop is open to ten people (upon reg­is­tra­tion at paulineper­plex­e@g­mail.com) who have passed through, lived in, or vis­ited the place in some way over the past three years.

dance for plants offers work­shops and per­for­mances in gar­dens, schools, forests, apart­ments and museums. The col­lec­tive is in long-term res­i­dency at the Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology (Denmark) and has worked in var­ious uni­ver­si­ties and arts cen­ters in Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm, Väjxö, Reykjavik, Montreal, New York, Brno, Aix-en-Provence, Bourges, Marseille and in Ariège.

Loup Rivière is a dancer and thanadoula. She builds spaces to care for the rela­tion­ships between the dead and their living, in dif­ferent con­texts and tem­po­ral­i­ties.
She founded the col­lec­tive dance for plants (2016) and pub­lished the texts "Je suis pas trans dans la forêt", "Danser est un Service Écosystémique et être trans aussi" and "Lesbiennes géologiques, bites de meufs et autres his­toires - un poème étendu".
She is cur­rently touring her solo armes molles (2021).

© Christel Conchon

Session 6: Game Island : gaming ses­sion with The Mycological Twist
Friday, July 8, from 4pm to 6pm
Bétonsalon – Center for art and research

Game Island tells the story of a world of muta­tions resulting out of cli­mate change. With amor­phous game char­ac­ters based on the ele­ments of water, earth, fire, air and void, the players are led through var­ious nar­ra­tives, con­fronted with nat­ural dis­as­ters and encour­aged to engage in cross-species alliances – as a molecule, stone, bac­terium or human being.
Together as players, the audi­ence will be facing the reality of envi­ron­mental con­di­tions that threaten their exis­tence – Will there be a future despite hos­tile con­di­tions, are the diverse organ­isms able to evolve and sur­vive or has the planet become unin­hab­it­able for their own species?

Session open to 15 par­tic­i­pants, upon reg­is­tra­tion at info@­be­ton­salon.net

The Mycological Twist is a pro­ject by Eloïse Bonneviot and Anne de Boer, both based in Berlin. They take mycology as a source of inspi­ra­tion in engaging with eco­log­ical and social prac­tices. Their point of interest extends through the mush­room fruiting body into the rot­ting matter deep below ground level. DIY methods are woven into dig­ital cul­tures to con­struct utopias for alter­na­tive modes of living. The Mycological Twist started in 2014 in London. Since then, the mate­ri­al­iza­tion of the research results in a pro­gram of com­mis­sions, lec­tures, camping ses­sions, per­for­mances and works.

Running waters receives the sup­port of the Ministry of Culture - DRAC Ile-de-France within the frame­work of the deploy­ment of SODAVI-F, Schéma d’Orientation pour les Arts Visuels en Ile-de-France.