Profile
The FRAC Ile-de-France [Regional Contemporary Art Collection] is at once a collection that must, first and foremost, be enriched and distributed; a venue, Le Plateau, whose programme is resolutely geared at experimentation and production; and a broad role as go-between aiming, via the Antenne, to make today's art accessible to as many people as possible.
The fact of combining all these factors within one and the same project gives the FRAC Ile-de-France a thoroughly special place enabling it to be as close as possible to contemporary creative activity, in all its diversity. Well removed from any unequivocal discourse, the different proposals for this new semester are fully integrated within this prospect involving a plural range of activities which these various forms of modus operandi help to bring to the fore.
At Le Plateau, the semester's first show Watchmen, Liars, Dreamers is part three of the cycle titled "Concrete Erudition", devised by Guillaume Désanges . Within the established logic, where it is a matter of showing an interest in the way artists include in their approach and method a certain number of data tallying with the in-depth knowledge they have of a field which is not, on the face of it, that of art, the exhibition will present a number of works based on the idea of a connection and an objective description of certain elements of reality. By determinedly assuming a documenta ry look, as if the better to indicate this decision, these works very often turn out to be perfect constructs stemming from fiction, demonstrating, if need there were, that our perception of reality probably proceeds by way of a form of re-appropriation which, far from distancing us, permits a better re-assertion thereof.
21st Century Outlook will take up the slack as from December: the Exhibition, put together from our recent acquisitions, will propose a presentation of works which share in common the fact of broaching, in one way or another, the issue of memory. Memory and, by extension, the notion of echo, repetition, and even rhythm.
In this sense, many of the works on view find in the musical and acoustic arena a particular outlet, and if memory can be related to a form of "little music" which can turn out to be haunting, the show itself, in spatial terms, is devised to offer a circuit made up of so many identical compartments, creating a very specific beat.
The collection, which thus regularly includes significant works of present-day art, is also being used for certain innovative distribution projects. From October on, with 1 an = 5 cm/1 Year = 5 cm, a new project undertaken with the Rentilly Culture Park will be coming up with a novel and objective way of part-defining the way in which works are presented. As it happens, the proposition consists in focusing on the set of sculptures on stands and pedestals that are part of the collection
In tandem, at the castle, there is a screening of the recently acquired selection of films by Corey McCorkle who, after his show at Le Plateau, finds in this particular context another way of presenting his re-reading of the Désert de Retz.
We are also, incidentally, taking part in the Nuit Blanche/Sleepless Night programme: at the invitation of Martin Béthenod, who is this year's curator of the event, and within the logic of his proposal consisting in handing out several "cartes blanches", in particular to re-activate certain public collections, we have suggested that we re-present some of our recent acquisitions. In this way, the works of Ulla von Brandenburg and Keren Cytter, taken from the collection, will be on view in truly outstanding sites and conditions.
In parallel, other projects to do with the collection are seeing the light of day, taken in hand in particular by the Antenne, our public department, involving the presence of works in schools.
This year, a large proportion of joint projects planned within this framework are being brought together in the project Memento which, by being based on the exhibition 21st Century Outlook, will propose a raft of extensions to develop this issue of memory.
The "Sequence" programme, for its part, will carry on proposing broader meetings for creative activity which encompass all disciplines. These meetings are special moments for becoming acquainted with projects usually devised specially for Le Plateau.
Not to be missed either, publication-wise, is the catalogue we are devoting to Richard Fauguet , winner of the Henriot prize awarded to the best monograph of 2010.
Through all these projects and programmes, the FRAC Ile-de-France is carrying on its in-depth work aimed at providing real support for contemporary artwork.
We are grateful to all our partners-first among them the Ile-de-France Region, the State, and the City of Paris-for the valuable assistance they are all giving us.
represented artists
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Contact Information
Frac Ile-de-France
33 rue des Alouettes
75019 Paris (France)
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