Société Anonyme

A project realized as part of Hospitalities, with the Tram network.

March 14 to May 13, 2007
Opening of the exhibition: Tuesday, March 13 from 6:00 to 9:00pm
and late night opening in the contemporary art scenes at Eastern Paris

Press contact
Christelle Masure
Tel : +33 1 53 19 88 11
Email : cmasure@fracidf-leplateau.com

Société Anonyme
Curators: Thomas Boutoux, Natas¹a Petres¹in, and François Piron.
A project realized as part of Hospitalities, with Tram.

March 14 to May 13, 2007

With: 16Beaver / Un groupe comme les autres (New York), b_books (Berlin), Erick Beltrán (Mexico), Chto delat? / What is to be done? (Petersburg / Moscow), Curating the Library / Moritz Küng (Antwerpen), Nico Dockx & Friends (Antwerpen), Tere Recarens (Barcelona / Berlin), tranzit.cz / Vít Havránek (Prague), tv-tv (Copenhagen), WHW / What, How & for Whom (Zagreb)
Exhibition Design: Modul-8 (Paris-Belleville School of Architecture)

With Société Anonyme, Le Plateau proposes to throw a light on a time and activity which are rarely visible within an art exhibition: that of the studies, site-specific researches, and the first constructions and discussions that lead to new projects.

The three curators, Thomas Boutoux, Natasha Petresin and François Piron, have invited in Paris a group of artists, collectives and (artistic) structures – either run by artists or curators – based in various cities around the world (Antwerp, Berlin, New York, Barcelona, Zagreb, Mexico, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Moscow and Saint Petersburg). The guests are invited to temporarily shift to Paris for a given period of time so that they can research, identify and begin developing new projects as extensions of their activities and practices within their usual media of production, but this time resonating with the French context and in dialogue and collaboration with France-based artists, intellectuals and like-minded producers. Each structure will present inside the space of Le Plateau both parts of its past productions and the research in motion carried in Paris, through displays and a program of public events (that can take the form of conversations, screenings, actions, small exhibits, performances, concerts, lectures, discussions, studio work, collective research situation, dinners, parties, etc).

By transforming, with Société Anonyme, the venue of Le Plateau into a kind of collective office or theatre of operations, the curators want to make visible and intelligible to the French audience the energies that fuel the practices of these different structures and collectives, their respective economic apparatuses, and the various modalities that they have engineered so as to stimulate the work of artists and researchers. A special room inside the space of Le Plateau will be dedicated to the in situ production of a book documenting the experience, which will progressively gather text contributions by both the invited artists and their French collaborators, notably on the eight questions raised by the curators under the name of “Problems of the Week” (cf. page 14).

The different projects produced by the artists and structures invited to Société Anonyme following their residency in Paris will take the form of a series of separate publications, issues of magazines, films, CDs, DVDs etc. For most of them, these productions will be finalized during the months that will follow the end of the exhibition at Le Plateau. They will be launched simultaneously on the occasion of a public event that will happen during the Fall, which will marked the second phase of the Société Anonyme project.

The project owes its title to Société Anonyme Inc, the organisation founded by Katherine Dreier, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray in New York in the early 20s, and which was dedicated to promote European art in America by sponsoring many lectures, concerts, publications and exhibitions. The project in Paris also borrows to the original Société Anonyme its motto: “Art, not personalities”, and in this sense wants to promote contemporary alternative artistic practices that exist first and foremost through exchange, dialogue, autonomy and the energy at work.

Thomas Boutoux is a writer, publisher and curator. He is one of the founding members of Metronome Press, an independent production and publishing company, and of Castillo/Corrales a collectively-organised gallery, both located in the same space in Paris-Belleville. He lives in Paris.

Natasha Petresin is an art critic and curator. She is a PhD candidate at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Recently, she has curated exhibitions at De Appel (Amsterdam), IASPIS Gallery (Stockholm), Living Art Museum (Reykjavik), S¹kuc Gallery (Ljubljana) and worked as a curator at the Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel. In 2006, she organised a seminar on international curating in the framework of the 4th Berlin Biennale. In Paris she co-organises the seminar “Something you should know: Artists and producers today”, at the EHESS. She lives in Paris and Ljubljana.

François Piron is an art critic and curator. He is a co-director of the curatorial agency Work Method, and a teacher at the School of Fine Arts in Lyon. Between 2001 and 2006, he has directed the Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers and founded the magazine Trouble. Recently he has curated the exhibitions « Intouchable, l’idéal transparence » at Villa Arson, Nice (2006) and Museo Patio Herreriano, Valladolid (2007); and « Jiri Kovanda Vs The Rest Of the World » at Gb Agency Gallery, Paris (2006), De Appel, Amsterdam (2007), the Centre d’art Passerelle, Brest, Tranzit, Bratislava and the Centre d’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona.

16BEAVER / UN GROUPE COMME LES AUTRES (NEW YORK)
www.16beavergroup.org
16Beaver is the address of a space in New York’s Financial District initiated and run by the artists René Gabri and Ayreen Anastas. 16Beaver is an ongoing platform for the presentation, production, and discussion of a variety of artistic, cultural, economic, and/or political projects. Since its inception, the 16BeaverGroup has organized more than 300 events ranging in format from lunches, walks, and film screenings to artist presentations, readings, panels, and discussions. The group organizes “Monday Discussions” in New York, based on crucial political and social issues. The members of the group also organise seminars outside of New York that focus on the group’s interest in experimental theory and practice and deal with the topics of patriotism, counter-cartographies, solidarity and collectivity. Most recently they participated at the Gwangju Biennial 2006, the exhibition Interventionists at Mass MOCA and The 9th Baltic Triennial at CAC, Vilnius. A significant part of its activities is web based, where the group publishes texts on a regular basis.
Within Société Anonyme, the two lead members of 16 Beaver group, Rene Gabri and Ayreen Anastas will be working together with the Berlin-based Columbian artist François Bucher under the name “Un Groupe comme les autres”. This group will conduct a research on the repercussions of the “suburbs riots” in 2005 in France and more particularly on the representations of the polarization between Paris and its suburbs in the light of the coming French presidential election.

B_BOOKS (BERLIN)
www.bbooks.de/
Founded in 1996, b_books, is a bookshop and meeting space in Berlin, and since 1998, a publishing house, which regularly releases new theoretical books and once a year a magazine called A.N.Y.P. In 2003 film production was added to b_books repertoire. b_books is directed by a group of filmmakers, art critics, musicians and academics. Since the creation of the bookshop, they organise “Montagspraxis”, Monday sessions where new work or research is presented and discussed. b_books is a completely autonomous structure, economically independent and financed solely by the books sold by the library. The concept of autonomy is the leitmotiv for the whole polymorphic activity of b_books.
Several members of b_books will organize during Société Anonyme a series of public discussions with French theorists, publishers, artists and filmmakers as well as screenings for a new publication.

ERICK BELTRÁN (MEXICO)
Erick Beltrán (Mexico, 1974) develops an approach combining archive, activism and publishing, which deconstructs visual systems to suggest questions related to cultural translation, mass communication and the socio-political implications of visual culture.. With a group of other artists in São Paulo, he created the project Istmo-arquivo flexível (2005) that gathers various artistic and non-artistic collections and archives.
During a residency period in Paris from January to May 2007 organised by Société Anonyme, Erick Beltrán will focus on synesthaesia, as a sensible translation tool. He will organise a series of public lectures and workshops with artists and scientists, and will collaborate with the College de Pataphysique, institution of imaginary sciences created by Alfred Jarry in Paris in early 20th century, specialised in irrational organisation of global knowledge. He plans to achieve a publication documenting a process of work.

CHTO DELAT? / WHAT IS TO BE DONE? (MOSCOW-PETERSBURG)
www.chtodelat.org
Chto delat? / What is to be done? was founded in early 2003 in Petersburg. The platform's activity consists in developing of a network of collective initiatives in Russia and setting them into an international context. It is a project that is aimed at creation and developing a public spaces opened for a dialogue of different critical positions about politicization of knowledge production and about the place of art in this process. The platform's work is coordinated by a workgroup of the same name: its members include artists, critics, philosophers, and writers from Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhniy Novgorod. This workgroup as an editorial committee publishes an English-Russian newspaper on issues central to poetics and politics today, with a special focus on the Russian artistic-intellectual situation. The workgroup also engages in a variety of art projects, including videoworks, installations, public actions, radio programs, and artistic examinations of urban space. Its most recent exhibitions and research project is "Drift – Narvskaya Zastava" (2004-2005), a community-examination of a constructivist-proletarian neighborhood in Petersburg and “Self-Education” (September 2006) – international exhibition and seminars program dedicated to spreading and producing alternative forms of knowledge.
Four members of Chto delat? will stay in Paris for the duration of Société Anonyme to research and put together material for a new issue of their newspaper, devoted to the issue of the new composition of contemporary political art and its geneology to avant-garde movements of 20th century. In the exhibition space, Chto delat? will organize an Activist Club, echoing Rodtchenko’s famous Workers’ Club.

CURATING THE LIBRARY / MORITZ KÜNG (ANTWERPEN)
www.desingel.be/curating_library.orb
Moritz Küng, Swiss-born curator, is head of exhibitions at De Singel art center, Antwerp. He runs there the program Curating the Library, which started in March 2003 and became in the meantime a significant venue. Public figures from the international cultural domain (architects, choreographers, composers, curators, philosophers, artists, musicians, designers, directors...) are invited to achieve their favourite books for a given amount and to present their selection during a lecture that will be recorded on DVD.
The library is located in a ‘mirror’ volume designed by the Belgian artist Richard Venlet.
Société Anonyme will host a replica of the library, allowing an access to the conferences’ archive on DVD, with free access for the audience. During the project, Curating the Library will a second venue in Paris, organising regularly lectures of Paris-based personalities, chosen by Moritz Küng and the exhibition’s curators. These lectures will be edited on DVDs.

NICO DOCKX & FRIENDS (ANTWERPEN)
Nico Dockx (b.1974) lives and works in Antwerp. He works out of a fundamental preoccupation with archives and structural processes such as data, memories, information, distribution and management. Often outcome of collaboration with other artists, his installations, publications, soundscapes, texts and videos investigate the relationship between perception and remembrance, allowing multiple interpretations to emerge. CURIOUS is his own independent label, through which he has released many different projects. In 2001, together with Kris Delacourt and Peter Werwimp, Dockx founded the collective BUILDING TRANSMISSIONS which produces experimental audio-visual documents: sonic architectures, improvised live music situations, and multimedia installations.
Nico Dockx has exhibited worldwide and most recently took part in “Utopia Station”, 5Oth Venice Biennale and Haus der Kunst, Munich (2004 and 2005); “Monopolis”, Witte de With, Rotterdam (2005); “daybyday & another day”, Centre d’art de l’île de Vassivière (2006); “Academy”, Mukha, Antwerp, and Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven (2006).
For Société Anonyme, Nico Dockx will organize a new research group that will work on a series of publications in collaboration with existing French and International magazines (including Point d’Ironie, Up and A prior). At the same time, he will set up collaborations with local musicians and sound artists for a peformative workshop by BUILDING TRANSMISSIONS that will take place in Le Plateau and its surroundings.

TERE RECARENS (BARCELONA /BERLIN)
www.tererecarens.com
Tere Recarens (born in 1967 in Catalonia, lives in Berlin) recently introduced herself humorously as Miss Work, and named her monographic book Sportkünstlerin (Sport Artist). She uses her name for some word games (titles of works or exhibitions) that are quite explicit about her philosophy: “tere-motto” (earthquake) or “the inTEREminable adventure”. Her work is based on gesture’s energy rather than planned edification, reactivity rather than anticipation, expense rather than accumulation, and if some of her projects can involve intensive work and energy for unreachable goals (as jumping from the roof of PS1 art center), others are realised in a spontaneous urgency. Tere Recarens brings back an idea of performance in the way she does not separate life conditions from production conditions, and as she always promotes the act of doing, as a social and participative practice, open to risk and unpredictability.
In Le Plateau, Tere will build up a space and conduct a collective endeavour/workshop under the name of “Room for things supposed impossible or the impertinent reconciliation”. For this project she will work in close collaboration with French art students.

TRANZIT.CZ / VÍT HAVRÁNEK (PRAGUE)
www.tranzit.org
Tranzit, funded by the Austrian Erste Bank, is referred to as a ‘program’. Individual sections of the program (i.e. 1. Artist’s Book Series, 2. Social Platforms, 3. Artists’ Talks, Lectures, Symposia, Workshops, 4. Studio Exchange Project, 5. Additional Projects, 6. Research and Travel Fund, and other) are further referred to as ‘projects’. The program involves the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Austria and Hungary. Local Boards are established, consisting of professionals in the field. Local legal subjects form together Tranzit network, following the principles of the program, which primarily facilitates transnational (transgenerational, and transdisciplinary) exchange. Vítek Havránek heads tranzit.cz in Prague.
For Société Anonyme Vít Havránek will install in the exhibition space a set of 26 small-size by several visual artists, musicians and writers from different generations, coming from the Czech Republic as well as other Eastern European countries. These works will be associated with the 26 letters of the alphabet and will be exhibited in a flexible display that will change according to the different topics that will be highlighted throughout the project. Another project proposed by Havránek is the production of a “painting scenario” defined by the conceptual Croatian artist Josip Vanis¹ta in 1964 that will be realized by a French artist invited by Havranek.

TV-TV (COPENHAGEN)
www.tv-tv.dk
tv-tv is a decentralised network of independent producers who broadcast content for a local television channel in Copenhagen (Kanal København)during two hours, three times a week. There are several editorial groups within tv-tv, all dealing with specific issues, among them “text tv”, “workshop tv”, “queer tv”, “living archive tv”, “fff tv” and others. From the tv-tv manifesto: “tv-tv wants to break away from the traditional monopoly of the means of production and broadcasting rights.” “tv-tv wants to experiment, take time to investigate the possibilities of television and break with the rhythm that most broadcasting channels now offer.” “tv-tv wants to create an audience based on everyday experiences in Copenhagen and the rest of the world; a television channel with a short distance from street to broadcast.” (from the tv-tv manifesto).
For Société Anonyme, several members of five selected editorial groups who belong to tv-tv will come to Paris to produce new programs related to the French social and cultural context. These new programs will be imagined and discussed in the space of Le Plateau, taking the form of “editorial meetings” open to the audience. Once produced, the programs will be aired on a local French tv channel, La Locale, and simultaneously on the mother channel of tv-tv in Copenhagen. Société Anonyme will also host a DVD archive of the past tv-tv programs since its inception in 2003 that the audience will be able to consult freely.

WHAT, HOW & FOR WHOM (WHW) / ZAGREB
www.mi2.hr/whw/
What, How & for Whom (WHW) is a curator collective located in Zagreb, whose members are curators Natasha Ilic (born in 1970), Sabina Sabolovic (born in 1975), Ana Devic (born in 1969), Ivet Curlin and the graphist Dejan Krsic. WHW sees itself as a platform for strengthening exchange and collaboration between cultural initiatives from a variety of backgrounds. In this context WHW organizes and stages exhibitions, readings and public discussions, featuring artists, curators, and cultural theoreticians from abroad. In their projects they look for the ways exhibitions and art projects can be used to parasite on “cultural industries” in order to implant discussions on relevant social issues into broader public discourse. Selected exhibitions include: What, How & for Whom, on the occasion of 152nd anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, Zagreb 2000 and Vienna 2001; Broadcasting project, dedicated to Nikola Tesla, Zagreb, 2002 ; Looking Awry, New York 2003; Side-effects, Belgrade 2004; Collective Creativity, Kassel 2005. Since 2003, WHW has been running a city-owned gallery Nova in the centre of Zagreb.
In the context of Société Anonyme, WHW will produce a special issue of the Gallery Nova newspaper, which will focus on an exhibition that took place in Denise René Gallery in Paris in 1959, in which some members of group Exat 51, constructivist movement that worked against "official" Yugoslavian lyrical abstraction took part. The catalogue featured texts by Michel Seuphor and Victor Vasarely, and it was perhaps the first presentation abroad of these artistic tendencies, without official state-to-state collaboration.

Experimental Space

During the eight weeks of Société Anonyme, the “Experimental Space” will host debates and discussions as well as a reading/publication room, where visitors will find a constantly growing collection of texts and documents that will be freely copyable.
Organised around eight topics defined by the curators, every Saturday afternoons, the “Problems of the Week” will take the form of public discussions confronting the guest artists and structures with French counterparts, specially invited for the occasion.

1. Polyvalence and artistic multi-activity (Part 1): ungraspable identities?
Saturday, March 17, 4:00pm
2. Self-organization: collectives, structures; does size matter?
Saturday, March 24, 4:00pm
3. Alternative television: what, how and for whom?
Saturday, March 31, 4:00pm
4. Portraits of the artist as researcher.
Saturday, April 7, 4:00pm
5. What manifestos for today? Artistic statements and intentions.
Saturday, April 14, 4:00pm
6. Polyvalence and multi-activity (Part 2): precariousness or model economy ?
Saturday, April 21, 4:00pm
7. Critical Theory: what traffic and uses in contemporary art ?
Saturday, April 28, 4:00pm
8. The problem with Société Anonyme.
Saturday, May 5, 4:00pm
Saturday, May 12, 4:00pm

Rendez-vous

To be in synch with the project Société Anonyme, the Séquence Programs will take the form of many events: discussions, projections, seminars, concerts, performances, or parties. Organized by the guest artists and structures, these programs will be defined almost daily.

In order to be updated regularly about these activities, please send us your cell phone number by sms to the +33 6 25 07 75 60 or your e-mail to societeanonyme2007@gmail.com.

L’Antenne

L’Antenne is our pedagogical space. Located just fifty meters from le Plateau, l’Antenne is a lively, accessible space whose purpose is to establish an active relationship between the public and contemporary art.
Activities are offered up to children, adolescents and adults on a regular basis.

- Thursday Zooms
Every Thursday at 7:00pm takes place a thematic discussion based on current exhibitions, involving conferences, slides, clips from films, and music…
- Artists’ projects
Artists develop long-term projects in collaboration with workgroups open to the public, resulting in the production of an original artistic creation;
- Window displays
An annual program of eight projects for the large windows of l’Antenne, open on the street, linked to the pedagogical activities, the exhibitions at le Plateau and the works of the collection.
- Documentation
As a resource center for contemporary art, l’Antenne grants the public access to its expansive documentation of artists from the collection and of exhibitions held at la Plateau. Artist’s monographs, catalogues from in-house exhibitions as well as international art shows (biennals, Documenta …), digital works, video works, art theory publications as well as art periodicals are available for consultation.
L’Antenne is also equipped with a video library consisting of documentary films on architecture and design, the plastic arts, cinema and social sciences, portraits of artists (at work, interviewed) and films by artists (to be viewed on site).

Collective opening in Eastern Paris
Tuesday, March 13
From 6:00 to 9:00pm

On Tuesday, March 13 from 6:00 to 9:00pm, six contemporary art spaces nearby le Plateau will be silmultaneous opening six new exhibitions.

Café au lit
16 rue de la Liberté – XIXème arr. – métro Jourdain or Place des Fêtes
Visit www.cafeaulit.com for opening days and times

Cosmic Galerie – Claudia Cargnel + Frédéric Bugada
7-9 rue de l’Equerre – XIXème arr. – métro Pyrénées
Open Wednesday through Saturday from 2 :00 to 7:00pm

Galerie Jocelyn Wolff
78 rue Julien Lacroix – XXème arr. – métro Belleville
Open Wednesday through Saturday from 2 :00 to 7 :00pm

La Galerie Italienne
75 rue de la Fontaine au Roi – XIème arr. – métro Goncourt
Open Monday through Saturday from 11 :00am to 7 :00pm

&nbsp – La Générale
12 rue du Général Lasalle – XIXème arr. – métro Belleville
Open Fridays from 6 :00 to 9 :00pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 3:00 to 7:00pm

La Vitrine de l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy
24 rue Moret – XIème arr. – métro Couronnes
Open Wednesday through Saturday from 2:00 to 6:00pm or by appointement.

Practical informations

- Le Plateau – Exhibition space
Place Hannah Arendt
Intersection of the rue des Alouettes and the rue Carducci F-75019 Paris
Metro access: Jourdain ou Buttes-Chaumont / Bus: line 26
Phone: +33 (1) 53 19 84 10
Open to the public from Wednesday through Friday from 2:00 to 7:00pm
Saturday and Sunday from 12:00am to 8:00pm
Free entry

- L’Antenne – Research place
22 cours du 7ème art (at 50 meters of Le Plateau)
75019 Paris
Phone: +33 (1) 42 01 51 95
Open on Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00am to 8:00pm, video Wednesday (???) to 7:00pm and by appointment only during the week.

- Le Plateau – Office’s address
33, rue des Alouettes F-75019 Paris
Phone : +33 (1) 53 19 88 10
E-mail : info@fracidf-leplatau.com

www.fracidf-leplateau.com

- Partners
The Frac Ile-de-France is an initiative of the regional council of the Ile-de-France region.
In its activities, including Le Plateau, the Frac Ile-de-France is supported by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, the Regional Direction of Cultural Affairs of Ile-de-France, the Paris’ City Hall and the Caisse des Dépôt.
It is a member of the Tram Network and of Platform, the regrouping of the French Fonds Régionaux d’Art Contemporain.

Société Anonyme is organized as part of Hospitalities, a shared project of the Tram Network and has received an exceptional support from the Fundacion Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, from Kadist Art Foundation and from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville (ENSAPB).
La Locale TV and Work Method are partners of Société Anonyme.

Kadist Art Foundation will present in April-May a program linked to Société Anonyme: “Proposition de colloque”, a Bétonsalon event conceived by Mélanie Bouteloup and Anna Colin, and “The Backroom”, a project led by Magalie Arriola, Kate Fowle and Renaud Proch.
www.kadist.org.