microsillons A selection of projects – 2013

Foreword

In parallel to the ‘educational turn in curating’, we have seen in the last years the development of an ‘artistic art mediation’ (Künstlerische Kunstvermittlung), with projects that are autonomous from art pieces or exhibitions, producing their own discourses. Questioning their role as agents of an institutional service to ‘sell’ exhibition, some art educators are transforming the field of art mediation and open spaces for critical discussion on society, building new forms of collaboration and cultural practices within the institutions or outside of them.

In our practice, we defend this idea of speaking ‘from the art’ rather than ‘talking about art’, building spaces for dialogue and developing situated forms and discourses in collaboration with groups of non-artists participants. We think that, rather than seeking to facilitate access to culture (with a somewhat consumerist vision) it is important to create the conditions for an active participation of the ‘publics’ in the life of the institution.

An art education structure should work like a laboratory, a space for unexpected things to happen, for productive intellectual conflicts to emerge (with the institution as well as between the participants). From one project to the other, we look for ways to challenge top-down relationships within a group, to make visible the process as well as a final result, through exhibitions or publications, and constantly ask ourselves which tools we could develop to avoid the manipulation and /or the ‘overvaluation’ of the participants productions.

microsillons, 2013. COMMUNE DE MONTREUIL

Model of the armorial COMMUNE DE MONTREUIL In Singularités partagées, 116, Center for contemporary arts, Montreuil October - January 2013

ABSTRACT microsillons, the first international artists in residency at the 116, invent, for the opening of the art center, a device for an artistic enquiry, following a double-strategy: inscribe the art center in the urban territory and make the inhabitants of Montreuil visible within the walls of the institution. Referring to the bourgeois atmosphere of this former master house transformed into an art center, the aim is to constitute an ‘armorial’ of the neighbourhood around the 116, in collaboration with different groups living and working there.

APPROACH

Realised throug a series of interviews with different groups from Montreuil, this collection of shields is displayed in a wall installation at the entrance of the 116. Every encountered person or group of people is questioned about her/ his activities, her/his place in the city and vision of the role of an art center, leading to the design of a shield.

The shields are made by applying the symbolic colors of heraldry and divided into four categories (which can be read through the shapes of he shields: state services, associations, shops, others).

COLLABORATION

The ongoing series of interviews already involved:

- L’antenne de quartier République - The Malian Women association - The self-orgnized anarchist bakery ‘La conquête du pain’ - Ecodrom, an Association working with Romani people - The Coffee shop and sewing workshop De Fil en Café - The Montreuil Tourist Office - The self-run cultura center and organic restaurant Casa Poblano - The petanque club André Blain - The chess club ‘Tous aux échecs’ - The retirement house Fondtion de Rothschild - Montreuil en éveil, an association running an adventure field. - The volunteers from the social center Lounès Matoub

Exhibition view VIVE LE THÉÂTRE QUESTIONNE

Detail of a cross-stiched tablecloth GROUPE L’AVENTIN VIVE LE THÉÂTRE QUESTIONNE | INTERVENTION Projects and exhibition at the Théâtre de Carouge 2012 - 2013

ABSTRACT

In 2012, microsillons founded with Mathieu Menghini, the Groupe l’Aventin, which aims to develop a social mediation in the field of theater.

A first project involved a group of eight women, users of the Geneva-based associationCamarada - which welcome migrant women and help them in their apprenticeship of French language. They were invited to conduct an experiment around the play Antigone. Over a period of several months, a series of meetings was held, including Backstages visit preparation to the play and the codes of Western theater, visit of the theater, viewing of the play and meeting with the director. This was followed by series of discussions and by the co-production of pieces inspired by Craftivism, objects that evoked the central topics of the group discussions (reflections on the Absolute and the Exception, civil disobedience, education, gender, etc.). An exhibition of these objects has been presented to the public inside the theater.

A second collaboration, still around Antigone, involved users of the community house from Carouge. A series of meetings and discussion, before and after the play, led to the shooting of a video where the different competences of the participating teenagers and young adults were brought together. They wrote a scenario, produced a song and a choreography for that video, shot in the theater. In this short movie, the participants literally took the stage to present their own cultural interests, closer to counter-culture than to the ‘high-culture’ usually presented at the theater.

Video still APPROACH

The Groupe l’Aventin seeks to enable the appropriation of theater plays and institutional frame by non-specialists and to underline the potential of theater as a tool for common reflections on society. It also tries to make audible the voices of people in precarious situations. The projects are engaging the participants into visual realizations, based on the ways and means of contemporary art, as a form of reappropriation.

COLLABORATION

The Theatre de Carouge supported and hosted the project, involving for one chapter the Camarada association, through a group of eight women, and for the second chapter, a group of ten teenagers and young adults (and their educators) contacted through the community house of Carouge.

Video still NOTES ON POSSIBLE FUTURE USES OF THE GDANK SHIPYARD “Our parents and grandparents always talk Notes on possible future uses of the shipyard about the past. We also need to think about the future.“ “The Third-Landscape, undecided fragment of the planetary garden - “The cranes could be the “signature building“ of means the sum of the areas where the humans leaves the evolution of the city. We don’t need another one.“ Three weeks of discussions in Gdansk “The Subjective Bus Line opens a space for the landscape to nature alone. Consideration of the Third Landscape dialog – and sometimes conflictual discussions “The young city project could be for any as a biological necessity conditionning the future of living beings “It’s easy to let the building collapse and then – to talk about the strikes and all the events other city. It might be because of this lack of modifies the reading of the territory and enhances places that are to say : it’s better to build something new here.“ that happened in the shipyard.“ specificity more than because of the crisis that this project exists since 15 years but was never usually considered negligible. It is the role of the policy to organize “It’s not only about the architecture of the “Do projects where the workers can be active the partition of land so as to provide in its influence’s area spaces of In May and July 2011, the collective microsillons compiled ideas and comments about possible future uses of the Gdansk “Our philosophy was to fight, but not by using force. Our weapons realized.“ buildings, but about their functions : multifunction subjects and not outside observers.“ were the books and magazines that we distributed illegally.“ indecision, which amounts to sparing the future.“ buildings allow a better, healthier city.“ shipyard, doing workshops and talking with different people in the city. This poster is the result of that process and wishes “I’m using a step by step startegy to save what Gilles Clément, “Third-Landscape Manifesto“. to show the complexity of the situation and the numerous perspectives that can be imagined for this historical industrial “The place shouldn’t become a museum but Bogdan Olszewski, “Gdansk, Pologne : dissidence et clandestinité“. can be saved from the shipyard.“ “We need one good modern architecture in place. From the proposals that were gathered, an alternative project to the one of the developers could be outlined, a kind allow a mix between workers and artists, like “While there are dominant and subordinate individuals in a cat colony, Gdansk.“ “While today we tend to live in a dematerialized digital world, “Create a garden where it’s possible to walk on of do-it-yourself town, entirely planned, built and used by the citizens of Gdansk. in the Buffet bar at the Wyspa Institute of Art.“ unlike dogs, cats don’t maintain a clearly defined hierarchy wherein there is also a new fascination for these concrete places (industrial the grass...“ each individual is ranked above or below each other individual.“ “The first artists invited to work in the shipyard “Many foreign tourists, especially American heritage) which is sometimes made sustainable through contemporary where called ‘artist’s colony’ and the name “The shipyard is a place where it is still possible Jennifer Copley, “Social Structure of Feral Cat Colonies, Behaviour and Interactions ones, are coming to Gdansk for the Solidarnosc activities.“ stayed until today.“ “With urban generation from the turn of the twentieth century picking The discussions were held with (in chronological order) : Among Groups of Homeless Felines“. history. I have the feeling that it’s not the case Jean-Yves Andrieux, “Les plus beaux lieux du Patrimoine Industriel“ (Michelin’s to explore when skipping school.“ up, economists forecast that globalization and the powers of multi- “We (the artists and art institutions) are like a for Polish ones.“ touristic guidebook). “Build a gigantic playground adventure national corporations would shift the balance of power away from PR company : we are producing value for that Mateusz Gajewski, Adrianna Halman, Dominika Karc, Karolina Kossakowska, Dominika Lałusa, Marianna Marszałkowska, playground for kids.“ nation states towards individual cities, which would then compete space ! “ Anna Szczoczarz, Bozena Wydrowska (from Nicolas Copernicus High School in Gdansk, European Club) Past / Present / Future / Museification of the living / Fascination for the worker /Strikes with neighbouring cities and cities elsewhere for the most lucrative Anastasia Veksina (student of philology) “As a non-for profit activity, art is a more modern industries, and which increasingly in major Western Europe In-Between | Nature | Fallow | Wasteland | Mutualism | Ecosystem | Cat Colony | Sustainbility | Decreasing and US cities did not include manufacturing. Thus cities set about Barbara Piotrowska (student of architecture) neutral actor and can address to the city more ‘reinventing themselves’, giving precedence to the value given by Aleksandra Tatarczuk (Wyspa Institute of the Art) delicate questions than the promoters. It can also bring media visibility.“ culture.“ Aneta Szylak (director of Wyspa Institute of Art) “Starchitect“, Wikipedia. Aleksandra Grzonkowska (Wyspa Institute of the Art) “Some inhabitants are unhappy with the noisy The Subjective Bus Line tour guides and translator art event. But some are documenting them from “With the popular and critical success of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, by Frank Gehry, in which a rundown area of a city Grzegorz Klaman (president of the Wyspa Progress Foundation) their windows and are giving the pictures to Wyspa.“ in economic decline brought in huge financial growth and prestige, Danuta Kobzdej (president of the Center Solidarnosc Foundation) “Gdansk has a tradition of openness that is linked to the place and not to the people, who the media started to talk about the so-called ‘Bilbao factor’; a star Ania Perz (city guide) “Art shouldn’t be everywhere neither ! “ changed a lot throughout the centuries.“ “The uniqueness of this centrally located, historic, waterfront site, architect designing a blue-chip, prestige building was thought to Bogna Burska (artist) along with the diverse mixture of new usable space to be developed “Why couldn’t middle and lower class people make all the difference in producing a landmark for the city.“ “Make a place without taboo, open for Lesbians, The land of the shipyard, since its not owned Wojtek Pastuszak, Michat Czajka, Marek Gruczka (Freedom Skatepark Gdansk) and welcoming public spaces will attract sufficient numbers of live in the center anymore ? “ “Starchitect“, Wikipedia. Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals.“ by the state anymore, has been divided into workers, visitors, shoppers and residents to Young City that pension different private properties. “Nobody is really feeling to be ‘from Gdansk’.“ funds, investors and developers who invest in Young City will earn Project realized in the frame of a Pro Helvetia artist-in-residence program at the Wyspa Institute of Art “From the outside, the Young city plans seems a good return on their investment and contribute to the successful “In ‘City of Freedom’, the term ‘free’ has always “Since Gdansk was a place whose priorities lay in trading and other just too big, out of proportion ! “ development of Young City – Gdansk. been a tricky one. And business was always a worldly pursuits, it was a very tolerant city and Scotsmen, Jews, and Among the opportunities are: luxury apartments with waterfront key element... “ great enclaves of other peoples made their homes on its shores.“ “We can manage a space for us here, in the views and other residential possibilities, 4 or 5 star hotels, shopping Young City.“ “Propose activities for the 17-20 years old, like www.gdansk-life.com centers and smaller retail outlets, 500,000 m2 of new office space, a hip-hop center.“ “If the name and the identity of something like the city still has “What means can we use to resist the business and convention centers, cinemas and other entertainment “For 50 years, it has been forbidden to sit on the a meaning, could it, when dealing with the related questions of ‘revitalization’ ? “ facilities.“ “Some touristic guides are mentioning that it is grass in parks. It’s not an habit here ! “ hospitality and refuge, elevate itself above nation-states or at least “The place shouldn’t be cleaned ! “ Baltic Property Trust impossible to enter into the shipyard.“ free itself from them, in order to become, to coin a phrase in a new “Art journals, the mass media, galleries, established alternative “Open a skateboarding school.“ “Even being against neo-liberal projects, the and novel way, a free city) ? “ spaces, and museums manipulate and exploit the neighborhood, “The walls are separating but also protecting.“ “Create a real campus.“ Jacques Derrida, “On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness“. city has to develop.“ thereby serving as conduits for the dominant ideology that facilitates “Not so many people in Gdansk know that they “One of Gdansk’s greatest attractions – the shipyard – is inaccessible “The Young City project might just not be gentrification.“ can enter the shipyard.“ and surrounded by a wall. The Subjective Bus Line opens it up and realized.“ Rosalyn Deutsche and Cara Gendel Ryan, “The Fine art of Gentrification“. transforms it into public space.“ “It was a paradise because it was a closed www.en.gdansk.gda.pl space, a space of freedom.“ “Gdansk was called ‘Diamond in the crown’ of “The town is the correlate to the road. The town exists only as a “Along with the division of cities into tourist and non-tourist zones, Kingdom of . function of circulation, and of circuits; it is a remarkable point on “The pass of Wyspa workers is only ‘for shortest another question commonly directed at a tourism economy is whether the circuits that create it, and which it creates. It is defined by way to work’.“ “The water is completely missing in Gdansk. It’s it contributes to the social polarization of the city. entries and exits; something must enter it and exit from it. It imposes invisible.“ “The place is not ideal for activities with kids, Lily M. Hoffman and Jiri Musil, “Prague, Tourism and the Post-industrial City“. a frequency. It effects a polarization of matter, inert or human; it In 1980, during the strikes, in the hall where the as the parents, because of the gate, cannot “Bring the underground canals to life and make causes the phylum, the flow to pass through specific places, along “The truth is that 50% of the fall of the Wall belongs to John Paul II, talks took place, Lenin’s bust was turned to the bring their children inside by car.“ a vaporetto network.“ horizontal lines. It is a phenomenon of transconsistency, a network, wall by the workers. Lenin then resemble the 30% to Solidarity and Lech Walesa and only 20% to the rest of the because it is fundamentally in contact with other towns.“ “Will there be gated communities using the world. That was the truth then and is the truth now.“ “Build an express way in the shipyard is really two-faces Roman god Janus, who is looking in “The Palimpsest introduces the idea of erasure as part of a layering existing shipyard wall in the future ? “ not a good idea ! “ Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, “A Thousand Plateaus : Capitalism and the future and in the past. Lech Walesa Schizophrenia II“. process. There can be a fluid relationship between these layers. Texts “Open a big cultural-sport center where young and erasures are superimposed to bring about other texts or erasures. “We need to keep history alive but always to “By the narrative process of nostalgic reconstruction the present is Walls | Barriers | Gates | Private security guards | Lech Walesa leaping over the wall | Beginning of the Wall’s fall people can dance, learn, watch a movie, go to A new erasure creates text; a new text creates erasure.“ connect it to the present and future.“ “Colin Ward (in “The do-it-yourself New Town“) argued for a new denied and the past takes on an authenticity of being, an authenticity | Shipyard’s separation from the city | Economical and social exclusion concerts and do sport.“ Richard Galpin, “Erasure in art : Destruction, Deconstruction, and Palimpsest“. concept of building communities, in which the residents themselves “Open a local fast food where the customers which, ironically, it can achieve only through narrative.“ “Can we revisit the term ‘Hansa’ to imagine would be involved directly in planning, designing and building their “(…) social space is produced and reproduced in connection with could eat traditional food and experience Susan Stewart, “On Longing“. a community of interest between cities that own homes and neighbourhoods.“ the forces of production (and with the relations of production).These queuing like in the old days.“ “The past has become much more unpredictable than the future. wouldn’t be build only on economic exchange ? “ E. Howard, “To-Morrow. A Peaceful Path to real reform“. “Our position in this project, as outsiders artists “forces…are not taking over a pre-existing, empty or neutral space, inevitably leads us to somehow stay on the or a space determined solely by geography, climate, anthropology… ” “What does the new Solidarnosc building have to Nostalgia depends on this strange unpredictability.“ do with the ideas and history of the syndicate ? “ Underground water network | Railways | Maritim Connexions | Hanseatic League | European Football championship | surface of things.“ Henri Lefebvre, “The production of Space“. Svetlana Boym, “The Future Nostalgia“. European Capital of Culture | International art circuit | Danish landlords | Finnish exploitation | Corean workers | Former german factories | International artists-in-residence program | European Solidarity Center Layers | Superposition | Erasure | (Beautiful) scares History | Traditions | Nostalgia | Janus

Poster realised from the interviews of Gdansk Shipyard’s users NOTES ON POSSIBLE FUTURE USES OF THE SHIPYARD Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk May - July 2012

ABSTRACT

Invited for a residency at the Wyspa Institute, a contemporary art center located within the fences of Gdansk historical shipyard, microsillons worked on a poster on the possible future uses of the site. Starting from a series of interviews with different users of the site, the poster showed the complexity of the current situation of the shipyards, as well as perspectives that can be imagined for this industrial site. The proposals of the interviewed persons on the future of the shipyard are letting a do-it-yourself town emerge, built and used by the inhabitants of Gdansk rather than by developers. The poster has been displayed in the entire city of Gdansk, in Polish, and in touristic areas in English. Visit of the shipyard with a high-school group

APPROACH

Working for the first time in Poland,microsillons assumed a position of exteriority, through the collection of testimonies from local actors. Through this collective work, a reflection on the process of gentrification and the role that art plays in this transformation was proposed.

COLLABORATION

- Mateusz Gajewski, Adrianna Halman, Dominika Karc, Karolina Kossakowska, Dominika Lałusa, Marianna Marszałkowska, Anna Szczoczarz, Bozena Wydrowska (Lycée Nicolas Copernicus, Gdansk, European Club) - Anastasia Veksina (philology student) - Barbara Piotrowska (architecture student) Reflection on the future of the shipyard - Aleksandra Tatarczuk (Wyspa Institute of the Art) - Aneta Szylak (director of Wyspa Institute of Art) - Aleksandra Grzonkowska (Wyspa Institute of the Art) - Guides and translators from the Subjective Bus Line tour - Grzegorz Klaman (president of the Wyspa Progress Foundation) Danuta Kobzdej (president of the Center Solidarnosc Foundation) - Ania Perz (city-guide) - Bogna Burska (artiste) - Wojtek Pastuszak, Michat Czajka, Marek Gruczka (Freedom Skatepark Gdansk)

The final poster spread out in the city LA SURFACE DES CHOSES

Installation view LA SURFACE DES CHOSES Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève 2009 - 2011

ABSTRACT

Over a long period of time, within the frame of the mediation projects at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva, a series of meetings were organized between a group of visually impaired people, Raphael Julliard (a Geneva-based artist) and microsillons. Discussions on the non-visual aspects of contemporary art, the invention of photography as an artificial eye, minimal art as repertoire of shapes and conceptual art – including allographic practices – shaped a reflection on the notion of ‘vision’ at large. A meeting

The result of this collaboration was presented in an installation, collectively conceived, which operated as a transposition of the points around which discussions had been crystalizing. Assemblages of wooden pieces, (symbolizing among other things the exchanges of knowledge and experiences that constituted the soil of this project), were accompanied by a video made up of a series of close up shots from the wooden piece and a soundtrack of comments, selected texts, or improvised speeches by each participant. These proposals emphasized the polysemic potential of objects and open to many perspectives, beyond the surface of things.

APPROACH

The project questioned the faculty for each of us to produce or appropriate a work of art, to create and invest her/his own translations of art and the world, to create meaning from the different elements constituting her/his environment. Visit of a collection at the Mamco

COLLABORATION

La surface des choses brought together people contacted through l’Association pour le Bien des Aveugles et malvoyants de Genève (Geneva Association for Visually Impair): Dorotya Brocquard, Concita Poscia, Jacqueline Ruchat, Myrna Salgado, Simon Romero ; as well as Raphaël Julliard, artist.

Installation view at Centre d’art contemporain Genève READING GROUP ON GRAPHIC DESIGN

Visual collage realized after the second reading group READING GROUP ON GRAPHIC DESIGN Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève March - June 2011

ABSTRACT

In parallel to the exhibition Panorama. Design graphique en Suisse romande, a reading group was organized to reflect on the role and use of graphic design in our society.

Four texts were used as a basis for the discussions: Exhibition visit, Centre d’Art Contemporain - Hal Foster’s Design and Crime. - Ellen Lupton and Abbott Miller’s High and Low. - Naomi Klein’s No Logo. - Max Bruinsma’s The art of graphic design.

The texts were discussed in the frame of sessions spread throughout the Panorama exhibition timeframe. After each session, a visual proposal was produced and exhibited at the Centre, allowing the public to follow the discussions of the reading group.

APPROACH

The project aimed to critically address issues related to graphic design: Are art and graphic design merging to form a Reading group single discipline? Is art more autonomous than design? What kind of strategies can be imagined to resist the invasion of public space by advertising? What does the valuation of creativity mean in our society? Is graphic design an instrument of power?

COLLABORATION

The participants to the reading group were students in art, visual communication and communication.

A detail from a visual collage THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED

Installation view Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED. Amateur videos from 8mm to 2.0 Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève December 2010 - February 2011

ABSTRACT

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Amateur videos from 8mm to 2.0 is a project taking the shape of a historical panorama about amateur video and a database of amateur movies, in the context of the exhibition Image – Mouvement. While nearly 90% of the owners of mobile phones equipped with a camera report using this function, 35 hours of video are added to YouTube every minute, and the division between producers and consumers of moving images is challenged, microsillons wanted to examine the complex flow of images between amateur and professional practices. If these new Timeline close-up technological tools can capture images of our daily lives, they also serve to document events ignored by the mass media or to denounce intolerable political situations.

The project was developed with a polyphonic dimension: six groups of participants were selected and discussed examples of amateur videos (in order to illustrate categories defined together with participants) to feed a database presented in the installation, as well as on a website (www.therevolutionwillnotbetelevised.ch). The installation also included a timeline showing key moments in the history of amateur video and developing topics such as Citizen Journalism or commercial exploitation of amateur videos.

APPROACH

In an exhibition showing the work of professional video and filmmakers, the project was a counterpoint, showing the View of the database interface achievements of non-specialists, tackling the validity of institutional categorizations. With an extended conception team, the idea of a multi-speech collaboration was reinforced and opposed to the single curator selection model.

COLLABORATION

With participants from the following structures: Foyer Frank-Thomas, Eaux-Vives Community house; High School Aimée- Stitelmann ; Master Students in communication and media, Geneva University (the students also took part to the timeline texts writing) ; Kantonsschule Solothurn ; Bezirksschule Biberist ; Community house Bronx / Jugendarbeit Länggasse Bern. Emmanuel Piguet and Pablo Lavalley have designed and developed the database interface. microsillons worked with an extended team composed of Helen Bauman, Lea Fröhlicher, Christina Gasser. Database startpage, accessible via Internet EN COMMUN

Two pages from the newspaper EN COMMUN In the frame of the festival La Terrasse du troc, Geneva. July 22nd – August 15th 2010

ABSTRACT

In the frame a transdiciplinary festival, microsillons produced a newspaper with two classes from Geneva, using the Bois de la Bâtie, a well-known place to wander around in Geneva (and the festival venue), as a starting point. In small groups, pupils have conducted investigations considering various aspects of this place, by researching documentation and interviewing different users, as well as by working on specific graphic forms.

Some class sessions were dedicated to discuss issues like: the ‘commons’, public space, privatization. Reading texts from Henry D. Thoreau and Michel de Certeau, the specific notions of hijacking and poaching were also discussed. Notes from a classroom discussion on the ‘commun’ Discussions on the work of graphic designers as well as a visit to a printing plant emphasized the idea that making a newspaper is a collective process involving many actors.

With an editorial introducing the project and highlighting the themes, the newspaper was printed and distributed for free to the visitors of La Terrasse du Troc and in various public places in Geneva.

APPROACH

The theme of the ‘commons’ structured the project. The introductory sessions in the classrooms gave the opportunity to discuss the tension between private and public, through an approach that was both historic and contemporary. These steps, until the final publication, led to the understanding that the ‘common good’ – speaking of a public park, service, water, the Internet – is never something given but instead subject to multiple variations and threats. The newspaper also focused on the multiple uses of a public place like the Bois de la Bâtie. Interview with the Stop Suicide association

COLLABORATION

The project was realized with a class of pupils from 10 to 12 years old from a primary school in Geneva and their teacher Jessica Aguet, as well as with a class of 15 -16 years old students from a high school and Valentina Pini, their art teacher.

Meetings were held with employees from a mushroom farm, the St George’s cemetery, the Geneva Federation of Family Gardens, the Stop Suicide Association, the Green Spaces Services from the City of Geneva, the animal park in the Bois de la Bâtie, the Department of Waste Management, La Terrasse du Troc and the printing shop Noir sur Noir.

Visit of the printshop UTOPIA AND THE EVERYDAY

Exhibition’s view, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève UTOPIA AND THE EVERYDAY. Between art and pedagogy Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Novembre 26th 2009 – March 28th 2010

ABSTRACT

Utopia and the Everyday. Between art and pedagogy is an exhibition that intended to look at the relationships between art and pedagogy. Three artists or collectives whose artistic practices involve teaching/pedagogical strategies were invited to Geneva to develop original projects in collaboration with local participants. The results of these collaborations were presented in the exhibition. In addition, a documentary section, organized thematically, provided information on past projects, focusing on their educational dimensions. Le Lignon Triple Beam

APPROACH

The project proposed to open a series of questions about the relationships between art and pedagogy. What can we learn through art? Can the contemporary art sphere serve as a testing ground or offer alternatives to a ‘classic’ education? Can art serve as a tool for understanding political or social issues that are usually absent of the curriculum? The project was also an opportunity to present references which are important for microsillons and to identify an international network of people interested in these issues.

COLLABORATIONS

After an investigation at Le Lignon (a modernist housing program built in the 70’s on the outskirts of Geneva) with residents, associations and people involved in its construction, the artists Damon Rich (founder of the Center for Urban Pedagogy) and Oscar Tuazon proposed to built in Utopia and the Everyday a scale model of a ‘playground for adults’. Wild Translation Taking the shape of the site of le Lignon, it operated as a ‘pedagogical landscape‘, encouraging new relationships between the built environment and the ‘Practice of Everyday Life’ of the residents.

The artists Nils Norman and Tilo Steireif, together with a group of students from the Pedagogical University in Lausanne and their classes, developed a structure within the structure, a small wooden house which architecture referred to the one of the Centre International de Recherche sur l’Anarchisme (International Research Center on Anarchism), also in Lausanne. Within this wooden house, they displayed different elements: a research on alternative pedagogies, pupils (from 8 to 16 years old) projects around the notion of utopia or posters from the CIRA.

Wild translation is the result of a reflection by trafo.K and Gabu Heindl, held during the time of conception of the exhibition, with a group of students of the German School of Geneva (aged 13). The art educators and the architect worked on a concept of ‘translation’, anticipating and reinterpreting the content of the exhibition.

Untitled SUCCESS & CAREER

Trophy inspired by a Hamburger University seminar SUCCESS & CAREER L’intermédiaire, LiveInYourHead, Geneva December 16th 2009 – January 9th 2010

ABSTRACT

In the frame of the collective exhibition L’intermédiaire, microsillons created an installation that featured a bronze trophy, a video excerpt from ‘Planet McDonald’ (from ‘Envoyé Special’, a popular documentary show on French television), a poster, and various documents produced by the group Education is Not for $A£€ Geneva (a group of students from the University of Geneva fighting against the commodification of education).

The poster was announcing the meeting, in the exhibition space, of a work group composed of members of Education is Not for $A£€ Geneva as well as students and alumni of the University of Art and Design of Geneva. Exhibition view, LiveInYourHead The trophy, a potato pierced with a straw, referred to a seminar (presented in the video) of the Hamburger University (a university dedicated to the training of McDonald’s executive collaborators), seminar that deals with topics like management, motivation, self-confidence and success.

The work group met in the exhibition space and exchanged about the impregnation of the education system by neoliberal economy and about possible means to preserve non-profit areas within the higher education system, ‘without condition’.

APPROACH

With this piece, the growth and the acceptance of the commodification of education – particularly in the context of art studies – were tackled. One of its main challenges was to establish links, through this project, between students of the University and of the University of Art and Design. The use of the exhibition space as a place to meet where Still from a documentary on the Hamburger University participants could discuss concrete strategies to fight against the application of neoliberal measures in education, was a way to produce a politic content that can return in the public sphere without being completely neutralized by the art institution.

COLLABORATION

The project was conducted with members of the group Education is Not for $A£€ Geneva, as well as students and alumni of the University of Art and Design in Geneva.

Demonstration board from Education is NOT for $A£€ JIVERU

A book’s page from Jiveru JIVERU Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève and Cologny primary school 2008 - 2009

ABSTRACT microsillons was invited to create an exhibition display for the primary school of Cologny (a village near Geneva). Jiveru (a name found by the pupils participating to the project through a game of anagrams) is the first project presented in this exhibition device. It was conducted with a class of third grade pupils, around the themes of travel book and Utopia. After visiting exhibitons at the Bodmer Foundation (a foundation dedicated to the written heritage of humanity) and the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, as well as several introductory sessions based on the links between reality and imagination, the pupils created the elements of a fictional world, by making collages and View of the exhibition display in Cologny descriptions, which served as the basis for the publication of a book on Jiveru.

APPROACH

Through the creation of an imaginary world, the classical individual way of working in the classroom was challenged: the pupils had to work together, starting from their personal ideas, to build a symbiotic universe, with its own logic and diversity.

Notions like Utopia and dystopia were discussed, in order to reflect on how the invention of ‘another somewhere’ can provide tools to critically rethink our own world.

COLLABORATION A book’s page This project was realized with a third grade class of the state primary school in Cologny and their teacher. The Bodmer Foundation also took part to the project and the book was presented at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève.

A book’s page BUREAU MOBILE

Elements contained in the Bureau Mobile BUREAU MOBILE Since 2008

ABSTRACT

The Bureau Mobile (Mobile Office) is a tool to open spaces for research, discussion, critical thinking and creativity. It connects to exhibitions, institutions, projects or public space. It is a working ‘place’ for microsillons and groups with whom the collective works. It also generates unexpected encounters.

This mobile structure is not intended to be a traveling exhibition space with a fixed identity or a trademark image. Its deployment is always linked to a particular context, it is as a simple object whose main quality is to be functional. The Bureau Mobile is folded and redeployed as needed, taking advantage of its modularity. It can then be transformed into an exhibition structure, a projection tool, a printing unit... It does not present itself as a work of art in itself.

Bureau Mobile activities take place in a limited time frame: rather than grow into a structure more and more established, it loses the elements as and when projects until its complete disappearance. The Office Mobile is an experimental, flexible, nomadic and temporary apparatus.

APPROACH

With a strong responsiveness, the Bureau Mobile allows to echo the local cultural and political events as well as to multiply the spaces and meaning of speech, with its ability to get, in the strict sense, off the beaten tracks. Following the same logic, its program works the same way: it responds to desires, opportunities, meetings. It is open and polymorph.

COLLABORATION

The Bureau Mobile was designed and created with Izet Sheshivari, designer. Each of the projects involving Bureau Mobile creates specific and contextual collaborations.

The two Bureau Mobile modules BUREAU MOBILE - UN TOUR COMPLET. 24 hours walk. In the frame of MAC 09, Genève 19 -20 September 2009

ABSTRACT

A 24 hours walk was held in Geneva public space within the MAC 09 (‘Manifestation d’art contemporain’, initiated by the Municipal Fund of Contemporary Art in Geneva). This active ‘flânerie’ was accompanied by theBureau Mobile. The key principle of the project was that of the sequence shot: the Bureau Mobile drifting in the streets without interruption along a path and a rythm defined by the various proposals the guest. The program was offering a space for artistic practices related to public space, including performances specifically developped for this framework. The different stops of the trip were communicated in advance, in order for the public to be able to follow the Bureau Mobile or attend a particular intervention. More than 200 people took part, at one time or another, to the experience. Samuel Schelenberg about alternative art spaces .

APPROACH

While guided tour – the archetypal activity of cultural mediation - most often puts the object in a reassuring package, defining a short time for the visit, a given number of visitors, a clear frame, leaving little room for the unexpected, the Tour Complet was a risky business, almost impossible to follow as a whole, full of surprises, closer to a practice of happening rather than of performance.

COLLABORATION With the following artists and guests, in order of appearance: Fanfare de la Cave 12, Diego Castro, Tilo Steireif, Samuel Schellenberg, Ateliers du G.U.S., Raphaël Julliard, Revue Datées, Betrand Bacqué, Emilie Bujes, Paralab, Sophia Paglai, Jérémy Chevalier, Christian Tarabini, Elia Buletti, Marie-Avril Berthet, Adla Isanovic, Legoville, Izet Sheshivari. Screening with Bertrand Bacqué

Marie-Avril Berthet : history of electronic music BUREAU MOBILE - JANUS BUS Eternal Tour Festival, Swiss Institute, Roma 3-13 July 2008

ABSTRACT

Invited by the team of the artistic and scientific festivalEternal Tour, the Bureau Mobile and its team spent 3.7 days in , the average length of stay of tourists in the Eternal City. They have established a protocol to drift in the city, as an extension of Eternal Tour 2008. Each day, a circle, with the Swiss Institute as center (main point for the Bureau Mobile festival activities) and passing through one of the most popular tourist landmarks of the city, was drawn. Each circle has been explored during the day, preparing specific events that were held in the evening, with theBureau Mobile resources. Walking in the streets of Roma with the Bureau Mobile

Within those three and a half days, the Bureau Mobile team worked on a pirate exhibition on the images of ‘Others’, on a street slideshow projection about tourism and on a street screening of a sci-fi B movie called ‘A 30 milioni di Chilometri dalla Terra’, questioning the relationship between humans and the ‘Unknown’.

A projection of the movie ‘Disneyland, mon vieux pays natal’, from Arnaud Despallières, was also realized in the train, while crossing the Simplon tunnel, an important step for the nobles and bourgeois who were involved in the Grand Tour (a key reference for the festival).

To close the experiment, a poster documenting the project was produced at the Swiss Institute, using the internal resources of the Bureau Mobile.

APPROACH Slideshow on tourism In the frame of the research undertaken by the festival on the Grand Tour, the Bureau Mobile-Janus Bus was questioning the notions of center and periphery as well of drift and alternatives to mass tourism.

COLLABORATION

The team was composed of: Laura Von Niederhäusern (artist, researcher), Christian Tarabini (movie maker), Jean-Marie Reynier (artist) microsillons. The Eternal Tour team also provided support.

Final poster UNE TENSION EN CHEWING-GUM (DINER AROUND AN ARTWORK #2)

Exhibition’s view, Le Commun, Geneva UNE TENSION EN CHEWING-GUM. (DINER AROUND AN ARTWORK #2) Le Commun, Fonds d’art contemporain de la Ville de Genève 2012

ABSTRACT

Around the artwork Alternating from 1 to 100 and vice versa (a kilim from a series of 50) from Alighiero e Boetti, (borrowed to the Contemporary Art Found of the City of Geneva) microsillons organised a diner where eight guests were gathered. Chosen for the specific reading they could propose from the work - starting from their own field of research – the experience was based on the principle that, from the inter-relations between the guests, unexpected knowledge could be produced. Discussion around Alighiero e Boetti’s work

From the numerous tracks opened through this exchange process, an exhibition was designed, presenting the piece of Alighiero e Boetti, excerpts of dialogues between the guests and a series of objects related in different ways to the kilim (artworks, reproductions, newspaper articles, calligraphy, measurement tools, toys…), illustrating some of the nodal points of the discussion. For example, a calligraphy mixing ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in Arabic and Persian evoked Sufi philosophy and binary opposition with which the artist was playing, while a video by Dias and Riedweg (a duo of Brazilian-Swiss artists) raised the question of our relationship to ‘the Other’ and of the way in which she/he can be involved in the realization of an artwork.

APPROACH

Diner with the guests Interdisciplinary dialogue was placed at the center of the project. The field of art was thus understood as a meeting point where disciplinary thoughts can interbreed and enrich themselves, causing unexpected results that can be shared with a broader public.

COLLABORATION

The guests for the diner party were: Michel Aubry (artist), Nicolas Brunner (quantum physicist), Eric Geoffroy (Expert in Soufism), Alessandro Monsutti (social anthropologist, specialist of Afghanistan), Anne Sauvagnargue (philosopher), Sigrid Schade (art historian), Liliane Schneiter (historian), Alice Vergara (educator and former participant to Boetti’s initial project).

Exhibition view, Le Commun, Geneva BIOGRAPHY microsilllons Founded in 2005 by Marianne Guarino-Huet and Olivier Desvoignes www.microsillons.org | [email protected]

Employement

Since 2013 Guest teachers in the CCC Research-based Master program, Geneva University of Art and Design.

Since 2011 Head of the Art/Education Association, Geneva. Since 2009 Directors of the Master of Advanced Studies ‘Bilden – Künste – Gesellschaft’, Zürcher Hochscule der Künste. 2010-11 Researchers, Bern University of the Arts. 2008-2010 Head of the gallery education department, Centre d’art contemporain Genève. 2006-2009 Assistants in the CCC Research-based Master program, Geneva University of Art and Design.

Awards / Grants / Residencies

2013 Residency, Le 116, Centre for contemporary arts, Montreuil (France). 2011 Residency in Gdansk, Wyspa Institute, Pro Helvetia. 2009 Awarding of an artist studio of the City of Geneva. 2008 Swiss Art Award, category ‘art and architecture education’. 2007 Grant for contemporary art educator, City of Geneva. Research

Since 2009 Doctoral Studies (PhD), Chelsea college of Art and Design, London. Title of the research: ‘Pedagogical strategies in contemporary art’. Supervisors: Neil Cummings and David Cross. Since 2009 Member of the research group ‘Kunstvermittlung in Transformation’, DORE/FNS, Hochschule der Künste, Bern. Since 2007 Member of the ‘pro PhD’ seminar, CCC, Geneva University of art and design, Geneva, Switzerland.

Publications (selection)

2013 ‘Inhabited, familiar, disrupted. An “other“ institution of contemporary art in representations of gallery education?’, in: IAE Journal, #7 (2013). 2013 ‘Médiation. (Contre)points’, in : Le temps de la médiation, Pro Helvetia, http://www.kultur-vermittlung.ch/zeit-fuer-vermittlung, 2013. 2013 ‘Une tension en chewing-gum’, in : CCC newsletter 2012. 2013 ‘Self-institutions’, in : Figures et méthodes de la transmission artistique : quelle histoire ? HEAD, Genève (to be published) 2012 ‘Producing the unexcpected’, in : Educational Turn, Internationale Perspektiven auf Vermittlung in Museen und Austellungen, Schnittpunkt, Vienna. 2012 ‘Art and knowledge exchange in hybrid fields of practice’, in : Kunstvermittlung in Transformation, Scheidegger & Spiess.

2011 ‘Art in a time of war. Rozalinda Borcila in conversation with microsillons’, in: Eternal Tour, 2011. 2011 ‘Vers une médiation autonome?’ (‘Toward an autonomous art education’), in: www.mediation-culturelle.ch. 2010 ‘Autonomy within the institution. Towards a critical art education’, in: IAE Journal, #2 (2010), http://iae-journal.zhdk.ch/no-2 2010 ‘Apprendre des pratiques interventionnistes?’ (‘Learn from interventionnist practices’), in: CCC newsletter 2010. 2009 ‘Méthodologies’ (‘Methodologies’), in: CCC newsletter 2009. 2008 ‘Vers une médiation critique’ (‘Towards a critical art education’), in: Swiss Art Awards 2008. 2008 ‘Mutualisme’ (‘Mutual Benefit’), in:CCC newsletter 2008. 2007 ‘Tram Film Festival’, text for the festival’s website, Geneva, http://www.tramfilmfestival.ch, January 2007. 2007 Précis de stratigraphie (Précis of stratigraphy), edition around the exhibition ‘John M Armleder, Amor Vacui, Horror Vacui’, MAMCO, Geneva, January 2007. 2006 ‘Multiplôme’ (‘Multiploma’), in: CCC newsletter 2006. Interventions (selection) 2013 Talk in the frame of the ‘Passe-partout’ event, Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, May 24th 2013. 2012 Workshop ‘Modern and contemporary Art Education for Adults in Museums and Galleries’, National Gallery of Art, , Lithuanie, December 11th-13th 2012. 2012 Présentation of the research Pre-PhD Seminar, Research Master CCC, November 2012. 2012 Jury members, Research Master CCC Diplomas, June 2012. 2012 Experts for the Symposium Kulturvermittlung, Pro Helvetia, 2012. 2012 Modération of a round-table at the Small Master Symposium, HES-SO, ECAV, Sierre, April 14th 2012. 2011 Presentation of the work in the frame of the Art Education Master Program, Hochschule der Künste, Bern. 2011 Symposium ‘Figures et méthodes de la transmission artistique: quelle histoire?’, Geneva University of art and design, March 31st - April 1st, 2011. 2011 Presentation in the frame of the art education training ‘Quelle sensibilisation pour les publics adultes’, FRAC Alsace, March 30th, 2011. 2010-2011 Workshop at the Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana. 2010 Workshop in the frame of Regards croisés. Forum sur les représentations de la personne handicapée, Geneva, November 12th, 2010. 2010 Workshop at the MUMOK, Vienna. Symposium Educational Turn. International Perspectives on Education in Museums and Exhibitions, November 3rd - 4th, 2010. 2010 Free/Slow University of Summit, ‘Creative industries and knowledge factories: analysis and resistance’, Warsaw, December 6th - 9th, 2010. 2010 Participation to the Parade of the Critical Practice Cluster, Chelsea College of the Art and Design, London, May 21st - 23rd, 2010. 2010 Symposium, I jornadas. Producción cultural crítica en la práctica artística y educativa actual, MUSAC, Leon, Spain, June 18th - 20th, 2010. 2010 Round table around Utopia and Everyday. Between art and Pedagogies, Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva, March 26th, 2010. 2010 Talk ‘Horizontaler Wissensaustausch’, Les Complices, Zürich, March 10th, 2010. 2009 Intervention in the Master program ‘Kunstvermittlung’, Prof. Carmen Mörsch, ZHDK, December 9th, 2009. 2009 Talk in the symposium KUNST[auf]FÜHREN, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, June 20th, 2009. 2009 Guest artists for the program Visit, workshop, Hochschule der Künste, Bern. 2008 How relevant is it to exhibit teens’ works in museums ?, September 10th, 2008, Pedagogical University (Haute École Pédagogique), Lausanne, Switzerland. 2008 Presentation of work, Master Program TRANS (training for art education), Geneva University of art and design, January 15th, 2008. 2007-2008 Part of the Art Education Platform organized by the Swiss Arts Council, Pro-Helvetia. 2007 Part of the Podium for art education, Schweizerischer Kunstverein, September 17th, 2007, Aarau, Switzerland. Projets/Exhibitions (selection)

2013 Commune de Montreuil. In: Singularités partagées (collective exhibition), Le 116, Centre for contemporary arts, Montreuil, October-January 2013. 2013 Vive le théâtre questionne, Groupe l’Aventin, Théâtre de Carouge, May - June 2013. 2012 Une tension en chewin-gum. Échanges autour de En alternant de 1 à 100 et vice versa de Alghiero e Boetti, Le Commun, Geneva, 2012. 2012 The Revolution will not be Televised. Vidéos amateur de 8mm à 2.0, second chapter, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, December 2010 - January. 2011. 2011 The Surface of Things, with Raphaël Julliard, Geneva, 2009 - 2011. 2011 Notes on possible future uses of the shipyard, Alternativa, Wyspa Institute, Gdansk, May - July 2011. 2011 Reading group around graphic design, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, March-June 2011. 2010 The Revolution will not be Televised. Amateur video from 8mm to 2.0, Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva, December 9th, 2010 – February 13th, 2011. 2010 En commun. Journal du Bois de la Bâtie. In the frame of the Festival La Terrasse du Troc, Genève, July 22th – August 15th, 2010. 2010 Utopie und Alltag (rereading Utopia and the Everyday. Reuse of a part of the exhibition in Geneva), Kunstmuseum Thun, July 17th - September 5th, 2010. 2010 Parade - Public modes of assembly and forms of adress (collective event), Chelsea college of Art and Design, London, May 21th - 23d, 2010. 2010 1916 (collective exhibition), Triangle Space, Chelsea college of Art and Design, London, March 17th - 19th, 2010. 2009 L’intermédiaire (collective exhibition), LiveInYourHead, Geneva. With ‘Education is NOT for $A£€’, December 16th - January 9th, 2010. 2009 Utopia and the Everyday. Between art and pedagogies (curators), Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva, November 26th, 2009 - March 28th, 2010. 2009 Jiveru, Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva et primary school of Cologny, July 1st - August 15th, 2009. 2009 A condition, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, February 3rd - March 5th, 2009. 2008 Janus Bus, Eternal Tour (group show), Artistic and Scientific Festival, Swiss Institute, Roma, Italy, July 2008. 2008 Lieux communs, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzlerand, February 8th - March 9th, 2008. 2007 Der Tanz der Doppelgänger (group show), Shark, Geneva, Switzerland, December 13th - 28th, 2007. 2006 Free art, Union Square, New York, January 2007. 2006 Parcours, MAC 06, Geneva Arts Council, Geneva, Switzerland, October 2006. 2006 Enquête autour d’une disparition, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, May 2006. 2006 Souper autour d’une oeuvre #1, around Robert Filliou’s piece: ‘Eins, Un, One’, CCC, Geneva University of art and design. With Camille Poncet, April 2006. 2006 Du codex au pixel: livre d’art, livre d’artistes, CCC, Geneva University of art and design. With Marie-Avril Berthet, Diego Castro, Adrien Laubscher, April 2006. 2006 Guides Genève-Tirana, Village du monde, Albanie, Quartier des Grottes, Geneva, Switzerland. With Camille Poncet, Marie Velardi, Raphaël Julliard, March 2006. 2005 Cabinet de curiosités extra-terrestre, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzlerand, October 2005. 2005 Piktura, Université Populaire Albanaise, Geneva, September 2005.