Julien Creuzet: Toute la distance de la mer, pour que les filaments à huile des mancenilliers nous arrêtent les battements de cœur. - La pluie a rendu cela possible (…)

At Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research 
La pluie a rendu cela possible depuis le morne en colère, la montagne est restée silencieuse. Des impacts de la guerre, des gouttes missile. Après tout cela, peut-être que le volcan protestera à son tour. – Toute la distance de la mer (…) 
January 24–April 14, 2018

Fondation d’entreprise Ricard and Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research are happy to present jointly a double solo exhibition by Julien Creuzet (b. 1986, Le Blanc-Mesnil, France). 

In this project, Julien Creuzet comments on and finds shapes for stories of displacement, exile, acculturation and reappropriation of identities. His works combine everyday elements and wooden forms with poetry, songs and music. They inhabit the spaces of the two institutions and interact with one another: in one location the artist transforms standardized white furniture into inhabited radiant forests, while in the other, suspended wooden forms seem to hold their breath, torn between different organic forces, synthetic or financial. Creuzet places the link between identities and economies at the heart of his installations. He looks at the transatlantic trajectories of the Caribbean diaspora or of the migrants of the global South, subjects of a racial division of labor that remains hidden and is yet reflected in all spheres of our life, whether private or public.

By composing multilinear landscapes made up of heterogeneous elements, enlacing hurricanes of the Caribbean, the covered markets of Montreuil and Portuguese man o’ war, Creuzet echoes the concerns of the philosopher Achille Mbembe who in his essay Politiques de l’inimitié (La Découverte, 2016) asks: “How can we, in our divided world, contribute to the emergence of a thought that is capable of contributing to the consolidation of a democratic politics on a global level, a thought of complementarities rather than difference?” By thinking about the emotions and particular experiences of the world, he creates a space that is—both socially and formally—inhabited and where margins and centers are challenged.

At the Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, the exhibition will end on Monday, February 19 with a performance as part of the Partitions (Performances) program curated by Christian Alandete. 
 

Eau Palimpseste
A series of readings, conversations and performances curated by Mawena Yehouessi.

“Following Julien Creuzet’s invitation to echo the back-washing of his works and words, I wished to activate a series of readings, conversations and performances which, each in their own way, would convey/dissipate those words: There are stories of waters between us.”

At Fondation d’enterprise Ricard
Thursday, February 8, 6:30pm
In conversation
the sea roars: to our withstanding ghosts.
Pascale Monnin
Performance
BLOOD - Bocar Niang

At Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research 
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Performances
I.e., Emules-appâts
7:15pm: Eau palimpseste, a re-writing by Mawena Yehouessi
8:15pm: Alter et Mézigue, a performance by Fallon Mayanja with Aminata Labor, Sarah Melloul, Yanisse Lalouci and Christian Kimena

Thursday, March 1, 6:30pm
In conversation
lacrimonial corrosivity: the bitter waters’ ebb.
Aman Iwan (collectif) x Emanuele Coccia
Performance
SALIVA - Inès di Folco

Tuesday, March 23, 6:30pm
In conversation
till the milk of laughter: p.e/a.nser les courants obscurs.
Nana Adusei-Poku x Amanda Hunt
Performance
LIQUORS - Eden du Paradis

Saturday, April 14, 3pm
In conversation
H2O 3.0: floating and flooding across fluidity.
Anaïs Duplan x Tabita Rezaire
Performance
SWEAT - Olga Mouak