In 2015, the Centre national des arts plastiques launched its first international call for proposals for the attribution of three curatorial research grants. These were intended to fund projects involving works in the French national contemporary art collection (Fonds national d’art contemporain).
Beneficiaries of these grants are invited to try new curatorial strategies and envisage the collection in its most experimental dimension, from its earliest to its most contemporary elements.
A panel comprising Marie Cozette, director of the Synagogue de Delme arts centre, Marie de Brugerolles, independent curator, artist Pierre Leguillon, Dirck Snauwaert, director of the WIELS contemporary art centre, Cnap’s Yves Robert, Xavier-Philippe Guiochon and Sébastien Faucon convened on October 2, 2015.
The three projects they selected are: On reserve by Anne-Lou Vincente and Raphaël Brunel; Curatorial research and the reproduction of artworks: a cultural exploration of the Fonds national d'art contemporain by Francesca Zappia; and France 1947–68: the arts of doing by Géraldine Gourbe and Florence Ostende.
The researchers will report back on their work in 2016, through publications, symposium, exhibitions, or any other type of physical or virtual media.
On reserve by Anne-Lou Vicente and Raphaël Brunel (What You See is What You Hear)
This project focuses on works in Fonds national d’art contemporain’s contemporary collection which, for mainly technical or material reasons, can no longer—or very rarely—be exhibited. How can we compensate for this lack of visibility and accessibility? How can we bring them out of the reserves, put them back into circulation and, despite their physical absence, recreate ways for the public to experience and interpret them?
Anne-Lou Vicente and Raphaël Brunel are Paris-based independent art critics, exhibition curators and the founders of VOLUME, a magazine of contemporary art and sound which they published from 2010 to 2013. The pair have since continued their research into the connections between sound and the visual arts, right up to their outermost margins, through publications, events (performances, concerts, lectures, etc.) and exhibitions.
Curatorial research and the reproduction of artworks: a cultural exploration of the Fonds National D'art Contemporain by Francesca Zappia
While searching through Fonds national d’art contemporain’s collection database, Francesca Zappia was struck by the extraordinary number of copies, photographs, appropriations of and extracts from works and objets d’art which are part of our universal heritage.
Her project sets out to study what lies behind their production and their existence in the collection. A transversal study will reveal the various socio-political, aesthetic and technological contexts which underlie the creation of these works, and in doing so help reconsider the concept of originality within the art history discourse
Francesca Zappia is an independent curator, living and working in Glasgow. Her research focuses on the transmission of memory and the construction of knowledge in artistic practice, which she reflects in her own curatorial practice as she tries out new ways of presenting works, both online and offline (past-forward.net and East End Transmissions).
France 1947–68: the arts of doing by Géraldine Gourbe and Florence Ostende
This research eschews a historical account of established events and episodes, and focuses instead on the signs and practices that traverse and transform the cultural history of art and ideas. It asks the following question: what if we found out that the future of May '68 actually began in 1947?
Géraldine Gourbe is a philosopher and specialist in Los Angeles. She has taught aesthetics in universities, art schools and political science faculties. She is currently preparing a monographic exhibition with Andrea Zittel, to be staged at Villa Arson in summer 2017.
Florence Ostende is an art historian and exhibition curator. She is a lecturer at Geneva University of Art and Design and recently organised the Ugo Rondinone exhibition I Love John Giorno at Palais de Tokyo.
For more information: bourse-curatoriale.cnap [at] culture.gouv.fr
Press contact
Brunswick Arts, Leslie Compan: cnap [at] brunswickgroup.com
