Review: Plein Soleil/ Un été des centres d’art
Publication date: 28 May 2008
In the wake of the “Out in the Sun/Summer in the Art Centres” event in 2007, the review “Plein Soleil/ Un été des centres d’art” (Out in the Sun/A Summer in the Art Centres” (“Été” also means “Being” in French) sets out to bring France’s contemporary art centres and their associated artists into the public eye.
Co-published by analogues and d.c.a with the support of the Visual Arts Commission (DAP) at the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the 300-page publication is a magnificently illustrated overview of what France’s art centres are doing. Covering 36 centres from among the 44 currently making up the network in France, the review focuses high points in the individual programmes they presented last summer.
Opting for a direct approach to exhibitions and works, Out in the Sun is an excellent guide to the present
art scene.
Of the over 200 artists included, some were showing in France for the first time; others, like Claude Lévêque and Felice Varini are iconic figures on the French art scene. Thus the review is a panorama aimed at highlighting the scope and diversity of the work being done by the art centre network as a whole.
The exhibition views cover the whole gamut of projects, the variety of contexts and the richness of the works and ideas; in this way the publication points up their distinctive features and, more broadly, the areas of engagement of art today.
Out in the Sun is, in fact, part book, part magazine: an approach intended to combine the timelessness of a work of reference – coverage of each centre’s concerns and work orientations – with an outline of a specific season’s output.
Out in the Sun/Summer in the Art Centres 16.5 x 23.5 cm, 336 pages, French/English, paperback Publication date: May 2008 ISBN 9782915772234
On sale from 28 May in all Presses du Réel outlets: www.lespressesdureel.com
Press officer for the review Gwénola Ménou ANALOGUES Contemporary art publishingcontact@analogues.fr www.analogues.fr
Press officer for the launch Muriel Enjalran, coordinatord.c.a/French Association for the Development of Art Centres
m.enjalran@dca-art.com
d.c.a network:
Abbaye Saint-André, centre d’art contemporain de Meymac ● CAC Brétigny, Centre d’art contemporain de Brétigny ● CCC / Centre de création contemporaine de Tours ● Centre d’art de l’Yonne, Auxerre ● Centre artistique et culturel du Domaine départemental de Chamarande ● Centre d’art contemporain la Chapelle du Genêteil, le Carré, scène nationale, Château-Gontier ● Cirva, Marseille ● Cneai – Centre National de l’Estampe et de l’Art Imprimé, Chatou ● Centre Photographique d’Ile-de-France, Pontault-Combault ● Crac Alsace / Centre Rhénan d’art contemporain, Altkirch ● Centre régional d’art contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon, Sète ● Centre d’art contemporain d’ivry – Le crédac ● Le Creux de l’Enfer, Thiers ● Espace Croisé, Roubaix ● Espace de l’art concret, Mouans-Sartoux ● Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne ● Jeu de Paume, Paris ● Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Centre d’art contemporain-Centre culturel de rencontre, Bignan ● La Criée / Centre d’art contemporain, Rennes ● La Galerie, Centre d’art contemporain, Noisy-le-Sec ● Le 19, Centre régional d’art contemporain de Montbéliard ● Le Grand Café / Centre d’art contemporain, Saint-Nazaire ● Centre d’Art le LAIT / Laboratoire Artistique International du Tarn, Albi et Castres ● Magasin – Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble ● Le Parvis, Centre d’art contemporain, Ibos et Pau ● Le Plateau / Frac Ile-de-France, Paris ● Le Quartier / Centre d’art contemporain, Quimper ● Les Abattoirs, Toulouse ● Palais de Tokyo, Paris ● Parc Saint-Léger / Centre d’art contemporain de Pougues-Les-Eaux ● Passages, Centre d’art contemporain, Troyes ● Centre d’art contemporain La Synagogue de Delme ● centre international d’art et du paysage de l’île de Vassivière ● Centre National d’Art Contemporain de la Villa Arson, Nice ● Wharf, Centre d’art contemporain, Hérouville-Saint-Clair ● 3 bis f*, Aix-en-Provence ● CAB, Centre d’Art Bastille, site sommital de la Bastille*, Grenoble ● Centre d’art contemporain de la Ferme du Buisson*, Noisiel ● centre d’art passerelle*, Brest ● Cairn, centre d’art, Réserve Géologique de Haute-Provence*, Digne les Bains ● La Maison des arts georges Pompidou*, Cajarc ● Le Confort Moderne*, Poitiers ● Villa du Parc, centre d’art contemporain d’Annemasse* ● Villa Noailles*, Hyères.
* art centres which got into the d.c.a network after the “Plein Soleil” event
