Les commissaires anonymes
SANITATION - Mierle Laderman Ukeles

SANITATION - Mierle Laderman Ukeles

The American artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles spent 38 years “in residency” in the sanitation services of New York City. Back on his career and on what she intitled “the art of maintenance”. lire la suite

The Grignyotheque

The Grignyotheque

Contribution of Mathilde Sauzet Mattei to the session 2017 synthesis document of Les Ateliers de Cergy-Pontoise on the topic of the inclusive city. lire la suite

Autonomous Actors Factory

Autonomous Actors Factory

Meeting with Daria Lippi, stage director and actor, Barbara Forestier, communication agency manager, and Juliette Salmon, actor and musician, are the founders and kingpins of the Fabrique Autonome des Acteurs (Autonomous Actors Factory) in Bataville.
From May to October, they move into the canteen building and invite artists, actors and researchers to play with the deserted setting of the former factory. No longer about Mr Bata and a big boss, guru methodology, this factory replaces Daddy with a peer-to-peer pedagogy. lire la suite

The disoriented cabaret

The disoriented cabaret

Graphic and textual script from a cabaret-performance written and composed by Gabriel Mattei and Mathilde Sauzet
The edition, designed by Sophie Cure, is printed out in a newspaper-like format and is both an opera libretto composed by dialogues and songs, and a prop for the performance. Holding it open during the action the spectators become a collective character: The generic crowd. lire la suite

L'ile des réunions

L’ile des réunions

L’ILE DES REUNIONS, a methodology of collaborative meetings for an affirmative approach of uncertainty
The book L’île des réunions (The island of meetings) gathers together ten narratives and analysis of artistic and social situations that happened during the European Capital of Culture in Mons in 2015. These situations, spontaneous and experimental, emphasize the precious and too often, much neglected potential in the act of reunion. Why do we gather? What is the aim of a meeting? lire la suite

Minute Editions

Minute Editions

A process of live documentation and archive design in collaboration with Frédéric d’Incau
In response to the need for collecting, archiving and sharing references and feedback in the short term and with an economy of means, Minutes Editions is a tool-display of collaborative work. lire la suite

Where are we? inland

Where are we? inland

A contribution from Mathilde Sauzet Mattei for the collected volume INLAND
An inquiry into the existence of cultural, artistic and agricultural practices, and the relationship between rural and urban spaces edited by the artist Fernando Garcia-Dory at the Dutch Art Institute in 2015.{} lire la suite

Small victories

Small victories

Article on the Jakarta Biennale
A month ago, I was visiting the Lyon Biennale and I was pissed at such a flatness. No necessity for existence, no necessity for art appeared in the large display of monuments and entertaining artworks. The event the modern life - title of the exhibition - left me sad in front of a dead modern monster that one had no decency to market the carcass of. On the contrary, in the big exhibition hall of the Jakarta Biennale, something urges and struggles… lire la suite

ELDORADO MAXIMUM

ELDORADO MAXIMUM

First book of the collection from Les commissaires anonymes!
Following the exhibition ELDORADO MAXIMUM, Les commissaires anonymes extended their research into artistic representations and the formulation of fantasy projections of a better future.Thanks to the grant of the Christophe Merian Foundation/Atelier Mondial (Basel), they spent a long term residency in Brussels for the writing of this first self-published book : Eldorado Maximum, a new typology of contemporary eldorados : fifteen artistic stories and initiatives that transform our representations of elsewhere, money and future. lire la suite

Would art be an evidence of a life fully lived?*

Would art be an evidence of a life fully lived?*

Dossier realized early 2014, after the year of celebration of the 30 years old of the FRAC. Ordered by Facettes, the review of network Réseau 50° Nord, France.
In 2013, the Regional Contemporary Art Collections, celebrated thirty years of existence. For this occasion, thirty facades of French train stations were covered by huge vinyls marketing the event. On the large glass in the station of Strasbourg a picture of Jan Kopp’s installation was placed twenty meters wide by ten meters high. A way to give ideas to publicity sponsorship? After thirty years of fighting with the lexicon of cultural democracy, the Fracs join the ball of commercial fame to justify their existence. lire la suite

JOSEPH POPPER : THE ONE WAY TICKET

JOSEPH POPPER : THE ONE WAY TICKET

Interview of the London based artist Joseph Popper, just graduated of Interaction Design departement of the Royal College of Art, around his installation The One Way Ticket, a scenario for a deep space journey without return.
« zero gravity, zero budget »
The space race was one of the most important engines of scientific research during the twentieth century. Particularly reported in the cold war mediascape, she participated at the popular glorification of technology. As an artist of the twenty-first century, why have you decided to work about this subject? lire la suite

Toward Freehold Lands

Toward Freehold Lands

Interview of the artists duo Bureau d’études for the 6th edition of the annual review Tête à tête on the issue of “LEAVING”.
The artist duo Bureau d’études has been mapping networks and systems of power for years. Their graphic analyses are part of a larger body of research they undertake on the representation of capitalism. To develop their artistic research, life in the city did not seem to provide the right conditions. In 2006, they decided to move to La Mhotte, a farm in Allier, Auvergne, France, where they combine lifestyle and professional activities at the intersection of social, cultural, agricultural, and pedagogical fields. Here, they work with a group of inhabitants and workers to build a space for social and cultural experimentation. lire la suite

 Manifesto for an art of living at all costs

Manifesto for an art of living at all costs

Manifesto written by Les commissaires anonymes for the event Allons voir ailleurs si nous y sommes, two days of meeting, exhibitions and events at the residency Zone Sensible, Saint Denis, France
In 2014, Emmanuelle Roule initiates Allons voir ailleurs si nous y sommes, a festival dedicated to current young artistic practices. Developed in line with the ideas of the “permanent creation center Poïpoïdrome” (1963) of the artists Robert Filliou and Joachim Pfeufer, the festival presents effervescent creative experimentations in a common space for a time of reflection on artistic economy, the energy of making and collective commitment. Les commissaires anonymes wrote the manifesto for the event. lire la suite

Bees Bets / The poetical party

Bees Bets / The poetical party

Meeting with the artist Olivier Darné et the graphic designer Emmanuelle Roule from the french collective Le Parti Poétique
What concerns people more than the lexicon of money? With the means of financial vocabulary and mastery of beekeeping, of word play and bees’ banks, The Poetical Party proposes to look back at the definition of wealth. lire la suite

The Isters, Brussels

The Isters, Brussels

Meeting with the collective The Isters
The Ister, it’s a common attraction for small and big myths, which are modeling current events into the grand narrative of History and pop culture. Are they claiming decadence? They blame the decline of popular beliefs and practices and claim art as a mean of revival. Beware of those who think that fast-food culture has no soul because, as Jean Cocteau said “Decadence is the great moment where a civilization becomes exquisite”. lire la suite

Visible Award 2013

Visible Award 2013

The Involvement of Les commissaires anonymes in the public jury day of the Visible Award 2013 organized by the curators Matteo Lucchetti and Judith Wielander at the Van Abbe Museum, The Netherlands.
Where art leaves its own field and becomes visible as part of something else... In the frame of the Visible research program, art leaves its own bed to look at the side of social innovation and activism. A “social art”? An “useful art” according to the denomination of the artist Tania Bruguera, author of the Asociaciòn de Arte Util and member of the jury advisory board. lire la suite

Welcome to Slave city

Welcome to Slave city

Article about the exhibition The Butcher by Atelier Van Lieshout in “la Friche Belle de Mai”, Marseille
The dutch artist Joep Van Lieshout sets up the scary horizon of Slave city, an urban model becoming slave of its own utopia. In the global installation titled The Butcher, Additionaldocument.org, the temporary web review available online and in the exhibition, proposes a collective inquiry about counter-world. Points of view from artists, sociologists and philosophers are gathered around the proposal from Atelier Van Lieshout. From utopia to dystopia, the margin is fine; The Butcher reminds us that hell is sometimes born from an excess of ideals. lire la suite

Whales also have ears

Whales also have ears

A snowy day, a silent encounter with the work of the artist Evariste Richer for his exhibition Substrate, at CIAP in Vassivière (Center France)
A huge yellow and green disk hangs in the nave. Rossi or Richer? The intrigue persists until we recognize the board of an old carousel, still stamped with footprints. The artwork is entitled The clock* (original title: l’Horloge). But it has no needles. In this out of time architecture by Aldo Rossi, a clock without hours rightly introduces Richer’s work. Indeed, the artist composed a universe marked by human heritage through time. The “Substrate” would be precisely what remains of past experiences, a substance which crosses the ages, a resistance to time flow. lire la suite

The giant and the helping hand at the street corner

The giant and the helping hand at the street corner

Visit to the building site Place of Change by the collective ETC in Saint-Etienne for the Design Biennale
Place for change! Human Cities
If the collective ETC finds a peculiar place in the landscape for architecture activism, it may be due to its curious mix of nice children and fearless workers, generous volunteers to drill and to tweet. Between fair ethics and trendy etiquettes, where are they? lire la suite

Mount Fuji does not exist

Mount Fuji does not exist

Article about the exhibition Mount Fuji does not exist, Frac Ile de France / Le Plateau
While they are leaving for residency in Japan, Elodie Royer et Yoann Gourmel give themselves the challenge to find Mount Fuji. The legend goes that it is visible from any place in the country. The poetry of this rumor is the thread of the exhibition. A precious and narrative display presents art works made of tangible gestures or actions, that there only remains material traces and the aura of a tale. lire la suite

JOSÉPHINE IS SURFING

JOSÉPHINE IS SURFING

An illustrated interview of the artist Joséphine Kaeppelin
Joséphine Kaeppelin, a young artist selected for the Strabic Summer Camp, confides her secrets of technological surf. She composes the answers to an online interview together with Internet wandering fragments. lire la suite

The complicity theory

The complicity theory

An article following the encounter with Gabi Farage: presentation of the actions of the group Bruit du Frigo
After a traditional training in architecture, Gabi Farage and Yvan Detraz renounced it to make plans for the lives of others. In 1997, they founded the group Bruit du Frigo devoted to the issue of urban space’s popular practices. Always playing with institutional tricks and political negotiations, Bruit du Frigo involves people, to think and act on their ways of life, with politics and poetry. lire la suite