From May until July 2015 Bétonsalon – Center for art and research presents a series of events, seminars and workshops in collaboration with the University Paris 7:

Thursday 21 May / 5-7 pm
Archive in Echo : Rethinking the Memories and Imaginaries of Colonial Independences.
Session 2/3: Independences in question: an ellipsis within human and social sciences?

A seminar organized by the research group Le noeud du monde : politique du corps (post)colonial: Jephthé Carmil (PhD in Sociology at Université Paris 7 – Paris Diderot and at the Nantes art school), Maïa Hawad (PhD in Political Philosophy at Université Paris 7 – Paris Diderot and in Anthropology at EHESS) and Pauline Vermeren (Doctor in Political Philosophy and Associate researcher at the Laboratoire de changement social et politique (LCSP) at Université Paris 7-Diderot).

By deterritorializing archives from their conventional uses and recontextualising them within the sphere of art, Maryam Jafri questions the production and management of collective memory. What does this archival nomadism produce, and how does it operate in relation to the writing of colonial history ? What other kinds of discourses and narratives does Jafri’s methodology allow to emerge ? How does her archival deterritorialization relate to contemporary postcolonial situations and their current debates ?

Next and last session: June 18.

Thursday May 28 from 5 to 7pm // Parallel event

Launch of L’homme qui mordit son chien, an editorial project by students from the writing workshop of Licence 3 Arts, Lettres, Langues at Paris Diderot university, under the supervision of Julie Ramage.

Friday May 29 from 6 to 6.30pm // Parallel event

Pourquoi Moi, a choral performance by Emmanuelle Raynaut with Johanna Korthals Altes, Satchie Noro, Emmanuelle Raynaut and Kerwin Rolland.

After an invitation by Isabelle Barbéris (lecturer at Paris Diderot university), in the frame of the UDPN – Usages des patrimoines numérisés (Idex SPC) program, artist Emmanuelle Raynaut presents a version of Pourquoi Moi, a creation, born out of residencies in Beirut and in Rome, in the archive of NGO UMAM and the Vatican storage.

Produced by AREP-Cie Région Centre, co-produced by UMAM-dg The Hangar, ZINC-Friche Belle de Mai, CORSINO-Studio-44, Cie Maroushka/ Festival Ecoute Voir, LIEUX FICTIFS, La Muse en Circuit, le CERILAC and UDPN, with support from Dicream.

Saturday May 30 from 3 to 6pm
Exercizing Doubt : Exhibition as a Medium for Research

With Emanuele Guidi (artistic director, ar/ge kunst, Bolzano), Invernomuto (Simone Bertuzzi & Simone Trabucchi, artists), Virginie Bobin (associate curator, head of public programs at Bétonsalon – Centre for Art and Research) and Rémi Parcollet (art historian – to be confirmed).

An afternoon of visual and theoretical essays around exhibition as a medium for research, where time allows to rethink the relations between art and the public sphere, beyond disciplinary categories. The detailed program will be announced soon.

In collaboration with ar/ge kunst, in the framework of PIANO, Prepared Platform for Contemporary Art, France–Italy 2014-2016, initiated by d.c.a / French association for the development of centres d’art, in partnership with the Institut français in Italy, the French Embassy in Italy and the Institut français, with the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, the French Ministry of Culture and Communication and Fondazione Nuovi Mecenati.

Monday 1 and Tuesday 2 June
IS THERE A POSTCOLONIAL REGIME for the ARTS ? 
Off-site: Paris Diderot University

Conceived by Seloua Luste Boulbina, with the Laboratory for Social and Political Change at Paris Diderot University. With, among others: Louisa Babari (video artist, project manager Afrikadaa), Mélanie Bouteloup (director, Bétonsalon – Centre for Art and Research) Emmanuelle Chérel (Ecole Supérieure des Beaux arts de Nantes métropole), Frieda Ekotto (Michigan University), Valérie John (Campus caribéen des arts), Pascale Obolo (video artist, chief editor Afrikadaa), Zahia Rahmani (Institut National d’Histoire de l’art), Aloyse Raymon N’Diaye (Institut des arts et de la culture du Sénégal), Federico Tarragoni (Paris Diderot Université), Françoise Vergès (Collège d’études mondiales)…

The globalization era is, evidently, postcolonial. Yet, the postcolonial is often presented as the reverse of globalization rather than as its correlate. To wonder if there is a postcolonial regime for the arts is to question the postcolonial dimension of artistic globalization. Today, art, like money, ignores borders: it is the most fluid of cultural exchanges. We will attempt to seize what is happening in the arts today, not from the viewpoint of the West and globalization, but from “the rest of the world” and postcoloniality, crossing perspectives from “here” and “there”.

Saturday June 13 / 10am – 7pm
OTHER GESTURES: PRACTICES OF HERITAGE

With, among others Franck Ogou (archivist, head of programs at Ecole du Patrimoine Africain), Marian Nur Goni (historian), Emma Wolukau-Mananbwa (artist), Lotte Arndt (theory professor at École d’art et design in Valence), Zineb Sedira (artist), Nana Oforiatta-Ayim (writer and historian)…

Other Gestures gives voice to artists, researchers, collectives and institutions who question the modalities of collecting, preserving, circulating and activating archival and heritage materials, notably through digitalization. The Day After and Maryam Jafri’s work testify for the complex role that tools for preserving and circulating heritage (sometimes others’ heritage) played in the identitarian and ideological construction of States after independence. Today, the legitimacy of the very idea of Nation is reassessed by globalization, and this has an impact on what is at stake in archive and heritage. We wonder what relationships do the « imaginary communities » described by Arjun Appadurai entertain with material and immaterial heritage, when the most priviledged way of accessing it is through digital reproduction. What are possible alternatives to the national institution of the archive ? What gestures, uses and networks are at play to turn heritage into a tool for emancipation and knowledge ?

Bétonsalon – Centre for art and research strives to develop a space where to reflect on and in society. Integrated into the site of the University Paris 7 at the very heart of a neighbourhood undergoing reconstruction, the ZAC Paris Rive Gauche in the 13th district of Paris, Bétonsalon works at the confluence of art and university research with the ambition to question normalised forms of production, classification and distribution of knowledge. The activities of Bétonsalon develop in a process-based, collaborative and discursive manner, following different time spans, in cooperation with various local, national and international organizations, and present themselves under different forms.  Exhibitions are enriched by different associated events (workshops, conferences, performances, round table discussions…). Seminars and workshops are organized in collaboration with teachers from the University Paris 7. Off-site research projects are led in partnership with other institutions and residency programs are offered for researchers, artists and curators.

Bétonsalon
9 esplanade Pierre Vidal-Naquet
Rez-de-Chaussée de la Halle aux Farines
13th district – Paris

+33.(0)1.45.84.17.56
info@betonsalon.net

www.betonsalon.net