Royal Garden 4 — Rivers le Crédac — Press Release —

le Crédac
— Press
Release —
Royal Garden 4
— Rivers
Online magazine at www.credac.fr
Starting 15 November 2012
Curators: Federica Martini et Didier Rittener
With: Dove Allouche, Luc Aubort, Jean-Pierre Criqui, Carla Demierre, Gilles Furtwängler,
Jean-Paul Felley et Olivier Kaeser, Jérémie Gindre, Alain Huck, François Kohler, Claire Le
Restif, Mark Luyten, Federica Martini, Damián Navarro, Véronique Portal, Didier Rittener,
Noah Stolz and Benjamin Stroun.
Graphic design and development: Jérémy Muratet-Decker
le Crédac —
Press contact —
Centre d’art
contemporain d’Ivry - le Crédac
La Manufacture des Œillets
25-29 rue Raspail, 94200 Ivry-sur-Seine, FR
informations : + 33 (0) 1 49 60 25 06
email : [email protected]
www.credac.fr
Axelle Blanc
Head of communications
+33 (0) 1 49 60 25 04
[email protected]
Open every day (except Mondays)
from 2 to 6 PM, weekends from 2 to 7 PM, and by request—
free admission
Royal Garden enjoys the generous support of Région
Ile-de-France. Didier Rittener is a winner of the international residency program of Ville de Paris / Institut
Français at the Récollets.
Metro: 7 line, Mairie d’Ivry / (20 mn from Châtelet / 200 m
from the metro)
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Didier Rittener, Untitled, 2012, graphite on A4 tracing paper, from the series Libre de droits n° 378.
Royal Garden original logo has been designed by Mathias Schweizer for Crédac in 2008.
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Royal Garden
at www.credac.fr
Crédac’s internet site Royal Garden is a virtual
multidisciplinary multimedia review that has been
online since 2008. A virtual-world extension of
Crédac’s mission as an art venue, Royal Garden is a
critical, theoretical and artistic exquisite corpse.
With each new issue of the review, a curatorial
committee is invited to take over the space and
invite a number of artists and theoreticians in turn,
each of whom is asked to propose a specific intervention (new texts or images, videos, slideshows,
graphic explorations, games, etc.)
Royal Garden 4
— Rivers
This fourth installment has been entrusted to Didier
Rittener, who invited Federica Martini to join him.
The installment envisions rivers as both motif and
model, echoing an earlier exhibition at Crédac, Le
Travail de Rivière (The Work of the River), which
was mounted in 2009.
Rivers wear away and make memory visible. Royal
Garden 4: Rivers includes works in the fine arts,
sound, film and literature that form an open continuum, a series of possible imaginary actions.
At the outset of this project there is a list
(reproduced on the following pages). After taking
part in Le Travail de Rivière, Rittener indeed began
compiling a list of works in the visual arts, music
and literature that refer to rivers, like some endless
task of getting back to the beginning, the origin.
This work of returning to, reviving and extending
a past exhibition is fairly rare and joins up with the
ideal, labyrinthine form of Royal Garden. Rittener
opted for subjectivity over exhaustiveness and his
list was brought to an end with the help of Federica
Martini. It also became the invitation that was
extended to those taking part in Royal Garden 4,
the “riverbed,” as it were.
The curators
Didier Rittener (born in 1969; lives and works
in Lausanne, Switzerland) graduated from ECAL
(École cantonale d’art de Lausanne, the Cantonal
School of Art of Lausanne) in 1996. He is a
draftsman and sculptor, and his work has been the
focus of numerous solo shows, including Desert Me
at Crédac in 2005-2006. Rittener’s art deals with
notions of originality, reproduction and the generic,
notably through a series of graphite drawings
(Libre de droits, a copublication of Attitudes
– HEAD – Centre pour l’image contemporaine,
Saint-Gervais, Geneva, 2004-2010). He is also a
professor at the Haute École d’Art et de Design,
Geneva.
Federica Martini, an art historian and curator,
holds a PhD in literature from the University
of Turin. She has worked in the curatorial
departments of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte
Contemporanea, Turin; the Musée Jenisch, Vevey;
and the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts of
Lausanne. Since 2009 she has headed the Master’s
MAPS - Arts in Public Spheres program at ECAV/
Sierre. Recent projects include Slipping Glimpser
(2011, Théâtre Arsenic, Lausanne), Incongrou
(2011, MCBA, Lausanne), 0° latitude-longitude
Gleisdreieck (Complices, Berlin, 2012), and Taking
Time (Nida Art Colony, 2012), as well as numerous
publications on contemporary-art biennials
(Just Another Exhibition. Stories and Politics of
Biennials, 2011, postmediabooks, Milan, with V.
Martini).
>—>> Posted online progressively from 15
November to 14 December 2012
>—>> You can consult all the issues of Royal
Garden at www.credac.fr/rg
Royal Garden enjoys the generous support of Région Ile-de-France.
Didier Rittener is a winner of the international residency program of
Ville de Paris / Institut Français aux Récollets.
Media partners : Artclair.com, le Quotidien de l’art and Zérodeux.
This list is also the first of twenty iterations
of Royal Garden 4, whose dynamic interactive
interface suggests a stream at the surface of which
the various individual projects flow off in a random
fashion.
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Rivers >—>> List established by Federica
Martini and Didier Rittener for
Royal Garden 4
« I don’t care how I say what I must say. If I do original work all well and good. But if I can say it (the
matter of form I mean) by translating the works of
others, that is also valuable. What difference does it
make? »
William Carlos Williams
Describe rivers through others’ stories. Not explain
rivers through examples, but through the difference of the stories/works of art. Rather, bring them
together and combine them.
Propose an open list, which works like a river,
without making a model of models, the way Mr.
Palomar likes them. [Italo Calvino, “The Model of
Models”, Mr. Palomar (1983), trans. William Weaver
(Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985)].
This means bringing together dreams of rivers,
which “…like scenes from a forgotten film, drift
through the night, in passage between memory and
desire.” J.G. Ballard
Throughout the course of history, rivers have produced a multitude of metaphors. They are associated
with an inexhaustible quantity of images and symbols. This list doesn’t aim to locate them. It looks to
rivers as a series of possible and imaginary actions.
Federica Martini & Didier Rittener
L’Arno a Rovezzano
Eugenio Montale, 1971
(Eugenio Montale, Tutte le poesie, Mondadori, Milan,
1984)
Les Arpenteurs du monde
Daniel Kehlmann, 2005
(tr. fr. Actes Sud, Paris, 2007)
Le baron Bagge
Alexander Lernet-Holenia, 1936
(tr. fr. Edition du Sorbier, Paris, 1984)
The Big Two-Hearted River
Ernest Hemingway, 1925
(Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time, Boni & Liveright,
New York, 1925)
Blue Highways
William Least Heat-Moon, 1978
(William Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways, Little
Brown & Co., Londres, 1999)
Le chant des rivières
Sons naturels enregistrés par Chihiro Ito, Mitsuo
Takahashi, Eiji Mori, Junko Okawa, Hiroya
Minakuchi, 1991
(Produit par Michiko Nuki, responsable du Centre
de la Recherche Bio-Music de Tokyo. Sony Music
Entertainment - Japon ; 46 min. 30 sec.)
Contemplations
Anne Bradstreet, 1664
(Anne Bradstreet, The Complete Works of Anne
Bradstreet, sous la direction de Joseph R. McElrath,
Jr. et Allan P. Robb, Twayne, Boston, 1981 ; première
publication, 1678)
Le convoi de l’eau
Akira Yoshimura, 1967
(trad. fr. Actes Sud, Paris, 2009)
Crescendo
Dino Buzzati, 1971
(tr. fr. Dino Buzzati, Le rêve de l’escalier, Editions
Robert Laffont, Paris, 1973)
The Crystal Land
Robert Smithson, 1966
(Robert Smithson, The Collected Writings, édition
dirigée par Jack Flam, University of California Press,
Berkeley - Los Angeles, 1996)
The Day of Creation
J.G. Ballard, 1987
(tr. fr. J.G. Ballard, Le Jour de la création, Flammarion,
Paris, 1988)
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Dead Man
Jim Jarmush, 1995
(film, noir et blanc, avec son, 121 min.)
Della natura de’ fiumi trattato fisico-matematico del
dottore Domenico Guglielmini primo matematico
dello Studio di Bologna, e dell’Accademia Regia delle
Scienze. In cui si manifestano le principali
proprieta de’ fiumi, se n’ indicano molte sin’ hora non
conosciute, e si dimostrano d’una maniera
facile le cause delle medesime
Domenico Guglielmini, 1697
Traité scientifique
Délivrance
John Boorman, 1972
(d’après le roman homonyme de James Dickey, film,
couleur, avec son, 110 min)
Fitzcarraldo
Werner Herzog, 1982
(film, couleur, avec son, 157 min.)
I fiumi
Giuseppe Ungaretti, 1916
(Giuseppe Ungaretti, Tutte le poesie, Mondadori,
série « Meridiani », Milano, 2005)
Fontana dei quattro fiumi
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1651
(fontaine, Rome, Piazza Navona)
Il gorgo
Beppe Fenoglio, 1954
(Beppe Fenoglio, Altri racconti, Einaudi Pleiade,
Torino, 1993)
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad, 1902
(tr. fr. Joseph Conrad, Au cœur des ténèbres,
Editions Aubier-Montaigne, Paris, 1980)
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison, 1952
(tr. fr. Ralph Ellison, Homme invisible, pour qui chantes-tu ?, Grasset, Paris, 2002)
Jindabyne
Ray Lawrence, 2006
(D’après la nouvelle « So Much Water So Close to
Home » de Raymond Carver, film, couleur, avec son,
123 min.)
Lettre à M. Tournot sur différents noms donnés à la
rivière Isère
Claude-Charles Pierquin de Gembloux (1798-1863),
s.d.
(par Pierquin de Gemblouz, in-8°)
Life on the Mississippi
Mark Twain, 1883
(tr. fr. Mark Twain, La Vie sur le Mississipi, Payot,
Paris, 2003)
The Man in the Crowd
Edgar Allan Poe, 1884
(tr. fr. de Charles Baudelaire ; Edgar Allan Poe,
Nouvelles Histoires extraordinaires, A. Quantin,
Paris, 1884)
Manfred et la sorcière alpestre
John Martin, 1837
Aquarelle, 39 x 56 cm
The Mill on the Floss
George Eliot, 1860
(George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, Blackwood,
Edinburg, 1860)
Old Joy
Kelly Reichardt, 2006
(film, couleur, avec son, 73 min)
Peter Rugg, le disparu
William Austin, 1824 - 1827
(tr. fr. William Austin, Trois récits fantastiques
américains, José Corti, Paris, 1996)
Rivière sans retour
Otto Preminger
1954
(film, couleur, avec son, 91 min)
So Much Water So Close to Home
Raymond Carver, 1993
(tr. fr. Raymond Carver, Neuf histoires et un poème,
Édition de l’Olivier, Paris, 1993)
À travers le continent mystérieux
Henry-Morton Stanley, 1878
(http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1049638)
The Ten Thousand Longest Rivers of the World
Alighiero Boetti, 1975 - 1982
tapisserie, 460 x 250 cm
New York, MoMA
(cette œuvre s’inscrit dans le projet Classifying : The
Ten Thousand Longest Rivers in the World, 1977 par
Alighiero Boetti et Anne-Marie Sauzeau Boetti)
La truite
Gustave Courbet, 1872
Huile sur toile de lin, 52,5 x 87 cm
Zurich, Kunsthaus
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The participants
Dove Allouche (born in 1972) is a graduate of
the École Nationale d’Arts de Cergy-Pontoise. He
practices photography, engraving and drawing.
Recent solo shows include Nos lignes sous les obus
toxiques (curated by Didier Rittener), Circuit,
Lausanne (2012); and L’Ennemi Déclaré, Crédac
/ De Vleeshal, Middleburg (2008-2009). A show
featuring his work is slated for 2013 at the Print
Department of the Pompidou Center.
Luc Aubort (born in 1971 in La Chaux-de-Fonds,
Switzerland; lives and works in Lausanne) holds a
degree in visual arts from the École Cantonale d’Art
of Lausanne (ECAL). Recent solo shows include
Frange at the Hubert Bächler Gallery, Zurich
(2012). Since 1998 he has also been a member of the
committee behind Circuit, a contemporary-art space
in Lausanne (www.circuit.li), and has taught at
ECAL since 2006.
Jean-Pierre Criqui, an art historian and critic,
heads the Spoken Word Department (lectures,
debates, conferences) at the Pompidou Center,
where he is also editor-in-chief of Cahiers du
Musée national d’art moderne.
Carla Demierre (born in Switzerland in 1980) studied art in Geneva and has been the codirector of
the review Tissu since 2004, along with Fabienne
Radi and Izet Sheshivari. She is a writer as well
(poetry and fiction), regularly collaborates with
artists, and teaches at the Haute École d’art et de
design of Geneva. Her second book, Ma mère est
humoriste, was published in 2011 by Éditions Léo
Scheer/Laureli.
Jean-Paul Felley (born in 1966) & Olivier Kaeser
(born in 1963) are art historians and curators. In
1994 they founded the contemporary-art organization Attitudes in Geneva, which they continue to
head. Since October 2008, they have also served
as codirectors of the Swiss Cultural Center in Paris.
Gilles Furtwängler (born in 1982 in Switzerland;
lives and works in Lausanne) writes poetry; his
texts are carved from that block of subjects that
are peculiar to human beings. Words, concepts
and stories are pressed to extract their current
essences, the juice of their meaning, trivial, absurd,
or sensible by turns. His texts are presented as
readings, performances and impressions.
Jérémie Gindre (1978) is a Swiss artist and writer
based in Geneva, in a studio that overlooks the
Rhône.
Alain Huck (1957) is an artist who lives and
works in Lausanne.
François Kohler (born in 1964 in Basel) is a
cofounder and currently codirector of the artists’
collective Circuit, a contemporary-art association,
Lausanne. Solo shows include MURSOLLAICI,
the Swiss Cultural Center, Paris (2003); François
Kohler et les éditions Circuit, Musée jurassien
des Arts, Moutier (2006); the Hubert Bächler
Gallery, Zürich (2008); La 2.333333333333ème
Dimension, 1m3, Lausanne (2009); and hejma doxa/
anthropocenus park, Circuit, Lausanne (2012).
Claire Le Restif (born in 1967) is an art historian
and exhibition curator. She has headed Crédac
since 2003.
Mark Luyten (born in 1955; based in Antwerp,
Belgium) works everywhere in a range of media.
He has had the good fortune to exhibit his work
in a number of solo shows to date, notably at the
Walker Art Center of Minneapolis (1997) and the
Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp (2011).
Damián Navarro (born in 1983; lives and works in
Lausanne) is a visual artist and member of Circuit,
the artists’ collective and art center in Lausanne.
His work was recently featured at Hard Hat in
Geneva, Kunsthaus Aarau, the Sculpture Center in
New York, and the 1m3 art space in Lausanne, (Dr.
Spin-off, 2012).
Véronique Portal (born in 1980 in Toulon) studied
at ECAL in Lausanne and HEAD in Geneva. At heart
she uses photography as a tool for exploring possible subjective and narrative links.
Noah Stolz (born in 1976, lives and works in
Geneva). In 2004 Stolz took over the direction of
the contemporary-art space la rada in Locarno. He
is also a freelance curator, a producer of experimental films and a contributor to contemporary-art
magazines like Mousse Magazine, Kaleidoscope
and Kunst-Bulletin. Since 2009 he has been a member of the Commission fédérale d’art. And since
2010, along with Patrick Gosatti, he has been codirector of visual-arts programing for Les Urbaines
festival in Lausanne.
Benjamin Stroun, a graduate of ECAL, has
mounted a number of exhibitions that focused on
experimental comics and graphic novels, as well as
narration in drawing and contemporary painting.
Since 2000 he has taught the history and practice
of comics and graphic novels notably at HEAD,
Geneva.
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Didier Rittener, Untitled, 2012, graphite on A4 tracing paper, from the series Libre de droits n° 379.
Drawing of the first occurences’ titles which will form the interface of Royal Garden 4.
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