bétonsalon Centre for art and research Esplanade Pierre Vidal-Naquet 13th district, Paris www.betonsalon.net Press contact : veovansy@betonsalon.net Phone : +33.(0)1.45.84.17.56

PLAYTIME

08/09 - 28/09/08

Fanny Adler & Vincent Madame - Atelier Bow-Wow - Nina Beier & Marie Lund - Katinka Bock - Simon Boudvin & Vincent Ganivet - François Chaignaud - Guillaume Constantin - Julio Cortázar & Dora García & Loreto Martínez Troncoso - Das Dingbât - Fanny de Chaillé - Jean-Charles de Quillacq - Jochen Dehn - Florent Delval - Michael Eric Dietrich - Driessens & Verstappen - Chloé Dugit-Gros - Dario Escobar - FormContent - Ryan Gander - Yves-Noël Genod - Dominique Gilliot –

Daniel Gustav Cramer & Haris Epaminonda - Jeune Fille Orrible - Patrick Killoran - Jiří Kovanda - Seulgi Lee - Nicolas Mémain - Ivana Müller - Roman Ondak - Carole Perdereau - Philippe Quesne - Paul Ramírez Jonas - Dan Rees - Seconds couteaux - Bertrand Segers & Matthieu Garcia Lamolla - Yann Sérandour - Virginie Thomas - Guido van der Werve - Adrien Vescovi - Annie Vigier & Franck Apertet (les gens d’Uterpan) - W - Raphaël Zarka A project curated by Mélanie Bouteloup and Grégory Castéra Bétonsalon, Centre for art and research, Paris Borrowing its title from the film of Jacques Tati and in relation with the new Zac (Concerted Building Zone) Paris Rive Gauche in the 13th district of Paris, the project Playtime presents objects and actions performed by artists questioning the use that can be made of a place, in between constraints and freedom. A website accompanies the project Playtime : http://playtime.betonsalon.net/ In there, you will find a geographical and historical study of the area, some portraits, a diary documenting the project and a library. The website needs to evolve during the year thaks to your contributions. Please if yu wish to suggest a text or a project to us, write to info@betonsalon.net.

Postal address: Association Bétonsalon, 37 bd Ornano, F-75018 Paris

Dan Rees Ryman vs. Mangold, 2005

“What we have to interrogate is brick, concrete, glass, our table manners, our utensils, our tools, the way we manage our time, our rhythms.” Georges Perec, L’infra-ordinaire, ed. Seuil, 1989

The project Playtime borrows its title from the film in which Jacques Tati turns a town into a playground, humorously revealing the pre-planned and absurd progression of modernity. The site that the project focuses on - the 13th’s ZAC Paris Rive Gauche ‘city university’, a new area made of concrete and glass - resembles Tativille. It is an area is growing with inherent utopias: the rehabilitation of a former industrial area, the « open blocks », a basic layout of solid and empty spaces following the concept developed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc, « the university within the city » where knowledge is mixed with urban activities… The journalist Frédéric Edelmann wrote in Le Monde on Sunday 23 March 2008: « The architectural outfit [seen as a collection of buildings] is so present that we might mistake it too for an another element of the decor, but it is necessary to enter into its game in order to understand how, behind this complex appearance, volumes and circulations are organised. » To explore the development of the area’s urban planning is to discover a construction site: a grid of paths leading nowhere, unnamed streets, uncultivated gardens, virtual simulations of the area in the future… Playtime questions this space, revealing what Perec refers to as “left-overs”, in other words, what is unnoticed, « time, people, cars and clouds »1. Playtime focuses on “usages”, to be understood as ways to act within a context that is governed by codes (rules, arrangements, speeches…), which modify or organize our interpretations and actions. The quotidian repetition of these actions modifies or confirms our interpretations of this context. The “usage” is the fruit of habits that remain linked to how well the amenities work: principally the to-ing and fro-ing of the workers and students (metro / work / metro), opening and closing hours of shops… People say the area lacks life. This remark could be translated as a lack in the fictional potential of the area, that is, in the possible interpretations that it generates. Playtime intends to place small interventions at the heart of common daily activity: How does the use that we make of a place define our freedom to act in it? Which fictions does the development plan of the Zac Paris Rive Gauche enable? If it is a question of emancipation, emancipation happens through playing with the contracts that control the way in which we look at a work, watch a performance, have a party, or meet someone new. The works presented in Playtime articulate a basis for potential fictions, a starting point for inventing usages. Playtime aims to explore the social interactions existing in this particular context through an exhibition of objects and actions, proposed by artists working within the visual arts, theatre, architecture, dance… The arrangement of their propositions will create situations composed of actors, accessories and backdrops. The works might serve as the rules of the game, stage directions or as found objects, witnesses, messengers. Somewhere between performance and exhibition, whether occurring at a scheduled time or being shown on request, the process of exhibiting and the exchange of words are at the core of Playtime. It is therefore a question of ‘temps de jeu’ (playtime), parenthetical to the everyday, organised according to certain rules, more or less operational. An exhibition that writes itself (how will it construct itself), as much as it disappears (in its ephemeral character).

1 Georges Perec, Tentative d’épuisement d’un lieu parisien, 1975.

View of the façade of Bétonsalon

PRESENTATION OF BETONSALON

Bétonsalon is a multidisciplinary art and research centre. Our ambition is to foster research and intellectual production through a program of exhibitions, projections, conferences and workshops. Bétonsalon is conceived as a space for exchanges between individuals from diverse disciplines: artists, philosophers, playwrights, choreographers, scientists, and more.

Bétonsalon wishes to encourage experimentation and respond to current artistic and cultural concerns. Therefore the activities of Bétonsalon are developing on different schedules: projects elaborated well in advance mingle with spontaneous proposals, resulting from meetings and collaborations. Bétonsalon is in the 13th district of Paris, in the Masséna area of the ZAC Paris Left Bank, near to the François Mitterrand Library. Bétonsalon extends over 300m2 of the ‘Flour Exchange,’ former flour storage for the historic ‘Great Mills of Paris.’ Located on the banks of the Seine, the building faces the esplanade of the newly relocated University Paris 7 – Denis Diderot. the Flour Exchange.

View of the esplanade des Grands Moulins

View of ZAC Paris-Rive-Gauche in construction

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Atelier Bow-Wow, Broken map, 2001 Nina Beier & Marie Lund, The history of visionaries, 2008

Katinka Bock, Lecture Quotidienne, 2008 13h - 14h 13h - 14h 13h - 14h Simon Boudvin & Vincent Ganivet, Rebuilt, 2008

François Chaignaud, Mainte femme ici-bas demande, 2008

en boucle entre 13h et 19h

Guillaume Constantin, fac simile, 2004 Julio Cortázar, Dora García, Loreto Martínez Troncoso, What Happens, Minerva?, 2008 * 12h* Das Dingbât (Constantin Alexandrakis & Olivier Nourisson), 2007-2008 20h

Fanny de Chaillé, Course de lenteur, 2008 13h

Jean-Charles de Quillacq, Spectre citron, 2008 16h - 18h

Jochen Dehn, Eldorado, Rive Gauche, 2008

Florent Delval, Emotion, 2008 12h - 18h

Michael Eric Dietrich, Schleier, 2008 Driessens & Verstappen, Morphotheque # 13, 2003 Chloé Dugit-Gros, L'approche du résultat (miniature), 2007

Dario Escobar, Untitled (Mcdorado), 2000

FormContent, Rehearsing Realities, 2008 Ryan Gander, This Consequence, 2005 ; Didactease, 2006

Yves-Noël Genod, Marlène Saldana, 2008 Dominique Gilliot, Coefficient de pénétration dans l'air, un challenge intellectuel, 2008

20h -00h

Daniel Gustav Cramer & Haris Epaminonda, The Infinite Library, 2007/08-ongoing Jeune Fille Orrible (Janin Benecke, Frédéric Danos & Olivier Nourisson), 2008 21h Patrick Killoran, Hand to hand (Mélanie Bouteloup), 2008

Jiří Kovanda, Kissing Through Glass, 2007 13h 17h

Seulgi Lee, Flamme, 2006 Nicolas Mémain, Ils oeuvrent et nous désoeuvrons, 2008 * 14h* 16h*

Ivana Müller, Whodunnit, 2008

Roman Ondak, Announcement, 2002

Carole Perdereau, Micro Music, 2007 15h 20h

Philippe Quesne, Point de vue, 2008 15h - 20h

Paul Ramírez Jonas, One Way, 2008-ongoing

Dan Rees, The Postman's Decision is Final, 2006 Jeanne Revel & Jean-Baptiste Leroux, Même les bancs publics ne pouvaient plus nous supporter, 2008 13h - 14h Bertrand Segers & Matthieu Garcia Lamolla, Surfaces vivantes, 2008

13h - 20h

Yann Sérandour, Tans pis., 2007

Virginie Thomas, Dans le décor, 2008 19h30 Guido van der Werve, The Dance Movie 2, 2002

Adrien Vescovi, Jour de fête, 2008 Annie Vigier & Franck Apertet (les gens d'Uterpan), X-Event 2.6 d'après le protocole 'le goût', 2007 W, Blocs (présentés par Joris Lacoste & Jeanne Revel), 2008 18h - 21h 16h - 19h Raphaël Zarka, Une mécanique des milieux continus : skateboard, pratiques et répliques d'espaces, 2008 19h Raout /Opening 19h

Contest de skateboard (en partenariat avec Nozbone)

à partir de 14h

Bétonsalon is open to the public from 12pm to 9pm. Not all the works are on view in the exhibition space. Hatch marks indicate those works permanently on view at Bétonsalon. At the time noted on the calendar, groups will meet at Bétonsalon (for performance indicated by *: see www.betonsalon.net). Information is available on site.

Yves-Noël GenodMarlène Saldana, 2008Photo : Marc Domage

Jeune Fille Orrible

Raft of La Balsa Muisca, telling about the legend of El DoradoBetween 1200 and 1500 after JC19,5 x 10,1 x 10,2 cmMuseo del Oro du Banco de la República de Santafé de Bogotá

Dario EscobarUntitled (McDorado), 2000gold leaf and pigments on plastic 10 x 10 x 18 cmCourtesy Josée Bienvenu Gallery, NY

Chloé Dugit-GrosL'approche du résultat ( miniature), 2007chalk and blackboard paint10x15x2cm

Guillaume Constantinfac simile, 2004Photocopy laser red on red paper Closed format 12,5x 20cm432 pagesedited en 2006 in 10 copies firmed and numbered (2 of artists) by association Astérides, Marseille.

Annie Vigier/Franck Apertet, x-event 2.6 le goûtTate Modern, janvier 2008© les gens d'Uterpan

Fanny Adler et Vincent Madame

Team Mélanie Bouteloup, director Grégory Castéra, educator and projects coordinator Véovansy Véopraseut, press manager Dorothée Arnaud, assistant of the educator Juliette Courtillier, assistant of the director And : Sara Martinetti, intern for Playtime

Practical information

Bétonsalon is supported by : Ville de Paris, Université Paris 7 – Denis Diderot, DRAC Ile-de-France – Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Conseil régional d’Ile-de-France, Hiscox Assurances and the Ivry/Seine store of Leroy Merlin.

Avec la collaboration de

Bétonsalon is a member of tram, contemporary art network Paris/Île-de-France.

Medias partners:

Events partners :

Bétonsalon Esplanade Pierre Vidal-Naquet Rez-de-chaussée de la Halle aux Farines 13th district Paris Website : www.betonsalon.net Contact : info@betonsalon.net Access: Metro line 14 or RER line C, stop Bibliothèque François Mitterrand Opening : from Tuesday to Sunday from 12 noon to 9pm FREE ENTRANCE