Re-source

I was one of the participants in the Foundation Galeries Lafayette series of workshops, screenings and presentations LAFAYETTE RE-SOURCE

The events took place on Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 June 2015, in the temporary space of the Foundation:
46 rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie,
75004 Paris

The events were organized as part of a reflection on the possible futures of the Foundation Galeries Lafayette, which is imagined as a collaborative work, research, production and publication space.

Founded in October 2013, the Fondation Galeries Lafayette will open its doors early 2017 in the Marais district of Paris. This public interest foundation aims to support contemporary artists, designers, fashion and creative work more broadly, recognising the unique minds of all creatives in their ability to not only participate in social change, but also anticipate it.

The programme LAFAYETTE RE-SOURCE launched in October 2013 to accompany the Fondation Galeries Lafayette’s architectural, curatorial and institutional research project. The programme will continue for the duration of the refurbishment of 9 rue du Plâtre, by OMA Architects. It supports the Fondation Galeries Lafayette’s evolving identity through commissions, workshops, partnerships and direct support for production, working in close collaboration with partners: the Centre Pompidou, MoMA PS1, and Performa New York.

In this pre-launch context, LAFAYETTE RE-SOURCE presents itself as a vehicle for forms and thoughts that test the evolving institution’s scales of action.

Monday 22nd June

9.30 -10.15 am Welcome speech and presentation - Director, François Quintin and Head of Publication, Alexis Jakubowicz

10.15 -10.55 am Introduction Collaborative Work and Invisible Work  Jérôme Denis’ - academic and sociologist at Telecom ParisTech

One of the main purposes of Lafayette Re-Source is to reconsider the collective nature of art, by bringing to light some of the invisible work that occurs behind (and before) the scene. This workshop aims at identifying the main aspects of such collective and invisible work, especially insisting on the production processes, which is core of the Fondation Galeries Lafayette's mission. What counts? Who contributed? On what terms? How ideas emerged? Which paths were left unexplored?

10.55 -11.45 am Introduction Performing Publishing Paul Soulellis - graphic designer, publisher of the Library of the Printed Web and contributing dditor at rhizome.org

What is publishing today? Platforms, channels and modes of production are mutating and multiplying. What does it mean to “make public” when the circulation of texts, images and our own identities has become routine? What is the role of institutions in making public the artifacts of a networked artist's practice? We will consider the output of artists, curators and scholars as our base material, from social media to the residue of works-in-progress to market-ready artifacts.

11.35 am -12.15 pm Introduction The Internet Does Not Exist Attilia Fattori Franchini - curator and co-founder of online platforms

The title of the workshop is taken by a recent e-Flux publication, in which the internet is defined as something with no shape and no face. Something that now remains “as a blur, a cloud, a friend, a deadline, a redirect, or a 404. If it ever existed, we couldn’t see it.” The immateriality of the internet and its shapeless borders become a point of departure when thinking about online platforms for artistic use.
 

12.05-12.45 pm Introduction For Something to Exist, it Must be Observed..  Julien Mercier’s - Brand Identity Manager at Galeries Lafayette.

The Fondation Galeries Lafayette certainly has a great future ahead. But besides being experienced, how can it be “observed”? Already many questions arise, the first one being its name. Is it an autonomous entity? What is its shape? What content? Who is our core audience? How to make sure they come to us, and come back? What are the basic expectations around a cultural organisation?

1.00-2.30 pm we break for lunch

2.30-5.30 pm we dispersed into our designated workshops

7.00 pm Making visible the ‘oeuvre(s) à faire public presentation by Alexandre Monnin - philosopher, researcher at INRIA, specialist in the philosophy of the web. The presentation intoroduced a new mode of "publiduction"(publication/production) offered by the future platform of the Foundation and its consequences for artists', and the writing of art.

Tuesday 23rd June

10.00 am-1.00 pm We resumed our workshop participation  

1.00 -2.30 pm break for lunch

2.30 -5.00 pm plenary session, where workshop leaders shared their accounts of the discussions, followed by a general roundtable.

7.00 pm Public presentation by art critic Mike Pepi, From Open Source to Open Culture: Preliminary Materials for Thinking about Lean Institutions open source culture and the current stakes of data organisation in cultural institutions, such as museums and foundations.

8.00 pm Public screening of Museum Futures: Distributed a film by Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska, followed by a Q and A with Neil.

Museum Futures: Distributed  - is a machinima record of the centenary  interview with Moderna Museet’s executive Ayan Lindquist in June 2058.

It explores a genealogy for contemporary art practice and its institutions, by re-imagining the role of artists, museums, galleries, markets, manufactories and academies.

The project was a collaboration of Neil Cummings and Marysa Lewandowska, commissioned by Moderna Museet Stockholm, Sweden, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 2008. 

See Query my contribution to the publication,  Museum Futures: Distributed or related projects The Perfect Institution and Procesos de archivo