a-n travel bursary

The Fonds Regional d’Art Contemporain((Regional collections of contemporary art) or FRAC, in Selestat houses the regional collections of contemporary art for the Alsace region. These public collections of contemporary art were the brainchild of Jack Lang, minister for culture in 1982 as part of his decentralisation policy and in order to make contemporary art available to as wider audience as possible. For over 30 years, the 23 regionally implanted Frac (Regional collections of contemporary art) have been one of the great strengths of a cultural decentralisation and democratiion process that has successfully established itself in France They are financed equally between regional and central governmental budgets. Today FRAC Alsace holds a collection of 1000 works purchased from 470 artists worldwide, not just from French or local artists. The collections are diffused widely and shown in a wide variety of venues from wine cellars to mediatheques. Broadly speaking, as well as helping non established artists FRAC Alsace aims to ‘democratise culture in a society where too few people have access to artworks and the internal enrichment it provides. In a spirit of quest and local culture, the Frac contribute to the vitality of the French art scene by discovering new talents, fostering artistic projects, and conceiving new ways to make them more accessible to the largest public, in particular to young people’.
I will be submitting work for the next round of acquisitions and will diffuse application process to my peers and help with translation of the documents.
My visit to the CEEAC or Centre European d’Action Artistiques Contemporains began with a disappointment as the person I had arranged to see was unavailable and the exhibition -There is No Place Like Home- had been partially removed to make way for a private event. However, I was well recieved by the exhibition’s curator, Clemence Collumb- Gros and will follow up with a meeting with Evelyne Loux, who Jan Claire Steven’s introduced me to. Clemence showed me around the galleries which are enviable spaces. She explained the residency programme and the
The building is a stunning refurbishment of a former Art Nouveau glass and crockery shop which now boasts a vast 300 m2 exhibition space spread over two floors. Each year, the annual programme of exhibitions is curated by invited curators, giving the exhibitions and associated pedagogical framework’ a greater openness to the diversity of artistic research currently undertaken in Europe’. Well, as I am writing this two days before the Referendum vote, I am continuing with the expectation that Britain will remain in the EU and already thinking about exciting opportunities for my curator peers.
In the year 2000 CEAAC set up a network of foreign residency partnerships through which local artists were offered the possibility of working internationally for a period of one to three months, supported by structures comparable to CEAAC. Reciprocally, CEAAC received international artists in residence, offering them accommodation at the ‘international apartment’ adjoining the CEEAC building and a workspace in the International Studio. The exchanges are usually followed by a publication and an exhibition, allowing emerging artists to make a name for themselves internationally. A chance to exhibit in the magnificent building would be extremely enticing!
Every year, around thirty artists participate in these international exchanges, with three artists welcomed simultaneously. Obviously the reciprocal partner needs to offer equivalent facilities and opportunities. Examples of partnerships include those between partner organisations in Budapest, Stuttgart, Quebec, Berlin, Laos and Korea.
Of all the galleries I visited in the Alsace region, ‘L’Estampe’ in Strasbourg was the one with which I had the  best rapport. The director, Sandra Blum was so generous with her time and knowledge and offered me the opportunity to visit the print-works where they make their editions. They work in a variety of ways; traditionally, in the form of etching and screen printing, as well as paintings and digital work.They also make small editions of prints using an emboss type technique which I didn’t fully understand. I’ll see it in action when I visit the print-works on my follow up visit. I was treated to a frank and insightful introduction to the demographic preferences of their client base with Paris being most inclined to choose well established artists, Germany and Switzerland abstraction and the legendary Cote d’Azur favouring the traditional. Sandra also suggested I sent images of my work for her team’s consideration. I am currently working on this and will send a series of images soon as I want to make a good selection of work that I think would ‘sit’ well in their repertoire.
Paris
My Parisian journey was interrupted due to strikes, floods and demonstrations. I communicated with my Printmaking peers via phone and Skype and have submitted an application for the Gravelines Biennial through Manifestampe. I will be presenting my findings to the Printmakers Council.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

• 
• 

Taking time away from her very busy schedule including Open Studios, teaching drawing at the Haute école des arts du Rhin (HEAR) Mulhouse, applying for an artist in residency in Iceland and her beautiful and bountiful allotment, artist and friend Jan Claire Stevens introduced me to key members of the Upper Rhine artist’s network. I will be following up on a provisional exchange project with Didier Kieffer, printmaker and tutor at HEAR and meeting personally with the director of the CEEAC, Evelyne Loux,more about this later. Jan’s studio in Guebwiller’s industrial district is a good example of urban renovation, low cost, no frills spaces available for small businesses, artists, designers and others. Some studio envy could be felt as I thought of the prison cell I might have in London for similar costs.
On to Mulhouse, the industrial town near the Swiss border was where I lived and worked in the textile industry following my Masters at Manchester. The two share the same industrial past and were fierce rivals during the race to discover synthetic dyes during the mid 19th century. Mulhouse also boasts a number of world class museums including the Museum of Printed Textiles where worked in 2000, following the demise of the textile industry itself. Happy Days! My interest in colour theories and in particular, the laws of simultaneous contrast stem from this time.
The Kunsthalle, a converted foundry, is a magnificent combination of industrial heritage and modern architecture. It shares its building with Upper Alsace University and promotes a concept of exhibitions and artistic events dedicated to the exploration and creation of contemporary art. A number of residences and international platforms are available and I’ll follow up on these with the help of Jan Claire Stevens. I will also re visit the art school in Mulhouse on a return trip in October to discuss a collaborative print exchange between students and staff from HEAR and and an equivalent organisation in the UK.

• 
• 

My investigations began in Colmar where I had arranged to spend time in the workshop of Remy Bucciali, fine art printer and editor of contemporary etchings representing heavyweight French, German and Swiss artists. One of the last remaining master-printmakers, specialising in etching, in France. Bucialli describes himself as ‘orchestrator’ to the artists who come to his workshop in order to make an edition of etchings which are then sold at art fairs including London Original
Fair, Start in Strasbourg, Art Karlsruhe. He told me that he saw engraving as the string quartet of painting and that he has the role of interpreter for a new score.
Working alongside me in the atelier was a German artist, Margreth Hirschmiller-Rhinehard. It was interesting to see the cooperation between artist and ‘editeur’ with Margareth’s hand drawing with a sugar lift paste the areas of lights and darks that would eventually, after many processes of aquatint make her series of etchings The printing is done by Bucciali and his assistant. I asked Remy how artists came to work in collaboration with him. He described the way in which artists were invited to make work for editions as being a mutual process, ‘on se choisi’, he said meaning we choose each other.
Bucciali’s etchings are some of the finest I’ve seen and his remarkable technicality and finesse have gained him a reputation throughout the contemporary printmaking world. He was also chosen to make a series of copperplate etchings from the originals by Martin Schongauer, a medieval engraver so renowned that the master of engraving, Durer, is said to have traveled to see him in Colmar in 1492. Unfortunately Schongauer had moved twenty or so kilometres away a few years previously and had died by the time Durer got there. More about ‘le beau Martin’ as he was known, later.
Bucciali confided that he treated the copperplates he used to make the facsimiles of Schongauer’s engravings like ‘pierres précieuses’ or precious gemstones. The prints are now sold in the bookshop of the recently renovated Unterlinden which proved to be one of the highlights of my trip. After being shut for three years, the museum which I remembered as a slightly worn and fusty regional museum housing some magnificent medieval artworks, was inaugurated by Francois Hollande in February 2016. Swiss Architects Herzog and de Meuron of the Bird’s Nest and Tate Modern fame, stated ‘we were looking for an urban configuration and architectural language that would fit into the old town and yet, upon closer inspection, appear contemporary.’ It is now truly stunning.
The museum has almost doubled its interior space by linking the museum with an adjacent complex of historical buildings, including a 13th century convent and the city’s historic municipal baths. Its most illustrious work, Grunewald’s ‘Le Retable d’Issenheim’ now has the surroundings it deserves.