I went to the opening of a show on Friday, works by two artists I vaguely know. The first: Doris Schlapfer, a friend of an artist who lives in the village and the second: Patrick Sauze who coincidently owns a barn here in St Louis, but never visits – we met once about ten years ago.
The exhibition was at The Maison des Art at Bages, called ‘Screens:Ecrans’. It was an interesting exhibition – hung well in a decent space. I thought the work was quite powerful and wouldn’t have looked out of place in a cutting-edge new gallery in the East End for example. However, Bages is on the coast in a tiny fishing village, idyllic – next to a lagoon full of flamingoes – really hidden away from anything.
Having entered into a dialogue with Lauren Healey (a-n ed for jobs and opps) on the art ‘system’ here in France I took the opportunity to do some research. At the opening I asked the artists why such a gallery showing decent work isn’t known – they replied that it is known, in the departement of the Aude.
I emailed Patrick to pick his brain a little: You can see what I’m up to on my blog which is on a-n (the artists’ newsletter) a great resource and community for artists and curators and students – check it out, it’s great. Does something like that exist in France? You will also see a link to ‘axis’ – which may be interesting for you; it’s another artist and curator organisation, but more about promotion – they now accept international artists. Both a-n and axis are good for opportunities world-wide.
I think I mentioned to you how surprised I was that the gallery in Bages is little-known outside Aude, if a gallery with exciting contemporary work like that existed in the UK its reputation would be wider spread; maybe it’s a ‘cultural’ thing rather than an ‘art ‘ thing.
I would be interested to hear how you view the situation, i.e. the divide between art practices in the provinces and the cities. That difference doesn’t seem to exist in the UK, rather, art created and shown in obscure places, let alone in small galleries, is celebrated and soon becomes known and held as valid and exciting to the wider art community.
I received this reply which seems to speak volumes about the outlook of artists regarding communities and networks:
I think that unfortunately the artist’s life is difficult in France,
there is a lack of vision. I think there is a saturation of artists, too many artists and not enough quality places.
There may be communities such as “a-n ” and “axis” in France, but I do not know.
So the prospects don’t look good here – if the equivalent of a-n and axis exist in France, there seems to be an unspoken hierarchy of artists, maybe at the top are those who don’t need that system of networking and support. . . the outlook seems to be more dependent upon a gallery structure rather than artists getting together and creating opportunities. It’s another world which doesn’t seem to be changing.
I remember somebody asking me, whilst I studied at the RCA, whether or not she should move to France for the art-scene. I said maybe not, perhaps it’s different in the cities though… I’m beginning to think I was right.
It is heartening when I’m contacted by someone like Jane Boyer though, another a-n-er, she also lives in France and we plan to share experiences – so it’s not so isolated after all.
However, it is about the ‘work’ – sadly due to making applications that has suffered this week, but that’s the life of an artist these days (maybe not for French artists though). The ISBN came through for the ‘Path’ book, so that will be printed as soon as the author has completed the text; a copy will be in the British Library which is good. Also, tonight I’m sending the path video by FTP to Ottica TV (http://www.ottica-tv.com/) for their annual screening at Better Bankside next to Tate Modern – its just started to snow, so hopefully we won’t lose the internet connection.
http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547
