Conference Proceedings 2010 [pdf] - Art & Design Symposium ...

Art and Life With Children
Boris Tissot, Curator, Artist, Paris, France
Boris Tissot
Boris Tissot is an artist who has
found a new way to earn his daily
bread. Imagine Proust baking
his own Madeleine - kneading it
himself and then adding color to
make it resemble Albertine or
Madame Verdurin…Taking ordinary
scenes from everyday life, Boris
Tissot creates a world made of flour,
butter, eggs and sugar îles flottantes
on which anything can happen…. A
friend of the painter Miro – but also
of the great French chefs like
Poilane, Troisgros and Lenôtre -
Boris Tissot with his sweet dreams
and biting themes, remind us of
nothing less than our own
immortality. For him, museums,
galleries – even bank vaults –
contain nothing more than a few
crumbs of pie crust. The meaning of
our lives, our very souls – why, it’s
only a question of appetite. Let’s
eat ! wrote Paul Fournel.
92
Currently, I divide my time between two main
activities: On the one hand, in my studio, I invent
ephemeral sculptures with pastry ingredients like
cake, sugar, chocolate, and almond paste. The
funny stories I tell with these sculptures made of
edible materials reflect my feeling that our own
reality is fleeting and derisory.
In October 2009, I was invited to participate in a
show at Forum Meyrin in Geneva, Switzerland
called "Même pas peur!" ("Not Even Scared!"). I
designed a workshop for children called "Eat your
fear." We explored a way to rid yourself of being
scared of wolves, the dark, death, or whatever else
frightens you. Each child participating in the
workshop listed ten fears . He could then choose
whether to read them aloud to the others. Then we
sketched a fear, and gave it substance by making it
out of cookie dough. Next, we baked the fear and
finally, it was ready to eat. How does it feel to eat
your fear? The children discussed the question at
the end of the workshop. This is not a carefree
workshop. Sometimes, children speak of deep
personal problems that are difficult for me to deal
with. Perhaps, in this workshop, art is a means of
transforming certain anxieties and symbolically
growing and going on to something else.
In addition, as part of the Centre Pompidou Youth
Program, I have created unique shows such as:
"”Pockets Full of Memories" and “Pencil Memory"
2001 which includes two interactive installations on
the memory of objects, associated to a question
what is an archive, a collection and data base in a
museum situation with 2 artists Georges Legrady
and Jean-Louis Boissier
Another project "BD REPORTERS" ("Comic Book
Reporters") 2007 included 24 comic-book artists
reporting on their discoveries in a variety of
countries using drawings and text. In particular, Joe
Sacco delivered up his observations about his
journey to Bosnia.