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14 Les Prairies Thus, this figure constructed and defined in relation to spaces and territories is to be understood in terms of an attitude towards space. Attitudes and way of life shape an environment, either in an authoritarian mode or through a more intimate cooperative interaction. Conquest is embodied by a variety of spatial positions that confront one another: from the American pioneer to the post-colonial migrant. Botany also provides a useful model for examining the relationship between the “individual” and the environment: there are pioneering plants that prepare the earth for vegetables that will follow later, while others colonize ecosystems and destroy their diversity. A FLAT EXPANSE The Prairie: a grassy expanse, where space and an open horizon spread out in all directions. It is a common, shared, scenic, and poetic space and even a cinematic cliché in Europe, and America. Natural or artificial prairies are home to a range of species, and vary with the climate, latitude, or continent, having specific flora and fauna according to where they are (the African savannah, the Russian steppes, or the Argentinean pampas, for example). Prairies also belong to the built world. Thus, the American prairie represents the experience of an uncontained expanse – unlimited space and boundless horizons. And it is precisely this flat and monotonous geography that Gertrude Stein transformed into a modern poetic experience. She laid it bare and detached it from its origins. Flatness also characterizes the generic European green prairie - geographical and poetic flatness. Monotony produces repetition. Repetition is an act that is made real when carried out. It produces a poetics that begins with action rather than with an ideal. When we explore the horizontal, we discover the verticality of grass: “A flat expanse seen horizontally from above; yet it is formed by a multitude of upright stems whose verticality gives it its green quality” (Francis Ponge 1 ) . This takes us from the flat expanse to the three dimensional expanse: a body occupies an area in space according to the primary definition of the term. An expanse is not just surface area. A literal interpretation turns space in on itself, and flatness leads to a simple vitality: “the awareness that grass is vertical, the constant uprising of green that breathes life back into us”. Horizontality also gives rise to an egalitarian principle in relationships. They develop on the same plane, which they do not in a vertical, hierarchical organization. Flatness is in fact an attitude: a way of approaching the expanse as a grouping of things, things on an equal footing, things like death. But it is a beginning that is beginning here. Les Prairies literally expresses the flattening of spatial practices. A number of artworks work with the expanse and recognize the importance of concrete spaces, of sites in all their complexity and their history. "Occupying the ground” seems to be a concern for artists who have brought their background of using sites to bear on their work (Katinka Bock, Fernanda Gomes, and Guillaume Leblon are examples). Others decompose our décor (Gyan Panchal), flatten depths (Dove Allouche, Irene Kopelman, Batia Suter), or develop botanics of the soil (Loïs Weinberger). 1. Fr a n c i s Po n g e, La fa b r i q u e d u Pr é, in Œu v r e s c o m p l è t e s, Ga l l i m a r d, Bi B l i o t h è q u e d e la Pl é i a d e, 2002.
Les Prairies Today’s artists adopt an objectivist or literalist attitude, taking a close look at reality and objects, bringing the same attitude to both – something they are often criticized for. Of course, you should have in mind that Manet was a master of flatness. Thus, “artists reveal modern composition” (Gertrude Stein 2 ) : their point of departure is a constructed world. Their work reflects the composition of the modern world: reality is composition. To the American pioneer, the expanse represented opportunity in the form of a promised, virgin land. But Indians lived on the prairie. Two spatial concepts collided: occupation and habitation. To occupy is to take possession, to make maps and to create order; to inhabit is to “see a latticework of lines rather than a continuous surface” (Tim Ingold 3 ) , an environment woven from lifelines - the straight line and the grid, or the curve These paths have been traced by men and animals as they followed the lay of the land. The Indian was there before the pioneer and showed him the paths, which he had been shown by buffalos and other animals. Les Prairies offers a paradoxical journey through flatness and concepts of flatness, or platitude and platitudes to be closer to the French wording – the word "plat" in French means flat. This would begin with a simple, elementary experience which would consist in adopting an attitude of platitude regarding the world; flattening or leveling things, considering them as equal, repeating them, remaking them, in the same way as the artists, poets and writers who seek to understand the composition of the contemporary world. The adventure would be to move towards things, to shift our viewpoint towards them. In other words to deconstruct the “grammar of a place”, dissociate things from their class or origin, experience them beyond their limits. In concrete terms this would imply embracing reality in full. This proposal to praise platitude or flatness comes as a possible antidote to the tyranny of context – context today is a world of connected networks that are disconnected from anything concrete. 2. Ge r t r u d e St e i n, le c t u r e s e n Am é r i q u e, é d. Ch r i S t i a n Bo u r G o i S, 2011. 3. Tim in g o l d, un e b r è v e histoire d e s l i g n e s, Zo n e S Se n S i B l e S , 2011. 15
Page 1: visitor's guide
Page 5: The Prairies in Autumn Bruno Caron,
Page 9 and 10: Regional art, innovation, and dynam
Page 11: The third edition LUCIDAR DEVISING
Page 17: Collective exhibition 17
Page 20 and 21: 20 Newway Mabilais L’étendue «
Page 22 and 23: 22 Frac Bretagne Le monde construit
Page 25 and 26: Partners' exhibitions 25
Page 27 and 28: Musée des beaux-arts de Rennes Ren
Page 29 and 30: 40mcube 40mcube is an exhibition sp
Page 31: Galerie Art & Essai University Renn
Page 34 and 35: 34 Les Prairies's artists MATHIEU K
Page 36 and 37: 36 Les Prairies's artists DOVE ALLO
Page 38 and 39: 38 Les Prairies's artists MICHEL AU
Page 40 and 41: 40 Les Prairies's artists KATINKA B
Page 42 and 43: 42 Les Prairies's artists LUIS CAMN
Page 44 and 45: 44 Les Prairies's artists JOHN DIVO
Page 46 and 47: 46 Les Prairies's artists FLORIAN F
Page 48 and 49: 48 Les Prairies's artists FERNANDA
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Page 52 and 53: 52 Les Prairies's artists JAN KEMPE
Page 54 and 55: 54 Les Prairies's artists THOMAS KI
Page 56 and 57: 56 Les Prairies's artists IRENE KOP
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Page 60 and 61: 60 Les Prairies's artists HELEN MIR
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64 Les Prairies's artists NEŠA PAR
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66 Les Prairies's artists PRATCHAYA
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68 Les Prairies's artists YANN SéR
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70 Les Prairies's artists MICHAEL E
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72 Les Prairies's artists FRANCISCO
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74 Les Prairies's artists MARION VE
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76 Les Prairies's artists JACKIE WI
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80 La Caravane Both a project archi
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84 Practical informations OPENING T
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86 During the third edition of Atel
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ARTS LE FESTIVAL D’AMBRONAY DÉBO
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© Tom Kelley Archive / GO Archives
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94 Organisation // Art Norac Bruno
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96 Thanks Les Ateliers de Rennes -
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