CAC Brétigny

Louise Aleksiejew and Antoine Medes were invited to produce a three-part exhibition, evolving around the programming cycles of the Théâtre Brétigny: "Si loin si proche" (So far so close, September—December 2019), "La loi du plus fort" (The law of the strongest, January—March 2020) and "Rien ne va plus" (April—June 2020).

Don't be a stranger!
Cycle 1, 20.09—15.12.19

The voice is emotional, filled with sham confidence: “Don’t be a stranger!” And another promises in the same tone to do their best to stay in touch so that their friendship will not wither away.

Steeped in an outdated romanticism, the vintage popular expression in English demanding that you promise to meet again in the future is troubling all the same. A connection that has to be revived by such a warning, to what sort of longevity can it lay claim?

Here is a warning that goes beyond the private sphere and subtly recalls those whom the vagaries of life uproot from their home environment. What personal development, or even what survival can you hope for when you are isolated from any and all social contract, on the margins of material, psychological and emotional support which the social contract procures for all members of your community?

Beyond our domestic networks, each­ person is a stranger to others in the end.

This fate points to two solutions. The first consists in slipping into the whole of human relations in order to become known to one and all, this ubiquity guaranteeing forever the security of body and soul. The second, more likely, lies in the word “solidarity.”

Louise Aleksiejew and Antoine Medes

The visual artists Louise Aleksiejew (born in 1994 in Caen) and Antoine Medes (born in 1994 in Mont-Saint-Aignan) have been developing a collaborative body of work since 2014 along with their individual output. Grounded in a reflection on the history of pictorial or narrative representations, in which art history, comic strips, and animation are blended, the work of this artist duo is guided by the drawing they do together. It is a ravenous practice that absorbs, digests, and transforms shared references and mutual borrowings, allowing the two to question the status of the author while renewing the conditions for her or his existence in the era of the digital reproduction of images and their untrammeled circulation on the internet. This graphic output sometimes gives rise to an edition in textile or ceramics, or an installation, in a way of imagining staged displays and presentations that is akin to a page layout. This is seen in solo shows (Le lac avec des muscles, Les Capucins, Embrun, 2018), group exhibitions (Huit heures ne font pas un jour, Sumo, Lyon, 2018; Camembert Papanache, Spatiu Intact, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2019; Le paradigme de l’oasis, Villa Belleville, 2019), and art festivals and fairs (the Mulhouse Biennial, 2017; Le 6b dessine son salon, Saint-Denis, 2017; Une partie de campagne, Château d’Esquelbecq, with the OSP Gallery, 2019).

«Don’t be a stranger!» is a co-production CAC Brétigny—Théâtre Brétigny.