CAC Brétigny

Ask Addoley + Anna (Addoley Dzegede & Anna Ihle)
Hannah Black
Aslı Çavuşoğlu
Gwendal Coulon
Virgile Fraisse
Thomas Geiger
Christian Jankowski
Hanne Lippard
Marie Lukáčová
Erick Meyenberg
Santiago Mostyn
Luis Pazos
Zeyno Pekünlü
Sean Raspet
Martha Rosler
Ghita Skali, in collaboration with Ayla Mrabet and Kaoutar Chaqchaq
Līga Spunde
The Big Conversation Space (Clémence de Montgolfier & Niki Korth)
Nora Turato
Zoé Philibert
Qingmei Yao

Curators: Agnès Violeau and Céline Poulin, assisted by Ariane Guyon

The Real Show, pilot episode

A copyleft concept explored across several opuses, “The Real Show” will be rolled out in different locations around the world. The first manifestation, taking place at CAC Brétigny, is the pilot episode of a succession of events that will echo a television or film series model, complete with spin-off, prequel, reboot and sidequel. At once inclusive and introspective, ricocheting around the art centre, online and in the public space through videos, podcasts, programmes, performances and publications, “The Real Show” excavates and exposes the bottom-up and top-down mechanisms of popularity and its representations. 

Representations of the so-called popular are used by the media, from large corporations to YouTubers or TikTokers, to establish a level of authority capable of influencing our feelings as well as our socio-political behaviour. Likewise, the permanent spectacle of contemporary politics with its narratives that mirror those of a TV series (comfort characters, suspense, relentless rhythm, climax, clash, etc.), seems to verify Roland Barthes’ thoughts on the limits of cultural entertainment aimed at what he described as the easily influenced “popular spectator”  Karl Kraus, and later Pierre Bourdieu, highlighted the influence of 'pop' culture on the media, and the resulting homogenisation. Some populist theories, such as those of Chantal Mouffe, set up the dichotomy differently: since the mass media and its tools legitimise the culture of the ruling classes, it is important to let people speak for themselves. Sharing certain movements, songs or any other cultural acts on social media or elsewhere allows for the construction of communities outside of the norm. As shown by cultural studies, a popular medium can be a vehicle for change or non-conformist ideas. This trend, which runs contrary to a classist vision of knowledge, is confirmed by the development of both mass and alternative cultures through streaming platforms and channels. In this ecosystem of representations, anonymity is either something to be feared or, on the contrary, sought out as refuge.

At CAC Brétigny, the artists invited for “The Real Show” stage forms of media (talk-shows, tutorials, political meetings...) to reveal both ideological pitfalls and principles of emancipation (Zeyno Pekünlü, Martha Rosler, Hannah Black, Yao Qingmei). The social choreography of Erick Meyenberg, Christian Jankowski and Santiago Mostyn accentuates the permeability between the world of images and that of bodies – the influence of one on the other. Older pieces by Luis Pazos and Martha Rosler offer a reminder that behaviour was being normalised through images long before the invention of social media. It is a question of appeal, and the idea of attractiveness also affects cultural institutions (Sean Raspet, Thomas Geiger / Kunsthalle3000) and the artist (Gwendal Coulon). Which processes of circulation encourage the emergence of the “popular”? Ghita Skali and Aslı Çavuşoğlu present newspapers containing rumours, urban legends and other political prophecies. They emphasise the importance of the mechanisms behind the construction of opinion, as does Virgile Fraisse with his new film about the whistleblower Christopher Wylie. After BCC Channel, The Big Conversation Space (Clémence de Montgolfier & Niki Korth) will continue its production of online television shows with The Talking Cure, at once a device for visitors of the exhibition to use and a tool for community management. Ask Addoley + Anna (Addoley Dzegede & Anna Ihle), for their part, will use Spotify to produce new episodes of their advice-podcast. Finally, anonymity – as much a tool for liberation as a means of avoiding responsibility – is given a voice by Hanne Lippard and Nora Turato.

“The Real Show” provides an international stage for the transnational issues raised by the pieces. The 49 Nord 6 Est–FRAC Lorraine in Metz, the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, sandwich in Bucharest, The Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art in Riga, and PLATO in Ostrava will also propose their own “Real Shows”, in which we will find some of the same protagonists from the pilot. These venues are also invited to participate in this first episode through artists' proposals in order to explore these questions in different contexts.  

An exhibition with multiple voices launched on the eve of the French presidential elections, “The Real Show” creates a space between private and public, between what is entertaining and what is political, a space where the stage and the intimate can make a common spectacle.

Agnès Violeau and Céline Poulin

Translation from French: Annie-Rose Harrison-Dunn
 

“The Real Show” is also being deployed online and at partners (details of events in the agenda):

The Friends Season. Season 5 of Ask Addoley + Anna:

• Introducing The Friends Season
• The Friends Season: Work
• The Friends Season: Love

The Talking Cure, The Big Conversation Space:

• Episode One: The People's Choice
• Episode 2: Parallel Play with the Disquiet Junto
• Episode 3: The Voice of (The) People

Agnès Violeau (born 1976) is a curator and art critic, based in Paris. Since 2020, she has been curator at 49 Nord 6 Est–FRAC Lorraine (Metz). Her research focuses on transitive forms of exhibition, including protocol and impermanency. In 2005, she founded with Christian Alandete J'aime beaucoup ce que vous faites, an art and literature review at the crossroads of the working document and the exhibition on paper, leading to the performative cycle “Fiction / Lectures performées” (2008–2013, Pernod Ricard Foundation, Paris). After having been director of the project space Odeon5-JM Wilmotte (2001-2006) and head of visual arts at Point Ephémère (2008), she was curator, including the following exhibitions: “Experienz (Materializing the Social)” with Olivier Beer, Ninar Esber, Esther Ferrer, Liz Magic Laser, Dan Perjovschi… (2013, WIELS, Brussels); “Nuit Blanche Montréal” (2011) with Marcelline Delbecq, Virginie Barré, Angelika Markul, Anita Molinero, Ulla von Brandenburg…; “Something Less, Something More” (co-curated by Sébastien Faucon) with Laurie Anderson, Davide Balula, Nina Beier & Marie Lund, Pierre Bismuth, Ceal Floyer, Mounir Fatmi, Andrea Fraser, Philippe Katerine, Gordon Matta-Clark, Steven Parrino, Ian Wilson… (2014, Palais de Tokyo, Paris); “A Space is a Space is a Space” (co-curated by Céline Poulin) with Kader Attia, Rosa Barba, Jason Dodge, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Alicia Frankovich, Christian Jankowski, Rosemarie Trockel… (2013, DAZ, Berlin); “Verbo Performing Art Festival” (2016, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, in collaboration with the CNAP and the CND), with Absalon, Boris Charmatz, Dora García, Christian Marclay, Nil Yalter… In 2018-2019, she curated the 11th Satellite program (Jeu de Paume, Paris, CAPC, Bordeaux, Museo Amparo, Mexico) with the project “NOVLANGUE_” and was a finalist with sandwich (Bucharest) for the Romanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, with a project on the destruction of the work of art. In 2021, she is guest curator at MAC Lyon. She presented a solo show by Hanne Lippard at 49 Nord 6 Est–FRAC Lorraine (Metz).

Céline Poulin has served as the director of CAC Brétigny since June 2016. Her vision for the art center, like her earlier programs and exhibitions, evinces her focus on reception as well as collaboration, information and communications arrangements. In this regard, she has mounted, for example, the group shows “Vocales” and “Desk Set,” as well as the first solo shows in France of Liz Magic Laser, Núria Güell and and recently the first institutional monograph of Sara Sadik. Before starting her activity as an independent curator in 2004, she was head of the youth program of BD BOUM, a comic strip festival affiliated with the Ligue de l'enseignement, a french national network of popular education. She has also worked in institutions as Parc Saint Léger (Pougues-les-Eaux) or Crédac (Ivry-sur-Seine). From 2015 to 2018 she codirected with Marie Preston (with the assistance of Stéphanie Airaud) the travevling seminar “Legacies and modalities of co-creation practices”. This work was an extension of Micro-Séminaire, which was published in 2013 and theorized curatorial practices occurring outside of the usual designated spaces. That gave rise to Co-Création, which was jointly published by Empire and CAC Brétigny. In 2021, the CAC Brétigny and Tombolo Presses published Inventer l’école, penser la co-création [Inventing the school, thinking co-creation] of Marie Preston, of which she is the editorial director with the artist. Céline Poulin is a cofounder and member of the curatorial collective Bureau/, which is behind a dozen exhibitions. She is also vice-president of D.C.A and a member of IKT.

After literary studies and a bachelor's degree in art history at the University of Paris IV, Ariane Guyon trained in mediation at the Kunsthalle Mulhouse and in curatorial collective practice through the group exhibition “Echo's Fountain” with Komplot, a curatorial platform based in Brussels. Within the curatorial training of Rennes 2 University, she began working as a communication officer for the exhibition “It is not a question of explanation”, devoted to the work of the artist Marie Voignier, an exhibition of which she was co-curator. At the end of her studies, she became curator and production assistant at CAC Brétigny, during a long-term internship.

The exhibition “The Real Show” benefits from loans from the KADIST (Paris) and 49 Nord 6 Est – FRAC Lorraine (Metz) collections, as well as support from the Cité internationale des arts (Paris), OCA, Office for Contemporary Art (Norway),  Stavanger Municipality (Norway), Austrian Cultural Forum, Bundeskanzleramt and Théâtre Brétigny. “The Real Show” is designed in partnership with 49 Nord 6 Est – FRAC Lorraine (Metz), PLATO (Ostrava, Czech Republic), sandwich (Bucharest, Romania), the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art (LCCA, Riga, Latvia) and the Cité internationale des arts (Paris). The CAC Brétigny is a cultural establishment of Cœur d´Essonne Agglomeration. Labeled as a Contemporary Art Center of National Interest, it benefits from the support of the Ministère de la Culture—DRAC Île-de-France, Région Île-de-France and Conseil départemental de l’Essonne, with the complicity of the Brétigny-sur-Orge's municipality. CAC Brétigny is a member of TRAM and d.c.a.