Good luck with your natural, combined, attractive and truthful attempts in two exhibitions at CRAC Alsace

Artists: Joana Bastos, Simon Boudvin, Chris Evans, Louise Hervé & Chloé Maillet, David Horvitz, Jarbas Lopes, Nicolás Paris, Marinella Senatore, Praneet Soi

Exhibition title: Good luck with your natural, combined, attractive and truthful attempts in two exhibitions

Curated by: Filipa Oliveira and Elfi Turpin

Venue: CRAC Alsace, Altkirch, France

Date: June 18 – September 20, 2015

Photography: Aurélien Mole, images courtesy of the artists and CRAC Alsace, Altkirch

Greetings all,

We would like to welcome you to the exhibition Good luck with your natural, combined, attractive and truthful attempts in two exhibitions.

This project brings together artists whose practice is founded on cooperation and interchange with a diversity of social, geographic and economic spheres; and who are attempting, at the level of an art centre, to look into the modalities, circumstances and other aspects of making art.

If the title of the exhibition reflects the work of Charles Fourier and certain facets of his theory of passionate attraction, it is because we have indulged in what he called «butterfly passion», freely borrowing from him terms that might be useful to us. For instance, in Fourier’s language the word truthful refers to the «truthful social commerce» of the members of his phalansteries, as opposed to the false commerce of the civilised world. Truthful commerce is founded on a cooperative system which does away with all speculative intermediaries between production and distribution of foodstuffs and manufactured goods. But this is not all, and it is not our subject. Here we construe the word «commerce» in its broad semantic sense: as a form of interchange involving the dissemination of proposals, knowledge and ideas in a way that sets up reciprocal communication and thus engenders human relationships full of the pleasure of communication with others.

The works making up this exhibition have to do as much with a process of exchange, however odd it may be, as with the actual objects exchanged and their subsequently modified production tools. These works proceed from (and produce) situations of sociability based on the notions of sharing the artistic act with, or delegating it to, other artists, the members of a community or the public.

Hence they will often entail a redistribution of roles – in particular that of the creator – and will overflow the spatio-temporal context of the exhibition by involving communal objects that evolve over time.

So the exhibition starts at CRAC Alsace in Altkirch on 18 June at 7:30 pm and will surface again – in a new form, naturally – at the Fórum Eugénio de Almeida in Évora, Portugal in 2017.

We look forward to seeing you for an exchange of ideas at the opening. In the meantime we wish you Good luck with your natural, combined, attractive and truthful attempts in two exhibitions.

See you soon,

Filipa Oliveira and Elfi Turpin

Joana Bastos, Sorry, had to go to work, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Vera Cortes Art Agency, Lisbon

Joana Bastos, …“If I were you I’d paint it pink and place a chair upside down”, said Lulu, an eleven year-old girl, interrupting me…, 2013. Courtesy of the artist and Vera Cortes Art Agency, Lisbon

Marinella Senatore, The School of Narrative Dance – Ongoing Documentary, 2013 – ongoing. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International, London and Brussels

Simon Boudvin, Moteur 02 (Cirey-les-Pontailler), 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Jean Brolly, Paris

Praneet Soi, A Notational Methodology, a contentious dialogue, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Experimenter Gallery, Kolkata

Chris Evans, Untitled (Drippy Etiquette), CRAC Alsace, 2014 – 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Markus Lüttgen, Cologne

Nicolás Paris, Sans titre, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Luisa Strina gallery, São Paulo and Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid

Nicolás Paris, Control de masas, 2013-2015. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Luisa Strina gallery, São Paulo and Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid

Nicolás Paris, Arquitectura para pájaros, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Luisa Strina gallery, São Paulo and Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid

Nicolás Paris, Planeación / Especulación, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Luisa Strina gallery, São Paulo and Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid

Nicolás Paris, Moldes para prototipo de arquitectura para pájaros y control de masas, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Luisa Strina gallery, São Paulo and Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid

Nicolás Paris, Aprendizaje por simpatía o herramienta para aprender a leer y escribir, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Luisa Strina gallery, São Paulo

Nicolás Paris, Sans titre, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Luisa Strina gallery, São Paulo and Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid

Louise Hervé & Chloé Maillet, La performance des saint-simoniens, 2014-2015. Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix, Paris

David Horvitz, Let Us Keep Our Own Noon, 2013. Courtesy of the artist, Chert, Berlin and private collection, Berlin and Vicenza

Jarbas Lopes, FÁ-CRIATURA, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Baginski, Lisbon

Chris Evans, CLODS, Diplomatic Letters, 2012 – ongoing. Courtesy of the artist, Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam and Fonds Culturel et Artistique du Groupe Bel, France

Chris Evans, Lantana Camara, dessin commandé à Angelo Tromp, attaché diplomatique d’Aruba aux Pays-Bas, inversé, 2012. Chris Evans, Lilly of the Valley, dessin commandé à Jasmina Pasalic, diplomate suisse en Bosnie-Herzégovine, inversé, 2012. Courtesy of the artist, Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam and Fonds Culturel et Artistique du Groupe Bel, France

Chris Evans, Ambrosia Artemisfolia, dessin commandé à Arūnas Gelūnas, Ambassadeur de Lituanie à l’UNESCO, inversé, 2014. Courtesy of the artist, Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam and Fonds Culturel et Artistique du Groupe Bel, France