Quart d’heure américain at Mains d’Oeuvres

Artists: Robert Filliou, Joël Andrianomearisoa & Ivan Krassoievitch, Alex Ayed & Georgia Dickie, Cécile Bouffard & Matthieu Cossé, Corentin Canesson & Bastien Cosson, Martin Chramosta & Martina-Sofie Wildberger, Charlie Jeffery & Joshua Schwebel, Christopher Kulendran Thomas & Thu-Van Tran, Kim Bradford & Joseph Perez, France Besnier & Julien Gasc, Jérémie Gaulin & Bertrand Poncet, HERSHEY / HITO (Catherine Hershey & Yohanna My Nguyen), Joshua Schwebel & la MOMO

Exhibition title: Quart d’heure américain

A proposal by: HEIWATA

Venue: Mains d’Oeuvres, Saint-Ouen, France

Date: November 10 – 26, 2017

Photography: © Steeve Bauras, ADAGP, all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Mains d’Oeuvres

The expression quart d’heure américain refers firstly to a short period of time, a reversal of the rules of seduction during surprise-parties at the turn of 1960s-70s in France : a brief moment when girls invited boys to share a dance within a codified society. A popular practice soon obsolete in turn despite an apparent progressivism.

It also refers to the famous quote by Andy Warhol, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” — a programmatic phrase which defines as much the access to this glory as its inevitable end.

Finally, in this moment it can refer to Robert Filliou’s work Danse-poème collectif [Collaborative Dance-Poem] (1962), performed by two people, each spinning a wheel. The activated work generates combinations of poems by the artist, a selfproclaimed “genius without talent” who continues the concept of the Fête Permanente [Permanent Party] and for whom time was a changing and subjective phenomenon.

“Quart d’heure américain” deals with the phenomenon of disuse as a counterpoint. The term refers to the lapse of use of a word, but also to the sense of a word, thing or social habit which is no longer in use. It describes a feeling, rather than the idea of technical obsolescence. It evokes what has disappeared and what belongs to the past, in contrast to something topical.

“Quart d’heure américain” is based on the concept of disuse as a positive notion, a need, an attraction, a contest, and an opposition in relation to art. Around Robert Filliou and aligned with Fluxus, the exhibition brings together fourteen international artists in pairs. They update objects, forms, language and knowledge for which use is now neglected. Collaborating in symbiosis, coincidentally or formally associated, they combine drawing, sculpture, video, installation, poetry and performance. Sharing a same area for a period of time, they propose fictional or documentary stories with a diffuse geography celebrating the power of the useless against automatic productivity. Using works tainted with melancholy and absurdity, the artist duos produce dissonance and changing perceptions. They question main artistic, cultural and social values. The disuse becomes an act of resistance by dreamers, poets and outsiders. A step to the left in a world of speed.

Conceived in motion, the exhibition is activated in a performative, discursive or sound way. On November 18th 2017, artists-thinkers, performers and musicians offer an interpretation of a duo, an artist or the notion of disuse.

Quart d’heure américain, 2017, exhibition view, Mains d’Oeuvres, Saint-Ouen, France

Cécile Bouffard, Coincée, Coincée, Coincée, 2017, Wood, acrylic painting, steel, textiles, silicone. Sculpture 1: 155 x 30 x 20 cm, Sculpture 2: 155 x 30 x 20 cm, Sculpture 3: 150 x 30 x 18 cm; Matthieu Cossé, Aquarium, 2017, Ink on painted wallpaper, 240 x 240 cm & 323 x 190 cm

Cécile Bouffard, Coincée, Coincée, Coincée, 2017, Wood, acrylic painting, steel, textiles, silicone

Cécile Bouffard, Coincée, Coincée, Coincée, 2017, Wood, acrylic painting, steel, textiles, silicone.

Quart d’heure américain, 2017, exhibition view, Mains d’Oeuvres, Saint-Ouen, France

Christopher Kulendran Thomas, FROM THE ONGOING WORK ‘WHEN PLATITUDES BECOME FORM’, 2016, Sand blasted one way mirrored vitrine, concrete, steel and remote-phosphor LED panel and ‘Lovina’ (2013) by Asela Gunasekara (purchased from Art Space Sri Lanka). Courtesy of the New Galerie, Paris.

Robert Filliou, Danse-poème collectif (à performer deux par deux, chacun(e) tournant une roue). Replica of a work installed for the first time in 1962. Courtesy Estate Robert Filliou & Peter Freeman, Inc. Paris

Martin Chramosta, Mine (Das Wundern / Ertrag 1-4), 2017, Plaster, black soil, iron, variable dimensions

Joël Andrianomearisoa, Le labyrinthe des passions, 2016, Set of 20 frames, silk papers dyed and stuck on canvas. Courtesy of Sabrina Amrani

Ivan Krassoievitch, barabara (I, II, II), 2017, Objects on felt

Alex Ayed, Lost treasure, 2017, Carrara marble, brass nail, soap, snipe fly, shell, aluminum, dimensions variables

Quart d’heure américain, 2017, exhibition view, Mains d’Oeuvres, Saint-Ouen, France

Georgia Dickie, Toothsome Flute, 2017, Found metal cutting tools, coaxial cables, cotton and nylon rope, dried ginger, coral, recorder, plastic bag with objects inside, cable ties, dimensions variable. Courtesy of Cooper Cole, photo: © Jérémy Benkemoun

Quart d’heure américain, 2017, exhibition view, Mains d’Oeuvres, Saint-Ouen, France

Left: Bastien Cosson, Elsa devant un tableau, 2017, Acrylic and print on canvas, 120 x 90 cm; Right: Corentin Canesson, Coraboeuf II, 2017, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

Quart d’heure américain, 2017, exhibition view, Mains d’Oeuvres, Saint-Ouen, France

Charlie Jeffery, Shoe circle or shoe circles, 2017, two open or closed shoe circles on the floor

Quart d’heure américain, 2017, exhibition view, Mains d’Oeuvres, Saint-Ouen, France

Joshua Schwebel, L’instrumentalisation de l’art, 2017, blackboard, paper prints, sound table, instruments, variable dimensions. Courtesy of the MOMO