Can you tell us a little about yourself and your role at Capucins?
I've been running the contemporary art center Les Capucins since 2012, prior to which I was an independent curator for public as well as private institutions.
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Could you introduce us to Les Capucins contemporary art center, its history, role and missions?
It opened in 2011, in a former church whose beautiful interior volumes can still be seen today. Located in the town center, opposite La Manutention and between the dance hall and La Poudrière. It complements an already rich cultural offering. It designs 3 to 4 exhibitions a year, each accompanied by artistic events: performances, readings, concerts, video screenings and awareness-raising actions aimed at all audiences, children and adults alike, amateurs and professionals alike. Since 2017, it has offered 2 research and experimentation residencies per year, based on a call for projects. These residencies are punctuated by meetings with the public, who can thus gain a better understanding of the creative process, far from the clichés of the artist as demiurge. At the same time, we support residencies in elementary and junior high schools. For several weeks, the artists involve young people and their teachers in a collectively-defined project. An exhibition at Les Capucins showcases this collaborative work.
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Who is your target audience? How do you introduce them to contemporary art?
A mediator welcomes the public and offers not a formal tour of the exhibition, but a behind-the-scenes account of the project, including how the artist worked, and the encounters or readings that may have influenced him or her. The challenge here is to imagine a different way of telling the story of the works and their relationship to one another, through a story that recounts their genesis, their conditions of appearance. The art center's exhibitions and events are thus aimed at everyone. As a place of research and production, it encourages specific projects, often in situ, in order to support artists in their long-term research, nourished by numerous exchanges. Our forward-looking programming is informed by the political, sociological and ecological issues raised by artistic production. Works are transported once a year, ecological and local materials are used and know-how is shared. Contrary to popular belief, art is not inward-looking, but feeds on the questions that are shaking the world.
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What do you love most about your job?
Encounters, undoubtedly, with the artists who all work on different and specific subjects, all the people who nurture this research (craftsmen, teachers, farmers, etc.) and the exhibition public, of course.
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For the 2023 season, do you have a flagship exhibition or artist in mind?
This spring, the center d'art contemporain welcomes Angélique Aubrit and Ludovic Beillard to a school residency. They will spend several weeks in Embrun's elementary schools, working closely with the pupils on an exhibition project to be shown this summer, which should evoke the world of theater and puppetry.
Do you have a little anecdote to tell us about one of your visits or workshops?
At an exhibition featuring an installation incorporating painted footballs, some teachers were worried that the children might pick up on this during their visits. However, none of them did, understanding as they went along that everything on show at Les Capucins was a work of art. No doubt about it, unlike a small group of adults who were tempted to do a bit of dribbling! These anecdotes show just how familiar the young people of Embrun are with contemporary art.
