CHASE THE COOL, written & directed by Antoine Asseraf & Rene Habermacher.

Your EP is very diverse sonically – is it because you’re still experimenting, or because you refuse to choose one style ?
Let’s say you can find in Rocky the influences we wanted to play with: House, Pop, R&B. All these musics are not so different, they all have their roots in African American music.

Lille, Paris,… is it important where you’re from?
No. Today you can make the same music whether you’re from Lille, Paris or Madrid. Even though it’s true there isn’t the same energy in a big city like New York as in… Paris.

Singing in French…is it taboo for you ?
Not at all. We’re thinking about it for the next EP.

What’s it like playing the Olympia concert hall Jouer à l’Olympia? Inès, you mentionned you had already sung there before the Inrocks Festival…
You can say what you want, the Olympia isn’t a venue like any other. We were lucky enough to play it twice (the first time opening for The Shoes) and it was a great experience each time. The mood is peculiar, and you always get a reaction when you tell your family you’ll play there.

What’s your process, from writing to production ?
There are no rules. But generally we start from a base by one of us, we push the production further and Inès tries to lay down some vocals. We go back and forth like this a few times, until we like it enough to play it to Pierre Le Ny, the Art Director of the label, who’ll put it in the trash.

Sometimes, when he thinks the track is cool, he’ll send it Guillaume Brière (half of the The Shoes), who finalizes it and puts it on a record.
At least that’s how we do it now. It’s simple to tell, but in fact each step comes with its share of tears and despair.

Where did the name Rocky come from?
We wanted a name that was cool, easy to remember, that would work in any language. This one was already part of the collective imagination, so the work was already done, which made it easy. We also liked the idea of highjacking an already ultra famous name from its origins. It never fails to trigger people to ask us about the name.

What is the last thing which stimulated you ?
TRUE DETECTIVE !

Rocky, by The Stimuleye.

Rocky Tour Dates

ROCKY EP1 by René Habermacher.

ROCKY – Chase The Cool – Video Teaser from LABEL G.U.M on Vimeo.

Rocky EP1 on iTunes

For its 29th edition, Villa Noailles director and Fashion + Photography founder Jean-Pierre Blanc invited the American duo of Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, Kenzo designers and Opening Ceremony founders, to preside the Fashion Jury.

Amidst hundred’s of applicants from 55 different countries, here are the 10 finalists they picked.

Official lookbook by The Stimuleye.

Hyères 2014 - ALL EYES ON HYERES - by The Stimuleye.

All 10 designers were selected on the basis of a dossier and a full outfit, first by art director Maida Gregory-Boina, Maria Luisa buyer Robin Schulié and The Stimuleye colleague Filep Motwary, then by the jury presidents and their guests: Jay Massacret (V Man), Eric Wilson (InStyle), Carol Song (Opening Ceremony) and actress Chloé Sevigny.

Louis-Gabriel Nouchi, France.

Roshi Porkar, Austria.

Agnese Narnicka, Latvia.

Yulia Yefimtchuk, Ukraine.

Kenta Matsushige, Japan.

Anne Kluytenaar, The Netherlands.

Liselore Frowijn, The Netherlands.

Coralie Marabelle, France.

Pablo Henrard, Belgium.

Marit Ilison, Estonia.

Next week, the photography jury and selection will be announced.

Photography by The Stimuleye
Background by Mathilde Nivet
Make-up by Yannis Siskos
Hair by Fred Teglia

This season, the themes are goddesses, fine porcelain and… Lee Radziwill makes a sublime and subliminal appearance.

Giambattista Valli Haute Couture 5

And yet everyone is flocking there since the Museum of Civilisations
of Europe & of the Mediterranean, dubbed MuCEM, opened its doors just weeks ago, the first national museum to open in the Phocean city, a project 11 years in the making. 

Having shot & directed the introductory ad campaign for this new institution, The Stimuleye introduces you to the man who designed it, a man as famous for the fights he picks as the building he designs.
Exclusive photos by René Habermacher.

Portrait of architect Rudy Ricciotti by René Habermacher.

One side is the Fort Saint-Jean, linked to the city by a pedestrian steel bridge. A fort not unlike the Bastille – a bastion to defend Marseille against itself – the Fort Saint-Jean had been closed to the public for centuries.

On the other, also connected by a massive steel bridge, is Ricciotti’s creation, facing the Mediterranean Sea.
Refusing “architectural bling,” Ricciotti chose to have the new building dematerialize itself to complement the Fort Saint-Jean.

No reflections – leave it to the sea.

The concrete filigree lace of the MuCEM, a second skin like a screen that allows views, light and air
to pervade the space. Photography by René Habermacher.

TV spot for the MuCEM's launch, directed by Antoine Asseraf with SayWho and Agence White.

The MuCEM's a porous monolithic body planted on pier J4 in the Mediterranean sea, connected to the Fort Saint-Jean
with a 115m long slender pathway made of massive cast iron. Photography by René Habermacher.

Antoine Asseraf: Can you elaborate on your theory of world being split between two sides, matte and shiny ?

Rudy Ricciotti: Shiny is conceptual distance, reason, power and self-assurance.
Matte is frontal narration, intuition, defeat and regret.
Pick your side… I did.

AA: Mediterranean is a concept going beyond “local” but stopping short of  “global” — how do you situate yourself, and the building, within that notion ?

RR: The South is a travel certificate, not a birth certificate.
The inhabitants of Munich are more mediterranean than those of Grenoble.
The Valais region in the south of Switzerland more latin than the Vaucluse in the south of France, etc.
The MuCEM is mediterranean through anxiety and existential difficulty.

AA: What is your relationship to monumental architecture ?

RR: You are talking to me, you fucked my wife ?

Top left: "Notre-Dame de la Garde" looming over Marseille and the the seven-level, 40 000 square meter
structure of the MuCEM. Photography by René Habermacher.

As massive the volume of the MuCEM may seem at first, it is the use of negative space that gives the building
the air of the metaphysical. Photography by René Habermacher

AA: What is the last thing which stimulated you ?

RR: A fish soup made by my partner…
Read my last pamphlet to smile:
« L’Architecture est un sport de combat » [Architecture is a combat sport], edited by Textuel.

MuCEM

With SayWho & Agence White

28TH INTERNATIONAL FASHION & PHOTOGRAPHY HYERES 2013
HYERES EXPRESS
06 AWARDS
07 MOOD

A THE STIMULEYE PRODUCTION
directed by Antoine Asseraf
filmed & edited by Julien Pujol & Thibault Della Gaspera
coordination Clementine Colson
interviews Filep Motwary
sound design Ça Va Chéri

28TH INTERNATIONAL FASHION & PHOTOGRAPHY HYERES 2013
HYERES EXPRESS

A THE STIMULEYE PRODUCTION
directed by Antoine Asseraf
filmed & edited by Julien Pujol
coordination Clementine Colson
interviews Filep Motwary
sound design Ça Va Chéri

A THE STIMULEYE PRODUCTION
directed by Antoine Asseraf
filmed & edited by Thibault Della Gaspera
interviews Filep Motwary
coordination Clementine Colson
sound design Ça Va Chéri

Pierre Debusschere, Portrait by Filep Motwary.

Is this your first solo show?
I did small solo shows before but i like to think of this one as my first one because it is the first time the work has been thought of for an exhibition medium.

How does it feel exhibiting alongside someone like Guy Bourdin?
It is already an honour to be present at the Villa but even more to be next to Bourdin.

Your subjects-models are worked in a way to look like paintings, what is your aim exactly ?
The painting, the Flemish painters are a big influence for me, there is no specific aim linked to the painting besides the connection to my inspirations.
The technique that looks like paint that you are referring to is there more in the idea layers, different layers that gives the image different steps of reading.

Photo by Pierre Debusschere.

Photo by Pierre Debusschere.

Your show’s theme is beauty versus ugliness. What are your true influences? Is it connected to the work of Umberto Eco ?
Beauty versus ugliness is one of the themes worked in this show, the idea of what is beautiful or ugly today. Yes it is linked to Eco’s work, reading his book
on ugliness helped me a lot in this show.

Your work is tied to the digital medium. Can you imagine yourself working in a previous era ?
For sure I can see myself working in a previous era, it is not about digital, it is more about the medium that fits the time, the idea of NOW.

Photo by Pierre Debusschere.

You have created yourself a whole structure with 254 Forest, which allows you to do an original photo series, a book, an installation and a film… How important is organization to be an artist today ?

Yes I would not have been able without my team to create the photo-series, the book, the installation, the film, the soundtrack and the website !

It is always about Team work for me and I’m really grateful to have them besides me. Organisation is a big part of the work, even more for project like this when we created all this body of work in 2 months. Today you need to be able to react really fast because of the technology era we live in, so that’s why a team is important too !

You need to be present on every aspect of production at the same time ! But then we can not forget sometimes that we need to disconnect ourselves

PIERRE DEBUSSCHERE

A THE STIMULEYE PRODUCTION
directed by Antoine Asseraf
filmed & edited by Julien Pujol
interviews Filep Motwary
coordination Clementine Colson
sound design Ça Va Chéri

Photo by Scott Trindle.

AntoineAsseraf: Along with Industrie Magazine and the rise of the fashion blogger as a class, your blog has drawn attention to a lot of work, which was heretofore considered a bit peripheral to a designer’s raw talent. What do you make of a place like Hyères that still somehow naively stresses the belief that talent will find its own way? If you were to create a Business of Fashion competition/festival, how different would it be?

Imran: At BoF, we firmly believe in the power that lies at the intersection of creativity and business. Both are essential to a successful fashion enterprise, and one can’t work without the other. It’s a true symbiotic relationship. If we were to do a BoF festival therefore, it would be a combination of creative fashion presentation and business plan pitches, and the judges would come from both sides of the industry.

FilepMotwary: It seems to me that many of the young designers who dream of a future in fashion are unaware about “the business” of fashion in general. Should they worry of how things have evolved, and turned the industry into this huge marathon of task, values that need to be constantly re-valued, trends that suffers from the lack of longevity etc…?

Imran: I tell my students that once they start their own business, they will spend 90% of their time managing the business, and only 10% of the time designing. This balance is not something that has necessarily changed in recent years, but it’s true that there is more and more for a young designer to do in the global, digital fashion world in which we live today.

Sean Santiago: The internet and its popular content-sharing platforms, i.e. Tumblr and Pinterest, are destabilizing traditional revenue streams faster than new ones are being created. How will original creative output find funding in the future and do you see crowdsourcing methods such as, for instance, a Kickstarter campaign, possibly becoming necessary to the creation of original artistic output? Or will a big brand always foot the bill when it comes to fashion-related content?

Imran: Brands and designers could certainly fund portions of their businesses — say specific collections or products — via crowdsourcing platforms. But ultimately, I suspect that they will need to turn to traditional forms of fundraising (selling equity or taking loans) in order to fund the business over the long term. A young fashion business is highly cash flow intensive, and therefore will likely require stable and planned funding in order to fuel growth and expansion.

Malibongwe Tyilo: BOF is recognized as one of the boldest voices in fashion writing, often publishing pieces that might not be appreciated by some PR people. Considering how important PR has become to design companies, how does that affect how the design businesses deal with you?

Imran: We are bold, but I believe we are also fair and balanced. Part of the role we see for ourselves at BoF is to surface and shed light on important industry issues that merit wider discussion and debate.

If we can do so in a way that is balanced and fact-based, then most PR professionals seem to respect us for that.

Certainly, there are some who would prefer to control all the communication about their clients, but this is misguided and unrealistic.

28th International
Fashion & Photography Festival
Hyères 2013
April 26>29

A THE STIMULEYE PRODUCTION
directed by Antoine Asseraf
filmed & edited by Thibault Della Gaspera
interviews Filep Motwary
coordination Clementine Colson
sound design Ça Va Chéri

Winning the Hyères award in 2002, then the ANDAM Award, “FOB”, as he is nicknamed, made himself a name showing in Paris over the last 10 years, and is now also the creative director of Lacoste.

As he prepares his return to Hyères, this time as Jury President, he faces the inquiries of our team of bloggers…

Felipe Oliveira Baptista by René Habermacher.

Everything has speeded up a lot, more collections, pre-collections, collaborations & capsules. Internet gave way to a whole new way of spreeding new talent, ideas and concepts. it is a very different landscape from the beginning of the century. On the other end, we seem to live in an era where there is too much of everything and by the time something new is found, it is already finished.

As part of the Hyères 2013 Fashion Jury, they answer the questions of the blog partners – Un Nouveau Ideal by Filep Motwary, *Fruitpunch by Sean Santiago, BRRUN by Bruno Capasso, Vogue.de, Malibongwe Tyilo and The Stimuleye, of course.

Liesbeth Abbenes. Photo by René Habermacher.

Filep Motwary: How does a garment get your attention? What are you searching for while on set?

Maurice ScheltensA sensitivity in material and design. Looking at a garment it often tells if the designer understands it’s own work without stopping to early (or to late) in the process. This attitude is connecting in the way we are also trying to stretch our own sensibilities.

Sean Santiago: Your work is striking in its simplicity and for its reductive qualities – is fashion more interesting to you in theory more often than in its execution?

We are more interested in what we see then in what we know or should know. After ‘building’ is the moment of truth. Our curiosity by testing an idea for it’s visual qualities is the driving force. That is also why we keep on searching, experimenting and checking during the shoot instead of making photographs from a sketch made on the drawing table. This doesn’t mean that thoughts or drawings as they are can be beautiful and interesting to. It’s a matter of where to put all these aspirations.

Maurice Scheltens by René Habermacher.

Antoine Asseraf: As jury members used to shooting Fashion as objects, can you abstract the mise en scene, the show, the person to judge only the garments ?

Actually we see the same struggle and solutions in the garments as we face while shooting fashion or any other object in front of the lens. Maybe it’s a healthy distance that we have looking at fashion because we’re not ‘over informed’. We’re responding to what we see with the same critical eye as we do in our own work.

Bruno Capasso: How do you work as a duo – do you have 2 distinct visions ?

Our collaboration has been growing over the past ten years. It’s an evolution in which we grow individually towards each other and makes it difficult to say what comes from who. Individual credits would be out of place. See it as a chess game in which one makes a move and the other responds onto it… on and on.

Hyères 2013 Fashion & Photography Festival

Scheltens & Abbenes

International Fashion & Photography Festival 2013
Hyères – Teaser

April 26 – 29, 2013
Villa Noailles, Hyères

http://www.villanoailles-hyeres.com/2013/

Film by Antoine Asseraf & René Habermacher
starring Suzanne von Aichinger
as Marie Laure de Noailles

Styling by Suzanne von Aichinger
assisted by Simon Gensowski & Laure Grandon

Hair by Panos Papandrianos @ CLM UK
Make-up by Min Kim @ Airport Agency

Sound design by Ca Va Cheri

“Arrrgh” follows in the footsteps of “Rrrrip – Paper Fashion”, another internationally touring exhibit by Greek collective Atopos, whose founding member and curator, Vassilis Zidianakis, we met before the exhibit opening.

Left: Pictoplasma "Pictoorphanage Les Petites Bonhommes", 2006.  Right: Manon Kuendig "Collection BLOWJOB", 2011

Antoine Asseraf: What was the starting point for this exhibit ?

Vassilis Zidianakis: In Hyères in 2006, where I was in the fashion jury. One of the designers, Amandine Labidoire, had a sketchbook with characters that started something in my head.

Then I asked Pictoplasma to write a text on character design, they saw my research on the subject and instead proposed to do a whole book about that idea, which became NOT A TOY, and then led to this exhibit.

Craig Green "BA Collection", 2010 & "BA Collection", 2012

When does this phenomenon start, in the 90’s with Leigh Bowery, Margiela, Walter Van Beirendonck… ?

Internet is the real starting point – avatars, different identities. People don’t show their face and instead create a character.

In fashion, you could say it started with Comme Des Garçons for the shape, and Margiela for the face – because when you hide the face you create a monster. But Schiaparelli, who was close to the surrealists, had already tried that, and you find it a lot in ethnographic clothing: each civilisation has costumes to dress up and become someone else. Today, it’s become a bit like Halloween, and clothes that are not meant to be worn on the street, but to go to parties, take pictures, it’s very marketing associated.

Character design as a whole comes from marketing, in the US and Japan – products talk to you, like yogurt, clothes, Michelin…

You also have to see the evolution of what we consider “monstruous”. For example, hoop dresses from the 18th century which are too wide to fit through a door – don’t you find that monstruous ?

Left: Projection by Bart Hess. Right: Bas Kosters "Collection Le Salon Explosif", 2007

Left: Alexis Themistocleus "Freaks", 2010. Right: Heiniek "Foamboys x Hyperbole@ Ludwig- TEDX AMS", 2012

Besides the rise of internet, the 90’s are also a decade of video games becoming mainstream, the emergence of adult animation…

It’s the idea we wanted to explpore with NOT A TOY, which led to this exhibition. If you read vinyl sex objects, it says “THIS IS NOT A TOY”, it’s for grown-ups.

Ultimately I’m very happy to show this outside of a fashion context, in a place like Gaîté Lyrique which is more technology related. The exhibit isn’t directly linked to technology, but shows the influence of technology on our bodies.

What is different about this exhibit than what was shown in Athens ?

After 3 years of research, we made a show at the Benaki Museum in Athens. Since then, a lot of new things have been produced around the idea, so for the Gaîté Lyrique we doubled the number of exhibited pieces on display.

We also commissioned Bart Hess a video for the 360º room, a special costume from Craig Green which serves as visual identity for the exhibtion,
and the fashion show of Jean-Paul Lespagnard which will be part of the parallel program.

The Brainstorm Design "How To Make Friends And Have A Social Life", 2013

Tell me more about the ancient Greek notion of “monster”…

Today “monster” has a negative connotation. But the original Greek word, “teras” (which gave “teratogen” and “teratology”) indicates a physical phenomenon in need of an explanation. So for example, to the ancient Greeks, a rainbow was a “monster”.

A bit like a UFO ?

yes, unidentified, and needing to be explained by us.
the theme of the monster is really about difference, about what we’re capable of accepting, because we’re attracted to strange things, but don’t know how to communicate with them.

ARRRGH ! MONSTERS IN FASHION
February 13 to April 7, 2013
Gaîté Lyrique
3 bis rue Papin, Paris.

Left: Rozalb de Mura "Collection The Remains", SS2010. Right: Mask available at the museum store

Yes, this Hyères, festival graduates Felipe Oliveira Baptista (2002) and Charles Fréger (2001) return, not as young hopeful nominees, but as still-young confirmed professionals, now presiding over the juries.

Hyères 2013 fashion jury president Felipe Oliveira Baptista. Photo by René Habermacher.

Hyères 2013 preview. Visual by The Stimuleye.

And the nominees are…

FASHION SELECTION
Tomas Berzins & Victoria Feldman, Latvia + Russia
Henning Jurke, Germany
Camille Kunz, Switzerland
Yvonne Poei-Yie Kwok, The Netherlands
Xénia Lucie Laffely, France – Switzerland
Satu Maaranen, Finland
Marion de Raucourt, France
Damien Ravn, Norway
Shanshan Ruan, China
Xing Su, Canada

PHOTO SELECTION
Lena Amuat & Zoë Meyer, Switzerland
Emile Barret, France
Petros Efstathiadis, Greece
David Favrod, Switzerland
Dominic Hawgood, United Kingdom
Grace Kim, USA
John Mann, USA
Anna Orlowska, Poland
Peter Puklus, Hungary
Eva Stenram, Sweden

Fitting Model at the fashionselection at Felipe Oliveira Baptista's headquarters.

Where is JP Blanc there are always flowers.

The fashion selection meeting, with jury members, festival director JP Blanc and blogger Filep Motwary.

Photography selection: Portfolio of Dominic Hawgood, United Kingdom.

The entry of Petros Efstathiadis, Greece.

Prints of Eva Stenram, Sweden.

Full jury and exhibit lists coming soon, but we’re happy to report that fashion photographer and film maker Pierre Debusschere will be among this year’s exhibitors.

28th International Fashion & Photography Festival
Hyères 2013, April 25 -> 29
at Villa Noailles, Hyères

The Stimuleye presents “Hanaa”, a film by Antoine Asseraf & René Habermacher, starring Tunisian model Hanaa Ben Abdesslem, spokesperson for Lancôme.

Antoine Asseraf: Where are you from, and how were you discovered ?

Hanaa Ben Abdesslem: I was raised in a town on the sea coast of Tunisia named Nabeul. 
I dreamed of becoming a model since I was very young.

In 2009, I participated in a reality TV show for models in Lebanon.  There I met Sophie GalaI, who would become my manager, and in 2010 she presented me to IMG Paris, who in turn presented me to Carine Roitfeld, at the time Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Paris.

Through her introduction to Ricardo Tisci , I was chosen as a Givenchy fashion show exclusive that same season.
   
AA: You’re becoming an icon representing the “middle-eastern woman” in the fashion world and beyond,
but which people are icons to you ? Can you tell us a bit about your relationship with Farida Khelfa ?

My icons are the Tunisian women in the fashion industry, whom I admire and whose accomplishments I respect, such as Liela Menshari, Hermes window designer — she received the Golden Dido Award for her contribution to Tunisian culture and influences in world, and Afef Jenifen, who fought for Arab women’s freedom of choice and continues to defend their rights.

Farida is a great support and she always has good advice, such as “stay true to yourself.”

HANAA
a film by Antoine Asseraf & René Habermacher
starring Hanaa Ben Abdesslem
styling Yoko Miyake
hair Nicolas Eldin
make up Tracey Gray Mann
production by Clast
postproduction by The Stimuleye
text by Omar Khayyam
sound by Gnawa Diffusion
thanks Sophie Gallal

Look 1: Dolce & Gabbana
Look 2: Jil Sander by Raf Simons
Look 3: Chloé
Look 4: Stella McCartney

Forget the market.
For founder James Brett, it’s about special things, made by special people, people who haven’t gone to art school or thought of showing their work, much less of selling it.

Antoine Asseraf: What started you on The Museum of Everything project ?

James Brett: I don’t come from a particularly artistic family and my parents never taught me what creativity meant – but as a child I had a lot of it and it always got in the way.

And so I worked in different industries and was working in film, and I remember meeting a very interesting photographer, the late Bob Richardson. He was the father of Terry Richardson. Terry’s a terrible photographer (sorry!) but Bob was a genius. He was the first person who really told me that “You don’t choose it, it chooses you”.

In the same way, I can’t really tell you why I started The Museum of Everything. I didn’t set out to do it, I wasn’t interested in art, exhibitions, nothing. But I was working in film and I know film very well, I studied acting, so I’m creatively interested. And in my travels I started to see artworks, first of all by people in the American South, that was just cool and graphic. I always liked graphic novel and comics as a child – and as an adult frankly – and they started speaking to me.

The artworks were cheap, really like 20-25 bucks, and the more I looked the more I found. I started finding better examples, and realized there was a whole history in America of folk art, African-American art and self-taught art which seemed to come from the individual, it didn’t have the pretension or the words of formally-trained artists, and it was immediate. As a film-maker I loved that, because I’m not really interested in what you are or what you say, I’m interested in the stuff, in what you do.

As I continued I saw there were some other areas that had a great psychological depth. For example, the work of Henry Darger. I discovered there was a word for it, Art Brut, of which Dubuffet was the proponent. And that also interested me because in my youth, I was fascinated by the mind, how the mind works, and why we make the choices we do, all of this sort of existential philosophy of life.

Prophet Royal Robertson
untitled (NO DIVORCE WHORE's ALLOWED), c 1980
© The Museum of Everything

Henry Darger
untitled (Mascot Girlscout 20th Grade), c 1940/60
© The Museum of Everything

I also saw there were no museums in Britain that really showed this work, and when a big museum did a show, it kind of fell short of the truth and beauty of the work because historical curators often do not present this art with life or communicate the life and passion of these artists. They neutralize it, and contextualize it and dampen it, instead of this great glorious sound, you hear this “eek eek” tiny squeak.

I got to know a few people in the art world, like Hans Ulrich Obrist, director of the Serpentine Gallery, who encouraged me. We then found an old building and put lots of art inside it – and because I had a feeling nobody would come, I contacted lots of contemporary artists who I knew liked this work, people I knew personally, from Mamma Andersson, Ed Ruscha and Maurizio Cattelan, to people like Hans who I knew had an interest….

I said “Would you write about these artists, would you say something to help put this into a context?” – and that became a very interesting contextualization, because it meant I could let others speak for these unknown artists. And because the artists we were showing tend to be more anonymous, less verbal and more immediate and emotional, it was a fantastic mix.

We opened the doors during Frieze in 2009 and we had a monster hit. People wrote about us, we were going to be open for a few weeks and stayed up for 4 months. The show went over to Italy, then we did another one in London with Sir Peter Blake, and the more we did it, the more this thing we created had a life of its own and showed it could do some fascinating things.

WILLIAM HAWKINS, untitled (AtLAS BUI1dINg), 1980
THE MUSEUM OF EVERYTHING, EXHIBITION #1.1, PARIS, CHALET SOCIETY
PHOTO: NICOLAS KRIEF © THE MUSEUM OF EVERYTHING

We also did some unusual projects – we did one in Tate Modern where we advertised for self-taught and marginal artists, if they had a vision, if they had a disability, if they were somehow not within the main sphere of art, we said come show us the work, if we like it we’ll hang it up, we’ll do a temporary exhibition – it starts empty and it creates as we build. And people came ! There were so many people at the Tate, it was quite phenomenal! We met people you wouldn’t dream of meeting.

We also did a major show in London in Selfridge’s, which is a department store. They gave us this amazing opportunity, so we decided to use it to say something big – and what we did was go around the world looking for studios and ateliers for artists who have something wrong, what you’d call a learning disability, a handicap, but what other people might say is just a different ability, a different intelligence. It’s a euphemism, but how does the brain work, how do we communicate ?

For these people art was a language, even if they didn’t have a language. And we had every window of the store, so we put their work in the window, presenting them simply as artists. It was a huge show with almost 500 works and we made all kinds of products, because we thought “Fantastic, let’s communicate to the marketplace too”… it was huge hit and in hindsight, a very radical statement.

More recently we just came back from Russia, where we did the same thing we did at Tate. We built a mobile museum, we traveled from Yekaterinburg to Moscow, advertising for artists to see if they would come. That’s a another slightly radical idea – and we’re keen on doing this elsewhere in the world!

Aleksander Lobanov
untitled, c 1970/80
© The Museum of Everything

AA: What is the point where you thought you had a critical mass of art ? How much of this is stuff you collected ?

JB: I was pretty interested, but I’m fundamentally not a collector. Collecting is not interesting. If you ask me who the important collectors are, they’re the ones who actually did something, the great collectors who started the greatest museums of the world. It doesn’t matter if they’ve got 10 euros or 10 million euros. It’s the contextualization.

Absolutely my favorite museum in the world is the Casa do Pontal which is in Rio, started by a Belgian collector, interested in figures created by the local Brazilian artisans, it’s the greatest museum… Sir John Soane and his Soane Museum, unbelievable, filled with objects from around the world – these places are inspiring. They came from a collection, so there is a relationship.

Josef Karl Rädler
untitled, 1912
© The Museum of Everything

AA: I was wondering about the process of finding these works – I see a lot of things from Austria, is it because you’ve had the opportunity to go around Austria for while ?

JB: It’s a bit random, truth be told.

There’s often America because America is a big place with a good distribution system, plus there’s the haves and the have-nots so there’s two societies.There’s a lot of cultural values that come into play.

America’s interesting because I realized this work actually had a great similarity to Jazz and the Blues, so much of it was an African American story, and spoke of that particular migration, but it hadn’t been celebrated it in the same way. If you go to the Whitney, they’ll talk about the history of American Art, but you won’t find any of the self-taught African American artists there, they’ll tell you to go to the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Coming back to the question, these artists are everywhere. Not all of them are talented, but they’re everywhere, and for every 10 that are OK, one will be phenomenal. It’s a question of finding them, valuing them, privileging their work, trying to present it in a way that means something.

I come from film, I’m used to mise-en-scène. The thing to do when you make a film is not to keep the script in your head but to be in reality. Actors might be doing it very differently, so you’ve got to adapt, it might not be what you imagined when you wrote it. So when we’re putting on a show, it is equally important to let the building tell you what it wants you to do…

THE MUSEUM OF EVERYTHING, EXHIBITION #1.1, PARIS, CHALET SOCIETY
PHOTO: NICOLAS KRIEF © THE MUSEUM OF EVERYTHING 

AA: Talking about the building, how do you find a space like this ? Looking for a specific neighborhood ?

JB: No no, it’s a chance situation. Our first show in London had been in a similar building that we played around with. Of course I wanted to come to Paris, I was really interested. Marc-Olivier [Wahler, former director of Palais de Tokyo and founder of Chalet Society] had visited the museum. We had a chance encounter in Marrakech [Biennale] where we sat down and he told me what he was doing. He said “I’m creating this new sort of art space, do you want to come see it ?”.

Chalet Society, which is his space, was a temporary space here in Paris, so we came here, I looked around, and it seemed a fantastic fit. So there was no looking – in the life of the museum chance encounters are the way it tends to work – it was Marc-Olivier Wahler’s relationship with the building, they lent it for the project, that’s how it came to be. I couldn’t ask for anything more. He’s my host, I’m the lodger. And when I’m gone there’ll be another better looking lodger…

 MORTON BARTLETT, untitled, c 1950/60
THE MUSEUM OF EVERYTHING, EXHIBITION #1.1, PARIS, CHALET SOCIETY
PHOTO: NICOLAS KRIEF © THE MUSEUM OF EVERYTHING 

AA: What changes did you make if any, how did you curate the content for Paris, some things that would speak more to the people in Paris ? I guess at this point you’ve already had several exhibitions and you have a larger amount of art. Or did you just see with the space ?

JB: Less French things. And more French things. For example here there’s a strong history, an intellectual appraisal of self-taught and outsider art and Art Brut. There are other great spaces here in Paris, a great collection at ABCD, Antoine Galbert’s Maison Rouge, they’re all interested in this kind of material… They’re fantastic places but they tend to speak in a more narrow form. I thought it was important not to double on what they already did, not to present artists they’ve already shown, because we wanted to get past the idea of Art Brut, because it’s a limited idea, if you rely on that you don’t go anywhere.

Both Marc Olivier and I are interested in much bigger ideas, philosophical ideas about art and creativity as “what does it mean ?”. I believe you can answer this question with the artist who makes something for himself or herself, without thinking of the terminology and the words. It gives form to enormous ideas which have not been brought into common art culture. In my opinion, they’re hidden inside Art Brut but they’re much bigger than Art Brut.

William Scott
untitled, 2009
© The Museum of Everything

The best example is an artist with a learning disability who can make phenomenal work without any cultural knowledge or context. It’s a language. And the only word you can give to it is art. I guess that’s what’s important to do, and the artists were chosen with these philosophical ideas in mind.

It’s very subjective, but at the same time we worked with the building, trying to find the right alleyways, pathways, spaces.
It’s a dialog, but I thought about what has been, and what could be, and what’s fascinating now that the show is open is that we’ve had so many major artists here, thinkers, talkers … and they all say yes, they all see what we’re trying to say.

Because I come from film I always try to create a narrative. People change as they walk through the show, from the moment they walk in at the top of the stairs and then as they make their way down. They become different human beings and that’s very interesting to me.

George Thaxton Miller
untitled (broke!), 1965
© The Museum of Everything

AA: Your exhibit made me think of the book “Beautiful Loser” about the art which derived from skater culture, made mostly by people who also lack artist training…

JB: As our project evolves, my thoughts evolve on the process: the thing about Russia, we met 100 artists a day, some not of interest, some of incredible interest – and so many of them had so much to say.

Some would put a matchstick down and talk for 20 minutes… the smaller the piece the longer the talk! Everybody’s busy expressing themselves, we live in a culture where that’s encouraged, but mere expression is not enough, I mean have you ever sat through those movies and 2 minutes into the movie you want to kill yourself, 10 minutes into it you’re pulling your fingernails and your eyelashes off, and 20 minutes into the movie you’re writing shopping lists for the next 2 years of your life?

It’s a travesty of modern times, that expression is important. Well it is and it isn’t. You don’t have to force people to engage with your ramblings on life unless of course you’re fascinating, unless of course you’re that special person who has that gift, and we all wanna know, and we all wanna see it and love it.

THE MUSEUM OF EVERYTHING, EXHIBITION #1.1, PARIS, CHALET SOCIETY
PHOTO: NICOLAS KRIEF © THE MUSEUM OF EVERYTHING 

AA: I guess that’s the limitation of film, you’re forcing people to look at it in this framework with this time, whereas a museum if you don’t like it you just walk faster and get out of it.

JB: You are so correct. I love the lack of the sensation of time in a museum. You can walk through this museum in 5 minutes or less. You can take 5 hours. You choose the amount of time you choose to engage with any work. It’s completely in your hands, the opportunity to stay is there for you and that’s a phenomenal advantage.

I don’t believe there are any bad movies in this show, but if there are, you can just walk past them. I think my point though is about expression. Everybody has something to say. Our job at The Museum of Everything is to find those creative voices, the ones that are truthful, that are hidden, whatever hidden means, or ones which somehow connect to this bigger idea of “Why do we exist ? Why does creativity exist ? What does it mean ?”

For me, I keep going back to the artist with the learning disability. I’ve met many now, and some you really want to communicate and connect with them and it’s very difficult. But you can do it through their work, you can see it, you can feel it no matter how abstract, you can feel the energy and the way their minds work and their bodies. And to me that’s the most beautiful part of it.

It’s not the same as a child, because someone with a disability is not a child, they’re adults, but they’ve developed in a different way, their intelligence is unusual.

Today we realize that in the diversity of the human experience in the 21st century, education and language can be barriers, as much as they’re enablers. One of my favorite writers, William Burroughs, says: “Language is a virus from outer space”.
I love words, I use them all the time, but sometimes it’s better to shut up.

Museum of Everything founder and director James Brett, by Antoine Asseraf.

AA: What are some of the upcoming projects after Paris ?

JB: We’re going to go back to Russia, because we traveled through the country, but when we arrived in Moscow the place wasn’t built yet, so we’ll go back to put on the show, which hopefully will then travel…

And anyone reading this on the blog is free to invite the museum somewhere – half the time we use the museum as an excuse to visit places we haven’t been to! I love the idea of the museum becoming an international force in the promotion of creativity as a human right. We’re wide open!

AA: I think what’s interesting is that you don’t question whether this is “craft” or whether this is a tradition which is being repeated…

JB: Sometimes you meet artisans, but what’s interesting is when they change. Michael Gerdsmann is a registered blind artist from Germany. He was taught knitting to do covers for teapots and was selling them in the market, and thought “What’s the point of this? I need to do something better!”. So he started making covers for iPods and headphones, electrical equipment, and had this idea that somehow these two were well-matched. So he started as an artisan and became an artist.

AA: Today we think “this is an artist, this is his expression, and we value his expression” because it’s the Artist. In other countries there is still traditions, and who makes the one particular object doesn’t seem important in that context, it’s more about the history of the object…

JB: There is a difference between the person who makes for himself and the person who makes for the market. I wouldn’t talk about artisans, I would talk about who the work is being made for. Trouble is, according to that theory, Jeff Koons is an artisan and Damien Hirst is an artisan… and by the way, I think they are, they’re very good artisans!

[My mother arrives and the conversation turns to cheesecakes].

The Museum of Everything – Exhibition #1.1
at Chalet Society
14 Boulevard Raspail 75007 Paris
Until Christmas 2012

Until February 24, 2013.

Miss Marion Hopscotch performance
Saturday November 10th from 3pm-6pm

A is Africa.

Leave it to Jean Paul Lespagnard to connect the 2 in a fresh way for his SS2013 collection.

You can also see one of the key outfits from the collection in action, as worn by Lynsey Peisinger, in the FIAC Paris 2012 teaser…

FIAC 2012 official teaser by The Stimuleye. Pants/overalls by Jean-Paul Lespagnard.