29 Mar 2019

Marie Voignier, Matthieu Saladin, Dominique Mathieu at BBB art centre, Toulouse

The BBB art centre, located in Toulouse (SW France), is both a contemporary art centre and a visual arts resource platform. It is developing a contemporary art programme and cultural activities open to one and all, while at the same time offering specific assistance to professional visual artists.
2019 is an anniversary year marking 25 years of the BBB art centre's exciting adventure. An anniversary is also an opportunity to take stock and make forecasts for many equally exciting years to come. Echoing this, the year's programming deals with the issue of temporality, and focuses on the way an art centre functions, its place within society, and its relations with the world around it. The various projects will explore a wide range of subjects, while keeping to a particular pace, at once parallel and complementary: the Marie Voignier film retrospective, spanning the whole of 2019, in tandem with two solo shows presenting the work of Dominique Mathieu and Matthieu Saladin, each one in two chapters gradually shifting from retrospection to prospection.
Émile Ouroumov, acting director and curator


EXHIBITIONS

Dominique Mathieu
'Acts' | 13 February – 29 June
The self-taught designer Dominique Mathieu favours simplicity and an economy of means. He defines himself as a useful designer, meaning one who radically alters objects.
The two chapters of his exhibition broach topics such as ecology and the role of the creative person within society. Following his decision to quit his professional practice in order to deploy his activities elsewhere, and in different ways, the first chapter presents proposals stemming from the different 'acts' which have underpinned his career. This ensemble traces a 'landscape' for the professional training activities of the art centre, which are moved about actually inside the exhibition space by Dominique Mathieu's proposition, around a 'Large Table'.

Matthieu Saladin
'Part times I. Fire at the clock dials to make the day stand still' | 13 February – 29 June
The praxis of the artist, musician and researcher Matthieu Saladin is part of a conceptual approach to art, reflecting the relations between art and society from the economic and political angle. The two-part project titled 'Part Times' deals in a critical way with our relation to the past and present of political ideas, as well as various institutional parameters. The first part of the show rekindles a set of existing works which, among other things, set the memory of revolts at the heart of the daily round, transpose the place's budgetary situation into music, and alter its opening hours.

Marie Voignier
'Kino-glaz' | 13 February – 21 December
Whatever film-maker Marie Voignier's area of investigation may be—the rural world or a former colony in Africa, North Korea, an ethnological museum, a theme park, a plot of wasteland, or a crypto-zoological expedition—, she is interested in the issue of objectivity in the way narratives are constructed.
Her films underscore the host of differing viewpoints in relation to a given situation. The exhibition 'Kino-glaz' ('Kino-eye', a reference to the Soviet film director Dziga Vertov) offers a sweeping look at the diversity of the subjects she has studied, by way of a dozen films which will be screened one after the other throughout the year.
Films (subtitled in English) being screened between February and June: Tinselwood (2017), The Mokele-Mbembe Hypothesis (2011), Hinterland (2009), International Tourism (2014), At work (2008), The cannon's blast (2006). The exhibition will re-open after the summer break with the continuation of the film programme.

PERFORMANCES AND ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ARTISTS
Matthieu Saladin – public discussion and musical performances ("Economic Score – BBB centre d'art 2019"; "Les rassemblements, 2017") in partnership with the Institut de Formation de Musiciens Intervenants de l'Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès: Thursday 23 May | 6.30
Dominique Mathieu, public discussion: Thursday 6 June | 6.30
Marie Voignier, public discussion: Tuesday 18 June | 16.30

TRAINING SESSIONS AND THEME DAYS
Run by contemporary art professionals, the BBB art centre's training sessions and theme days are devised for visual artists and cultural practitioners. They deal with issues linked with professional life in the visual arts sector, through experience sharing, knowledge input, and situations. The BBB art centre's courses are free for jobseekers in France (limited number of places).