Greek-type Problems

Yaïr Barelli, Eva Barto, Nicolas Boone, Jagna Ciuchta, Matthieu Clainchard, Yves Dymen, Annie Vigier et Franck Apertet (les gens d’Uterpan), Hedwig Houben, Un institut métaphorique, Pierre Joseph, Joachim Mogarra, Alexander Wolff
26/09/2015 – 12/12/2015

“Greek-type Problems” is a reference to Jean-Luc Godard’s excuse for his absence from the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and the premiere of his Film Socialisme: “Owing to Greek-type problems, I will not be able to be your guest in Cannes. I will accompany the festival to the death, but not a step further. Yours, Jean-Luc Godard.”

 

We have every right to wonder just what “Greek-type problems” are—and, indeed, if such a type actually exists. This enigma aside, the phrase and our title immediately trigger echoes of the current political situation in Greece. Seen from this angle, “Greek-type problems” conjure up a tricky equation: that of a country’s degree of autonomy and dependence with regard to decisions taken by external powers in a supranationallegislative and economic context

whose constraints endanger that country’s sovereignty. More generally these problems betoken a critical situation and a threat of imminent collapse. Looking beyond these immediate concerns, we are also reminded of the problems handed down by ancient Greek philosophy: problems that were debated in the agora, that ideal place of assembly where political ideas were vented and citizenship put into practice—provided you belonged to the in-group and could
speak the language.

 

This title links the exhibition to similar issues of autonomy and dependence, and of inclusion and exclusion, in terms of the art center’s relationships with artists, the public and its own institutional structure. La Galerie is a municipal cultural amenity in central Noisy-le-Sec, in the Seine-Saint-Denis département.
It is also a daily workplace for a team engaged in various public service missions. Above all it is a space where the public can experience works of art, and meet artists and creative people in the broad sense of the term.
The exhibition takes account, simultaneously, of this urban context, the everyday life of the centre and the singular encounter involved in contact with a work of art. In linking artistic matters to affective, social and cultural aspects of our lives, the art centre is setting out to bring new ideas and experiences to bear on its relationships with artists, exhibitions, the public and its immediate environment, as well as its identity, missions and history.

 

More generally the concern is with how the singular voices of artists a and authors, together with those of the art centre team, are to make themselves heard in an institutional setting embracing a variety of roles, functions, configurations and missions.How can unforeseeable stances effect breakthroughs in the ways power is exercised? What visible form do such stances take? And what influence do they have on our inner representations?

 

The exhibition proposes a process of slow transformation of our reflexes and habits and signals an attempt at a move forward.

 

Émilie Renard

 

Translated by John Tittensor

around the exhibition

  • 02/10/2015

    Reading, listening
    Every Friday
    From 5 pm to 6 pm
    Readings by the La Galerie team.

  • 17/10/2015

    Saturdays 17 October, 14 and 28 November, 12 December
    From 2 pm to 7 pm
    Call for Uchronists! Infiltrations into public space according to Annie Vigier and Franck Apertet (les gens d’Uterpan).

  • 07/11/2015

    From 3 pm to 6 pm
    Work session open to the public with Un Institut Métaphorique about the use of metaphors in scientific and arts research.

  • 20/11/2015

    From 2 pm to 6 pm
    Money and the Artist, a discussion on the subject of work relations with artists.

  • 28/11/2015

    From 5 pm to 7 pm
    Meet Yaïr Barelli about the workshop “Administrata Yoga”.
    Launch of the exhibition journal and the publication by Barbara Sirieix, author in residence.