Figure, discours – Raphaël Faon
Thèse de doctorat en arts par le projet réalisée à l’École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy, EUR Humanités, Création, Patrimoine, CY Cergy Paris Université, sous la direction de : Jean-François Puff (CY) et Yann Beauvais (ENSAPC).
Présentée publiquement au palais de Tokyo le 12 novembre 2024 à 14h
Jury composé de : Françoise Parfait (Paris 1), Christian Joschke (ENSBA), Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil (ENSAPC) et Alexis Anne-Braun (ENS-PSL)
Ouverture de l’exposition au public à 13h30
This artist’s PhD explores the processes of meaning-making and interpretation in artistic propositions that center on the transfiguration of pre-existing images or objects within an artistic context. Bridging art practice with critical theory, it comprises both artistic experiments presented as a portfolio and an essay that examines the role of discourse in relation to visual works within an institutional setting like galleries and museums, particularly regarding the use of exhibition labels (cartel). These two components are complementary: the practical part focuses on artistic gestures that transfigure images, while the theoretical section questions the processes of (re)signification through discourse. The aim is to bring these two dimensions of artistic research into resonance, thereby interrogating the (con)textual conditions of art reception. Inspired by conceptual art, poststructuralism, and American art philosophy, this work pays close attention to the variability of meaning—its spectral and fluid nature—being more a matter of use than essence. The study emphasizes the construction of meaning in visual works based on external determinants beyond or beneath their formal or internal properties, which aligns with a postmodern conception of art and institutional critique. This is evident in gestures of transfiguration influenced by the ready-made and photographic appropriation, studied and practiced throughout the thesis.
Reconstitutions, incarner les savoirs historiques dans l’espace de la performance, Louise Hervé
Mercredi 10 janvier 2024, à 13h
à l’EPSS, 92 rue Notre-Dame des Champs, 75006 Paris,
salle Chagall.
Thèse de doctorat en art par le projet, réalisée au sein de l’EUR Humanités, Créations et Patrimoine et de l’École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy.
Sous la direction de : Chantal Lapeyre, professeure à CY Cergy Paris Université et chercheure à Héritages
Composition du jury : François Aubart, (ENSAPC, examinateur), Anne Bénichou, (université du Québec à Montréal, examinatrice), Marion Boudier, (université de Picardie Jules Verne, examinatrice), Chloé Déchery (université Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis, co-encadrante de thèse), Barbara Formis (université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, rapporteure), Chantal Lapeyre, (CY Cergy Paris Université, directrice de thèse), Jean-François Puff, (CY Cergy Paris Université, examinateur), Karel Vanhaesebrouck (université Libre de Bruxelles, rapporteur)
What could an archeology of performance art be? The histories of performance art written since the 1970s usually posit its appearance during the 20th century, in the context of the avant-gardes. Research in the field is expanding today; it allows us to think about a long history of these forms, before Dada and Futurism, before the 1960s and 1970s.
Louise Hervé’s aim is to explore a small number of specific cases of artists or groups who made live art, in the artistic field, before the 20th century, often with a utopian and radical dimension. This research is anchored to her artistic practice, it develops for, with and through performances. She seeks to reconstruct discontinuous historical episodes, in the 18th and 19th centuries, as a part of this archeology : Emma Hamilton’s attitudes around 1790 in Naples, the activities of the Meditateurs and the Dormeuses in Paris in 1800, the ceremonies of the saint-simonians in 1832. She researches through archive, images, and makes use of these sources in live art situations — more specifically, lecture-performances. These reconstructions guide her reflection on how we relate to the past; they are a form of research-based creation. They are not pure imagination: they bring into tension an embodied text, speculative reasoning and historical sources.
Starting from this proposition, Louise Hervé also observes several reenactments in the context of contemporary performance art, to identify the intersecting issues. How do these reenactments imply complex, non-linear times? What are the working methods used by dancers, performers, directors, who rely on History? What is at stake in the embodiment and transmission, in the decompartmentalization of knowledge and genres?
