16/5/2008
A constructed world
The Cneai, Chatou
Since 1993, Australian artists Jacqueline Riva and Geoff Lowe have worked toghether, their work takes diverse forms, often performative, using the construction of platforms which include the audience. This exhibition takes place at the end of a preparation of more than a year, and is built around the center of art, the collection FMRA and in particular the Maison Flottante designed by Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec. It is organized around a series of new pieces linked to the question of repetition, failure and avoidance.
Since 1993, Australian artists Jacqueline Riva and Geoff Lowe have worked under the name
of A Constructed World. Their work takes diverse forms, often performative, using the
construction of platforms of work which include the audience. Their art can often be seen in
terms of crisis of concepts of certainty, security and hierarchical values. They have
accumulated slogans like ‘no need to be great’, ‘stay in groups’ and ‘everybody knows’ which
come to life in events and exhibitions such as Increase Your Uncertainty (Australian Centre
for Contempoaray Art Melbourne June – July 2007).
They multiply meetings with the public in the shape of workshops and produce publications
starting from open calls with contribution from amateurs and people-who-say-they-don’tknow-
about-art. (Artfan magazine 1993-, SPEECH http://speech2012.blogspot.com/) or to
other professionals, artists and curators (errors deceits mistakes n°1 and 2, edition Cneai
2005).
In this presentation they compare their displacement of speech and ambulant situation as
artists to the characters of Douglas Trumball’s futuristic film from 1972 Silent Running (La
deuxième odyssée) where the spaceship functions an ark. As the administrators try to resolve
the ecological disaster on earth the spacescraft hovers in the universe. As the story develops
the question is not so much will they save the domes full of plants and animals? But rather
does anyone really want to? Later, orders come from earth to jettison and destroy the
contents and return the carriers to commercial service. The crew argues about what habitat is
worth saving with pragmatism, paranoia and desperation.
During their travels ACW discovered the Cneai with its FMRA collection, 10 000 artists books
and authors publications, an archive open to researchers that often leads to exhibitions in
France and abroad. It functions like an impulsive and incomplete collection of projects and
publications self-generated by artists. The Cneai also asks how artists can create interfaces
with audiences and their researches result in performative gestures and objects. Projects
included in this shifting archive show an urgent and obstinate need to find a way out of
cultural loneliness. These producers of thought and culture persist for their own reasons and
such works are collected at the Cneai.
This exhibition of A Constructed World at Cneai takes place at the end of a preparation of
more than a year, and is built around the center of art, the collection FMRA and in particular
the Maison Flottante designed by Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec. It is organized around a
series of new pieces linked to the question of repetition, failure and avoidance. From their
interrogations on limits of memory, A Constructed World also recalls works that were
previously exhibited at Cneai.
Le Feu Scupuleux, which gives its title to the exhibition, is ‘the absolute which has been
accumulated’. The collection of the Cneai is the scrupulous fire because it makes choices
between what is kept and what it refused. ACW’s exhibition interrogates what is worth saving.
The exhibition Le Feu Scrupuleux consists in two parts: the first, of May 18 at August 31, the
second, from the 3 to September 21.
With this occasion will be published by Cneai the new magazine errors deceits mistakes #3
(erreurs mensonge meprise tromperie #3) gathering contributions of artists.
Jacqueline Riva and Geoff Lowe founded A Constructed World in Melbourne in
1993. The first survey exhibition of their work took place at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
in Melbourne, 2007. They are currently presenting a year long continuous project, Saisons Increase , at
CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art Bordeaux. Their work has been presented in many biennales
(Tirana, Saõ Paulo, Adelaide, Gwangju) and museums including the Serpentine Gallery London,
Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Foundazione
Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Turin.
ACW have facilitated workshops for institutions such as Artist Space New York, Monash University
Museum Melbourne, Camberwell College London Institute, Goldsmiths College London, West
Collection, SEI Investments Pennsylvania. They founded Artfan magazine,1993, SPEECH web
magazine, 2005 and errors deceits mistakes, 2006, all still in production.
Http://www.aconstructedworld.com
Devoted to artists’ publication, the Cneai is a national contemporary art center. Both a public
space and a research center, it’s a platform for present-day art distribution. The Cneai is nine
kilometers from the lights of the Eiffel tower, located on the Impressionists’ Island of Chatou.
The building has four showrooms, an ephemeras and multiples collection level, a printing
workshop, and a TV room. Moored on the Seine near the art center, the cneai’s residence the
« Maison flottante », is a floating office devoted to collectively designed editorial programmes.
In addition to the exhibition programme, events, performances, productions and publications
are scheduled at the Cneai and outside the center. Every year, 50 independent publishers
meet at the Salon Light. Specialists in Human Sciences debate with art theoreticians during
seminars. Philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists or linguists exchange ideas with artists,
publishers, collectors or critics the duration of a publication. Cneai develops and presents two
collections : the "Multiples" collection composed of the works produced at the Cneai and the
"FMRA" collection gathering nine thousands artists' publications.
Images and inquiries : Vincent Romagny, 01 39 52 52 26, romagny@cneai.com
Opening 17 may from 5 pm
"Buffet and action in A Constructed World"
First part 18 may – 31 agoust
Second part 7 – 21 september
The Cneai - centre national de l'estampe et de l'art imprimé
Maison Levanneur, Ile des Impressionnistes, 78400 Chatou, France
Open from Wednesday to friday from 10 am to 6 pm, Saturday and sunday from
noon to 6 pm.