Annie Vigier et Franck Apertet (les gens d’Uterpan) — Uchronie — Salle Principale — la galerie — Event — Slash Paris

Past: December 12, 2015 → January 24, 2016

For the exhibition entitled Uchronie, Les Gens d’Uterpan will be temporarily occupying Salle Principale as a headquarters for their activism. The modules for infiltrating public space elaborated with each new application of Uchronie¹ are explained and passed on to the participants in the exhibition space, which turns into a place for meeting and learning. This activity connects the gallery space with its geographical context, namely the 19th arrondissement of Paris. The gallery, laid out as a functional space for training participants, also presents the three Appels à Uchronistes (Calls for Uchronists) published when a call for volunteer participants is required. These posters are the only trace the project will leave behind.

¹ Uchronia (2015)

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The codes and conventions that structure public space in different geographical, cultural and political contexts are at the core of Uchronia. Each creation of Uchronia takes place with a group of people chosen (in universities, art schools…) or recruited on site (dancers and nondancers). Based on voluntary participation, Uchronia is open to all those who would like to activate a unique and collective experience in public space.

With Uchronia, we take an interest in specific human behaviour, in the multiple and singular bodies that inhabit public space.

With each creation, Uchronia begins with the observation of various physical behavior present within a city. We also pay attention to the norms and laws that define the identity of the public space that is potentially infiltrated.

Dance represents a codified, hierarchical and authoritarian system that, once confronted to public space, contrasts the accuracy and synchronized exactness of the gesture with the imprecision of the quotidian.

Starting with the observation of the behaviour in the city, Uchronia consists in creating and then having participants rehearse and perform several precise gestural protocols based on this behaviour, in public space. The gestural protocols consist in various series of simple gestures, coordinated in extremely precise and synchronized collective displacements and attitudes. They are performed in the everyday context of various areas of a given city (streets, shops, parks, public spaces, cultural centers, etc).

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To develop the project Uchronia, les gens d’Uterpan were invited in residence at micadanses Paris from September 2014 to August 2015 in collaboration with the university Paris 8. Uchronie has been invited by l’École Nationale Supérieur du Paysage de Versailles (France), by l’École Supérieure d’Art et de Design de Valence (France), by REVUELO — Dispositivo Móvil Coreográfico, Concepcion (Chili), by l’Institut Supérieur d’Art de Besançon (France), for the group show “Problèmes de type grec” at La Galerie, centre for contemporary art of Noisy-le-Sec (France).