D — Frac île-de-france, le château / Parc culturel de Rentilly - Michel Chartier — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: September 20 → December 22, 2019

Le frac île-de-france is holding for the 2nd time an exhibition with works from its collection at the Château de Rentilly), where the selection of works is left purely to chance: a random draw (via a plugin on the frac website) has taken place from 5 to 24 March, to choose a letter from the alphabet determining the artists to be exhibited. The ‘winning’ letter is ‘D’: all artists in the collection whose name begins with ‘D’ are part of the exhibition and all their works will systematically be exhibited.

Following the exhibition L which took place from September 2018 to February2019, the project is consistent with the approach to the collection fostering experimentation — while at the same time respecting the works and artists involved — in particular through a both fun and conceptual approach.

Reflecting past exhibitions, whether at the Plateau or Château, along with historical exhibitions — from Surrealists, Fluxus to more recent proposals from Bertrand Lavier or Bob Nickas –, there is a predefined rule or protocol here that must be rigorously and religiously adhered to.

As a result, whereas the true stance of an exhibition is generally determined through the selection of works, in this exhibition a predetermined principle is set in motion leaving no room for any subjective choices. From another point of view, it is something truly arbitrary, the rule that is defined largely governs the next steps…

Beyond this apparent paradox, the exhibition and this stance enable works to be exhibited and compared on a completely new level.

Detached from any pre-existing or predominant theme, they appear de facto in perfect autonomy. That’s the real objective: to introduce works from the collection in their integrity, for what they are, without any preconceptions or bias.