REMARKABLE AND CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS

Steve Perfect
The only photo I took captured something
of Paris for me, but doesn't have any
relevance to the meeting! (2010)

Claire Deniau writes: The Remarkable get-together in Paris was a big success. There was eight of us: Lydia, Mary, Steve, Sophie, John, and Tineke and Brigitte that we were meeting for the first time. Everybody was really involved in discussing each other’s work and I felt that the standard was quite high. It was a good feeling for me – after all this commuting to London – to have some of you coming to my city! I spent some real quality time with Mary besides the meeting. We went to the Palais de Tokyo, we had drinks and meals and Mary came to my studio. We will do it again next year and I hope that more can come!

Sophie Loss writes: An intelligent conversations around works by Lydia (love your thinking), Tineke's varnished chairs, and Brigitte, who has explored tea bags for the last ten years. Claire introduced us to a possible new video, while Mary talked about her venture into printing. (Congratulations on the residency at Camberwell). Steve's new book will open new avenues for us all. Thanks Steve.

Thanks to Claire for hosting the meeting in your beautiful apartment, and the chocolate biscuits (most of which were consumed by me).

Steve Perfect writes: It was fun to travel to Paris for the meeting, nice to see Claire in her home city and good to meet some members of the group for the first time. We had a really good meeting discussing a wide range of things starting from each of our practices. Perhaps the most fundamental form of collaboration (and one that all artists must acknowledge however un-collaborative their practice may seem) is the giving and receiving of thoughts, criticisms and ideas on each other's work. I certainly found that the case in Paris. Thanks to Claire for hosting.

Tineke Bruijnzeels writes: Two days in Paris… : blisters, two languages, excellent comments, ideas, finished work that was not work, responding to work in embryonic stages from artists just met, eye-openers, interesting points of view, ……and falling in love with the work of Gabriel Orozco in the Centre Pompidou.

We discussed the relationship between the two chairs, the mad use of varnish, being obsessive, and the use of varnish and paint.

Brigitte Ritschard writes: The meeting was interesting in spite of my language problem. I speak very little English; I understand it but have difficulty to express myself. Tineke and Claire were great helpers to translate for me whenever they could. The confrontation with the projects of the English artists questioned me on our different practices as how to approach the projects and how to advance. The discussions at Claire’s have showed Tineke and myself that in France, we often work alone, so we decided to start organising crits with other artists who live nearby.

Lydia Maria Julien writes: The crit at the forum allowed me to refine my MPhil/PhD proposal, which I am working on right now!

Mary Yacoob writes: Just to say I loved Paris! Claire was a very hospitable host, and I really enjoyed visiting her studio and talking about our art practices over lunch, and visiting a conceptual art exhibition at the Palais De Tokyo, which as Claire said is a bit like the ICA but much bigger.

The discussion in Claire’s flat was really helpful. I showed some sketches I’m doing in preparation for a series of “tall cities” etchings, and the feedback I got helped me choose which ones to go for. Also, Lydia’s comments on the panopticon drawings were very helpful.

We had some good offshoot discussions about art that came out of discussions about people’s practice. I was looking at the architecture of Paris, and it was interesting to contrast (and compare) the geometry of the Modernism of the Corbusier Foundation and the gothic stained class of Notre Dame.