The Tyranny of Distance
An exhibition between Esba TALM Angers and Tin Flats, Los Angeles
Conceived by Art by Translation and FLAX
Openings on Thursday, November 8, 6-9pm PST in Los Angeles and 6-9pm CET in Angers.
Curator’s walk-through at 7:30pm followed by a reading of the book, "Sydney, 1981. An Introspection for Two Voices in a Bar" written by Maxime Boidy and Pierre Paulin.
In Angers, at Galerie Thézé, TALM-Angers, 72 rue Bressigny. 49100 Angers, France Opening hours Monday-Friday 10am-6pm. Angers Website
In Los Angeles, at Tin Flats 1989 Blake Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039 Opening hours Monday - Tuesday and Friday - Saturday, 12pm-6pm. FLAX Website
With A Constructed World, Roland Baladi, Dominique Blais, Mel Bochner, Julie Fortier, David Horvitz, Sharon Kulik, David Lamelas, Emily Mast, Pierre Paulin, Joshua Schwebel, Mieko Shiomi and Art by Translation participants (FLAX residents): Lila Athanasiadou, Jasmin Blasco, Daniel Frota, Jeff Guess, Slow Reading Club. Curators: Maud Jacquin, Anna Milone, Sébastien Pluot
A day of simultaneous performances on November 10: noon-3pm in Los Angeles / 9pm-midnight in Angers. Performances by Jasmin Blasco, Daniel Frota, David Horvitz, David Lamelas. Reading of the book written by Maxime Boidy and Pierre Paulin and activation of Spatial Poem #9 by Mieko Shiomi.
In Angers, workshops by Daniel Frota on November 7, 8 and 9 and by Slow Reading Club on November 20. The workshop by Slow Reading Club is preceded by a collective reading session on the evening of November 19, 9pm-12am.
"Nutrisco & Extingo", a study day organized by the Laboratoire Art & Aliments (Julie Fortier and Fabien Vallos) on November 12, 2pm-6pm
Taking place simultaneously in Angers and Los Angeles, separated by more than 9,036.04 km, this exhibition explores the various constraints and possibilities posed by distance and the necessary translations that separation implies. This distance separating two geographical, cultural, climatic, historical and linguistic contexts engages the experience of the limits of translation, of the relationship to the other. The impossibility of “being everywhere at every time” or to “make one with someone else” can be felt as hardships. Wanting to “touch at a distance” generates a belief in the possibility of a “language of communication” that, ideally, would not be limited by the burdens of the body and the contexts of enunciation. Indeed, the wish for telepathy, teleplasty and ubiquity lies behind every modern technological invention to establish distant connections (the telegraph, the telephone, phonograph, radio, cinema, television, Internet, Skype, holograms…). These always more efficient tools are far from being ideologically neutral and materially transparent. They require to be experienced and analyzed through a politics of translation concerning their uses and the fantasies they materialize.
Also, the complex and embodied processes of translation entail the very possibility of considering the other and the reality of specific places in their singularity. Missing parts, gaps, resistances and inadequacies between people, places or languages can either be considered as losses or rather as sites for inquiry to be thought and experienced through an ethics of translation. The embodied practice of the translator (situated in terms of culture, language, gender, « race » and class) also needs to be considered when engaging with a text/object “at a distance”. Translation thus becomes a metaphor and an ethos for the very possibility of difference.
Artists in each of the sites will produce works questioning these translation issues between one language and another, one medium and another, one place and another, one body and another. The exhibition will emphasize the processes and experimentations of a community of translators, “translating” both within and between the two contexts. The works that will be developed in Angers and Los Angeles will involve repeated or evolving acts of translation, supplementation and dissemination.
The works but also the performances that will happen during the exhibition will generate translation processes, playing with the linguistic difference, the physical absence and the time laps between the two spaces.
During FLAX at Tin Flats, a series of screenings will take place in the parking lot of Tin Flats, which will be transformed into a drive-in. Each week, an artist will choose one of his/her films and a film of his/her choice - a feature, a documentary or another artist’s video - echoing his/her work. From influence to dissonance, these double features allow us to continue the discussions started in the exhibition space. Each program will be screened twice, on Mondays and Tuesdays, with a reading of the book « Sydney, 1981. An Introspection for Two Voices in a Bar » written by Maxime Boidy and Pierre Paulin.
ABOUT FLAX: FLAX (France Los Angeles Exchange) promotes mutual understanding between the diverse communities of Southern California and France through the arts. A California-based 501(c)(3) public charity FLAX is committed to collaboration, innovation, exchange, and sustainable impact. FLAX’s program offers Southern California artists and organizational partners reciprocal and collaborative opportunities with artists, curators, and cultural institutions based in France. FLAX has a strong commitment to public engagement, introducing art projects bringing together artists from various practices in collaboration with established cultural institutions. FLAX achieves its mission through three reciprocal modes of cultural exchange: FLAX Projects are large-scale art projects initiated, created, and produced by FLAX; FLAX Grants are provided to Southern California-based cultural organizations in support of France-related art projects in multiple disciplines; and FLAX Invites host France-related artists at the FLAX House in Los Angeles. FLAX Website
ABOUT TIN FLATS: Founded in 2017 by Stephen Neidich, Tin Flats is an artist-run space founded on a desire to foster artistic practice, collaboration, dialogue, exhibition, and community. Located at 1989 Blake Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039 in a former chromium-plating factory by the LA River in the Frogtown neighborhood of Los Angeles, the 10,000-square-foot building houses the studios of five artists: Conor Fields, Andrea Marie Breiling, Chandler McWilliams, Stephen Neidich, and Isabel Yellin; a communal workshop; and an artist residency in partnership with The Underground Museum. Tin Flats is also home to a 1,500-square-foot exhibition space programmed by FLAX in the fall 2018. www.tinflats.la