Interview with the artists Akay & Olabo of Toxoplasma for Bric-à-brac

The exhibition brings together heterogeneous processes and works. It developed organically through a chain of invitations: from the 19, Crac to the Besançon-based association Juste Ici as part of the 12th edition of their Bien Urbain festival; from Juste Ici to the Swedish artist duo Akay and Olabo, who later became Toxoplasma; from Toxoplasma to the many facets of the local territory, and finally to the visitors themselves…

In these interviews, the artists look back on the birth of their collaboration, the development of the bric-à-brac concept, and immerse us in their worlds, where poetry and subversion transform forgotten spaces.

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Exhibition produced with the support of the Recyclerie des Forges and in partnership with Jaquautau.

Photo credit: Bric-à-brac © Le 19, Crac

Interview with Kelly Weiss as part of her exhibition À votre contact, se confondre [At your contact, blending in]

Kelly Weiss’s practice spans sculpture, space, installation, and performance. In her works, she incorporates reclaimed industrial materials such as truck tarpaulins, sheets, pallets, and rust extracted from altered metal elements, creating site-specific painterly projects that engage in dialogue with the spaces in which they unfold.

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“My environment and my practice permeate one another; most of my pieces are intended to integrate into the context in which they are installed, or at least to reflect it. It is through a dialogue with the site that they unfold part of their meaning. Through subtle interventions filled with minute details, and tangible images/modules, I seek to give my work a presence and an ambiguous materiality that questions its own framework.”

Duration: 2:50 minutes
Photo credit: À votre contact, se confondre © 19, Crac - Angélique Pichon

Interview with Ricardo Basbaum as part of his exhibition AH! OH!

An artist whose practice explores how art can function both as a platform and as a mediator to articulate sensory experience, sociability, and language. His works often invite viewers to take action by responding to systems of symbols, rules embedded in scripts, the reading of scores and diagrams, or the activation of games.

Since the late 1980s, he has developed a specific vocabulary for his work, which he applies in a distinct way to each new project. This is NBP [New Bases for Personality], which explores the full complexity of subjectivity. The beginning of this project coincided with the end of the military dictatorship in Brazil and the rise of globalization. Composed of words and lines, his wall diagrams can be understood as drawings, visual poems that simultaneously evoke images, actions, and relationships. The diagram acts as a connector, mediator, and activator between the artwork, the space, and the viewer’s subjectivity. NBP is also activated through the production of installations, videos, sound performances, and urban interventions.

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“AH! OH! When entering the gallery space, two large words are immediately visible: the two interjections, accompanied by exclamation marks, project a sound into the space when read. The presence of these two large words contributes to activating the installation as a whole.”

Duration: 2:48 minutes
Photo credit: AH ! OH ! © Le 19, Crac - Angélique Pichon

Guest at the 19 is a podcast produced by *Duu Radio in partnership with 19 Crac, Centre régional d’art contemporain de Montbéliard.

This episode tells the story not just of an event, but of a territory in motion, where links are created and woven over time. It’s a project led by le 19, Crac and the Pourquoi Pas ?! collective, at the request of the Centre socio-cultuelle la Lizaine. Anchored in the dynamics of Pays de Montbéliard Capitale Française de la Culture 2024, Bons baisers de Bethoncourt brings together art, Bethoncourt residents and common spaces. The story you’re about to hear was told at several meetings and gatherings in April, July and October 2024. It recounts the various episodes that the participants went through up to the revelation of the final work: a modular installation on which the children of the leisure center and their families will now be able to sunbathe.

Le 19 Crac would like to thank the speakers and the entire Pourquoi Pas? team: Marie Gresset, project manager, designer, Etienne Fressonnet, project manager, architect Diplomé d’Etat (D.E. ), Lucie Bulot, project manager, architect, Adrien Apoteker, project manager, architect DE and carpenter, Luce Renaud, intern, architecture student at Grenoble National School of Architecture (ENSAG), Marianne Reymond, intern, student at ENSAL and Laura Depussay, coordinator, as well as Nadia Aitkins (director), Annie Lautissier (co-president) and Nelly Bresson (family referent) of the association La Lizaine. We also salute the partners of the Neolia housing company, Stephane Legain and Kamel Gharbi, and the services of the Town of Bethoncourt. The artists and 19, Crac would particularly like to thank the local residents who helped make the project a reality.

Listen to the programme here

A residency carried out with the Centre socio-culturel La Lizaine and the residents of Bethoncourt, which has been designated Pays de Montbéliard Capitale française de la culture 2024.

Duration: 11 min
Production and editing: Morgane Charles
Mixing: Post-Production: Morgane Charles and Ariel Nisand
Photo credit: Angélique Pichon / Le 19, Crac.

A look back at
the concert-restitution co-conceived with the Conservatoire du Pays de Montbéliard. Students in the Conservatoire’s “Sound Exploration around Tierkreis” module, coordinated by Keiko Murakami, explore contemporary music and experiment with the musical materials of American composer Kurt Rohde. Based on the opera Newtown Odyssey he composed with artist Marie Lorenz, the young musicians in turn developed short arrangements linked to the exhibition.

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