Fais-Le Toi-Même Si T’es Pas Content
(Do It Yourself If You’re Not Happy)
Curated by Stéphane Prigent

And the artists (in no particular order) Agnés Beuneux, Olivier Allemane, KARA, Pascal Doury, Captain Cavern, Sébastien Morlighem, Jean-Kristau, Adrien Gentil, Romaric Sobac, Jeanne Boyer, Jacques Noël, Marie Noël, Aurélie Carlier, Grégoire Charbey, Lucille Desamory, Hendrik Hegray, Alison Hegray, Kerozen, Frédéric Poincelet, Donato Di Nunno, Anne-Fred Maurer, Jérémie Grandsenne, Sébastien Nicolini, Julien Carreyn, 
Anne-Laure Draisey, Eva Revox, Adeline & Émilie Demarquay, Frédéric Fleury, Emmanuelle Pidoux, Eric Pougeau, Isabelle Boinot, Laetitia Gendre, 
Antoine Marquis, Jean-François Karst, Eugénie Lavenant, Franky Ravi, Benoît Billoud, Nicolas Guiet, Guillaume Navaud, Isabelle Cornaro, Simon de la Porte, Tony Papin, Jonas Delaborde, Tarsila, Kiki Fruit, Michel Wisniewski, Christian Aubrun, Plancton 9, Thomas Bernard, Grégory Wagenheim, Nicolas Muller, Mehdi Hercberg, Minalala, Hector de la Vallée, David Douard, Guillaumit, Andy Bolus, Amandine Meyer, Laurent Plessier, Romain Perrot, Yu Matsuoka, Vanessa Dziuba, Andrés Ramirez, Ludovic Boulard Le Fur, Julie Redon, Séverine Gorlier, Stéphane Argillet, Bori Son, Denis Knepper, Nicolas Nagamoto, Toffe, Baudouin Marnez, Carine Tarin, José-Maria Gonzales, Simon De La Porte, HOTU, Massimiliano Bomba, Leomi Sadler, Yannick Val Gesto, Vladimir Besson, Jean-Philippe Bretin, Antoine Orand, Gabriel Prigent, Frédéric Madre, Timothée Comte, Apollo Thomas, Hélène Jeudy, Olivier Pigassou, Julien Meert, Christian Gfeller, Tetsunori Tawaraya, Paul Bonnet, Zofie Taueber, Etienne Vergier/Matteo Verzini et Chloé Julien.

Guest artist for an original installation: P.E.S.*.

“Machines now rule the world. […] Only artists have the power to save humanity from this danger. It is up to artists to abandon the dusty romanticism of the brush, the palette, the canvas, and the stretcher, and to take an interest in machines. […] By understanding the true nature of machines, we can divert their meaning. […] The machine must become a work of art!”

For several years now, once a year 19, Crac has invited one or more curators with deliberately unexpected profiles and points of view to take over the art centre with an artistic project, thus affirming the experimental dimension of the venue, its capacity for shared authorship and its interest in all forms of contemporary creation.

In 2023, Fais-Le Toi-Même Si T’es Pas Content is the title of the exhibition curated by Stéphane Prigent. It is also the name of his micro-publishing house, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Abbreviated most of the time in F.L.T.M.S.T.P.C., it has been publishing books, fanzines, and records since 1999. Its catalogue now includes nearly 500 publications that have disseminated the practices of artists and non-artists from a wide range of backgrounds, who have been invited to respond to the protocols and serial logics he orchestrates. Stéphane Prigent, aka Kerozen, is renowned for his frenetic activity as a drawer as well as a publisher.

In The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility the German philosopher, literary and art critic Walter Benjamin observed in 1935 the new conditions of production and reception of the artwork in the twentieth century, in connection with the advent of photography and then cinema. The context for artistic creation was radically altered in a rapidly changing industrial society. The invention of electrophotography in 1938 and xerography (photocopying) in 1947 completed Benjamin’s conclusions: while the decline of the aura and the concept of the authenticity and uniqueness of the artwork entailed potential risks of manipulation of the masses, the reproducibility of works also enabled them to become accessible to as many people as possible, encouraging an empowerment of both the means of production and reception. In his view, this democratization enables art to move from cult value to exhibition value, from ritual art to political art.

In the tradition of Do It Yourself, F.L.T.M.S.T.P.C. uses and abuses photocopying as a tool for self-publishing and as the best ally of self-distribution, given its speed of production. The choice of ‘technical reproducibility’ is also a political one, to encourage the free circulation of ideas and creations, the sharing of knowledge, the independence from institutions and the support for the artistic practices of communities of peers.

The creative and productive emulation of F.L.T.M.S.T.P.C has been invited to take over the space of Le 19, Crac with a new gesture: that of a complete archive of 25 years of publishing. Accustomed to rapid production and distribution, Stéphane Prigent is working on a new editorial proposal, then, with a retrospective panorama bringing together over 500 publications. The exhibition also offers opportunities for activation, co-construction and shared learning.

This exhibition proposal is also about confronting the art centre space with other ways of creating, on the fringes of institutional contemporary art, which nonetheless bring together a number of the issues of the day: economy of means, reproducibility of the work, short circuits, affective proximity, the logic of protocol and series, publishing as a generous vehicle for propagating creation.

The practice of micro-publishing is intriguing and is gradually becoming part of institutional exhibition and acquisition policies, but it is also shaking up conventional taxonomies. The celebration of F.L.T.M.S.T.P.C’s 25th anniversary is an opportunity to bring together and unfold this history, while at the same time questioning more generally the alternative modalities of artistic production today.

Adeline Lépine, director of 19, Crac