Summary
In order to question and make visible the situation of research inherent to the realization of an artistic project, the backroom was invited to be part of Société Anonyme , a group exhibition held in Paris.
Société Anonyme was an experimental situation inviting 10 guests (artists, collectives and artistic structures) operating in different cities of the world, to provisionally anchor in Le Plateau, Paris, in order to initiate research and projects during a two-month exhibition run. During the two months, the exhibition will be an intense program of workshops, lectures and seminars, organized by the guests and the team of Société Anonyme, in constant collaboration with Paris-based artists and theoreticians.
Throughout the duration of the project, the backroom archive was constantly updated with new contributions. In addition, a series of projects and presentations were also held including:
Walead Beshty's Twenty-Four Hours Screening of Films Addressing the Armageddon
Including Omega Man (1971), The Day After (1983), and The Day of the Triffids (1962), in this series of films selected and presented by artist Walead Beshty, the disaster scenarios depicting the apocalyptic imaginary of the Cold War and the fear of a nuclear holocaust frequently stand as a metaphor of social change and, particularly, of the alienation of American urban and suburban condition of the 1960’s and 70’s.
Artist Talk and Screening by John Menick
Artist, filmmaker, and writer John Menick screened his short video The Secret Life of Things(2006), a work in which an unidentified man describes his fixation with "last person on earth" films - films in which a single person awakens to find that he or she is the sole living inhabitant of a city.
After the short screening Menick discussed his research into 'last man on earth' and apocalyptic films, showing clips from source material and talking about the work's relation to his previous video projects and writings.
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Artist Talk by Aurélien Froment
The man who saw the man who saw the man who saw the bear
Chinese whispers, broken lines and second-hand stories
Aurélien Froment attempting to arrange his archives.