Groupe Mobile Villa Vassileff
On Display by Iris Haeussler:
A video walk-through behind the scene of her project Sophie La Rosière, showing parts of the artistic process happening in the studio. The camera scans over paintings, drawings and peeks into hidden corners. At the conclusion one sees a simple document illustrating the life and story of Sophie La Rosière. This document, a chronology, was initially developed by Iris Häussler and curator Catherine Sicot as a tool to communicate with project participants, to highlight the relation between real historic facts and the fictional story of the project. (This Chronology is also on view for visitors as a print-out in the exhibition.)
Groupe Mobile exhibition at Villa Vassilief
A former carpenter who turned to photography after the First World War, Marc Vaux would wander around artists' studios of Montparnasse with his camera, eventually producing more than 250,000 glass plates between 1930 and 1970. Groupe Mobile, Villa Vassilieff's first project, explores Marc Vaux's collection, kept at the Centre Pompidou, and aims, in conjunction with contemporary artists and scholars, to re-examine these photographs, the context of their production and their related historical narratives.
Rather than seek to outline an objective and definitive history, the exhibition focuses on the investigative processes used to create these narratives, and illustrates the mission of an institution dedicated to set art history into motion. Villa Vassilieff hopes to both recount and encourage relations between artists and the development of ideas fundamentally at odds with a Eurocentric and homogenous approach to modernity.
About Villa Vassilieff
Villa Vassilieff, a new cultural institution owned by the City of Paris, is located in the heart of Montparnasse, on the site of Marie Vassilieff's former studio, which until 2013 housed the Musée du Montparnasse. It is managed by Bétonsalon – Center for Art and Research, which is opening its second site in Paris. Designed as both a place to work and to live, its aim is to simultaneously stimulate the development of ideas and the sharing of knowledge.
Villa Vassilieff possesses outstanding cultural and social heritage that spans over a century. Today, it intends to revive the spirit of this place by inviting artists and researchers to develop contemporary works, inspired by the unique past and present resources of the Montparnasse neighbourhood. With a varied programme of exhibitions, seminars, workshops, screenings and encounters of all kinds, Villa Vassilieff strives to shake up art's position in society by questioning the role and use of heritage.
In partnership with Pernod Ricard, the leading sponsor and creator of the Pernod Ricard Fellowship, Villa Vassilieff will welcome and support four international artists, curators and researchers in residence every year. Andrea Ancira, a Mexican independent researcher and curator, will be the first Pernod Ricard Fellow to work at Villa Vassilieff from February to May 2016.
The project of Villa Vassilieff was made possible thanks to the support of both public and private partners, notably Ville de Paris, région Ile-de-France and Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques. Pernod Ricard is Villa Vassilieff's leading sponsor.