Cultural initiatives
Young audiences, vulnerable populations, and others
Closely tied to the commissions, exhibitions, or residencies in which they are conceived and structured, these mediation initiatives offer opportunities to engage both young and older audiences, allowing them to explore concepts and experiment with expressive techniques. The images shown here reference actions and workshops carried out as part of the public commission Mémoire en Aspe, une œuvre pour la Paix (2018–22), during a creative residency at the Vauclaire psychiatric hospital (2012–16), and on the occasion of the exhibition Aujourd’hui piscine (1998).
Aux500diables
A collective, spontaneous, and episodic artistic event, aux500diables is a movement driven by artists who embrace freedom of action, the unexpected, and diversity. With a desire to present polymorphic artistic production in alternative ways, aux500diables sets out to break free from conventional art spaces and established protocols each time it appears. First emerging in 1993 in Bordeaux, aux500diables gathered nearly 150 artists and studios across the Bordeaux metropolitan area in 1995, all connected by a dedicated bus line created for the occasion. Among its most notable events is Aujourd’hui piscine (1998), a large-scale collective exhibition that brought together around forty artists who, over two and a half months, took over two public swimming pools. This event was preceded that same year by the visual arts segment of the Carnaval des 2 Rives, which engaged no fewer than 25 community organizations, with the support of the association Bruit du frigo, to build floats, costumes, and a “Monsieur Carnaval” figure burned in front of the Grand Théâtre of Bordeaux. The most recent appearance of aux500diables took place in the summer of 2020, at the height of the pandemic. Around thirty artists each created a daring outdoor proposal, resulting in a series of forty posters displayed at tram stops along all four lines of the Bordeaux Métropole network.
