Objects designed and manufactured by four incarcerated men
With Alexandra Caunes and Julio Bescos (Topotrope), visual artists
Creation time carried out over 3 consecutive days on site in October 2020 then remotely in November-December 2020
Restitution soon to come
Intervention carried by Stimultania.
Support by the DRAC Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region and the SPIP of the Villefranche-sur-Saône prison as part of the Culture / justice program.
For this new intervention at the Villefranche-sur-Saône prison, the collective of plastic artists Topotrope (Alexandra Caunes and Julio Bescos) are thinking of a project that combines photography and design. They propose to manufacture objects, useful since they were designed to fit into cells, but also intimate and poetic: inside the object hides an interior space, an ideal landscape visible through an eyecup system.
October 2020, four men are present and are fully involved in the design and the start of the manufacture of their personal object. Three intense and productive days which will unfortunately remain the only ones in person: the intervention undergoes a sudden stop, new confinement, the Remand Center closes these doors. There were three days of creation left ...
A little stunned, the artists quickly recover the objects in progress. There is no question of stopping the project like this. By setting up a correspondence, the men will be able to continue to participate in the project. A notebook is sent to each participant inviting them to write down their instructions to finish the object and describe their interior space. Of the four participants, two will return their completed notebooks. The instructions are precise, complete. The description of the interior spaces are almost poems ...
Then comes the phases of realization of the objects, then of photographic situation. As the health situation does not improve, these phases will take place outside. Time stretches out. Funny period. Thus, artists adapt, invent and finally choose to produce photomontages to inscribe objects within cell images collected on the net. A way of emphasizing distance, but also of confirming the correct conception of these objects which fit perfectly into the spaces.
The last step is in the production of the book which traces this experience in twists and turns, witness to the existence of these unique fabrications.
Alexandra Caunes and Julio Bescos founds the collective Topotropic based in Saint-Étienne in 2008. Topotrope is a laboratory for “exploration of the interstitial space between words and their images”. Their work is interested in everyday objects, in peri-urban landscapes. From their images, they construct heterogeneous stories and representations. Topotrope was called upon for several artist / public creation projects: Givors was a tie knot in 2016 in schools and associations in Givors; in 2017 The gesture in the opposite direction with the first Bac-pro personal service at the Maison Familiale Rurale de Saint-Chamond (42).
To listen : interview with Alexandra Caunes as part of the podcast Covid 19, memories and horizons of artists, produced by Stimultania in 2020.
