The Parc Saint Léger Centre of Contemporary Art’s mission is to produce and spread the contemporary art. The reception of artists in residence, the programming of temporary exhibitions and interdisciplinary events make of the Parc Saint Léger a place for meetings and experiences with the art of our time. Besides the exhibition space, the art center is based on an active network of educational and cultural partners to organize exhibitions throughout the department of Nièvre: galleries of colleges, museums, Abbey Corbigny, festivals, etc. . Programming Outtdoor Project is so a way to educate a diverse audience on the entire territory sometimes isolated from artistic proposals.
Accords de Loire is a social center located in a social housing neighborhood of Nevers composed of 2038 inhabitants. This is a local structure whose members, volunteers and employees, are responsible for leading the territory with some collective actions, social and cultural. These are most often at the initiative of inhabitants of all generations. But the dynamicscan also be driven by professionals. This is the case of our partnership with the Centre of Contemporary Art of Pougues-les-Eaux, because art is not, a priori, one of the concerns of people living in the Sensitive Urban Zone (SUZ).
Since 2006, the art center and Accords de Loire are oartners to offer to residents of the Loire to Nevers a meeting with contemporary art. So, in the “At Home” project, artists came to meet the people, investing some empty apartments and working with families, showing that art can be a living experience.
Since 2007, besides the artistic operation orchestrated by the art center, educational actions toward children from 5 to 14 years are organized by the social center for making contemporary art accessible and to encourage meetings between artists and neighborhood residents (including with parents).
In 2008, the Art Centre and Social Centre wish to continue their work of sensibilization for contemporary creation by offering a much more collective approach, using the neighborhood relations and solidarity. The project developed is called “Tous nos voeux de Bords de Loire”.
It’s coming out of apartments and investing the public space that the artist Ron Haselden proposes that to the inhabitants to see from another point of view their neighborhood and their environment.
With the active participation of the latter, Ron Haselden proposes to bring a particular light to some buildings of the district, for a night of celebration.
Tous nos voeux des Bords de Loire refers to the desire of each to exist in its individuality through collective action. Each person is asked to form a wish dear to him and to transmit it through a text to the artist through a regular harvest. Writing workshops, boxes wishes, day of harvest in each building will be put in place, generating a collective dynamic.
Ron Haselden will realize from all the wishes a video designated to be projected on the evening of September 27, 2008. The wishes of the people will scroll in single file on the skyline in a game of colors, lights and rhythms. The entire population of the city of Nevers will be invited to share this moment of celebration along the Loire.
This year, the participatory work undertaken with Ron Haselden has for ambition to produce personal and social transformation with the participants, in particular:
- Change the relationship between younger and older people so that future generations learn about themselves and to live together.
- Generate awakes through artistic creation: each has a beauty, but many in the environment of this “neighborhood disqualified”, believe it’s invisible.
- Embellish the everyday life of people who live cloistered in their homes or other often younger, who believe themselves dedicated to relive the same day, without the hope that it is a different day. Take the time to reconsider his daily through the angle of attack of the artist.
- Crystallize a time lived together in the neighborhood and enter it in the collective memory.