The AAC (Ateliers d’Art Contemporain), a collective of collectives and local and international artists, propose to exhibit 3 evolving, collaborative, traveling, and collective installations.
Presentation of the EXPLO3 Installation (2021- ongoing)
1."EXPLO3" is an evolving, itinerant, participatory, and collaborative installation.
2.Exploration of the Latin "exploratio", meaning to examine, to investigate.
3.Exploit or Explosion – of a spectacular growth.
Intention
In the unique moment of returning to life after the period of apnea caused by the global COVID pandemic, and following the initial installation launched at the Galerie Nadar in Casablanca (Morocco), the partners of "Cubes" chose to support Explo3 across the Mediterranean. Their goal is to allow it to continue its growth and establish roots along the foundational pathways of Europe: the Charlemagne Route in Italy and the Way of St. James in Galicia, Spain (Camino Francés). Currently, Explo3, a collective of independent artist collectives, has undertaken a tour of the regions of France. After Île-de-France, Explo3 will set up in September in Nantes (Pays de la Loire) and plans to showcase its work in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in 2027.
The artists within these collectives (AAC France, Italy, and Morocco: an international collective of artists), Borgo degli Artisti from Bienno (Italy), Pataka Santiago (Spain), ADM Artistes de MĂ©nilmontant (France), and MDB (Montreuil, France), bring together contributors from 33 countries. A total of 260 artists (established, emerging, and young artists) are participating in the installation. Reacting against the globalization of thought, oblivion, and the phenomena of denial and mass manipulation of history, they are mobilizing as actor-spectators in the evolution of this collective work.
ONE constraint to reinvent a shared history: A cube measuring 20 x 20 x 20 centimeters.
Why a cube? Because a cube has 6 faces—six faces to express the six fundamental emotions cataloged by American psychologist Paul Ekman.
Our emotions have been battered by the forced social withdrawals tied to the global health context. Misidentified on a daily basis, they are blurred by past, current, or anticipated changes within our environments, in the broadest sense, for human societies and our democracies.
The created artworks operate through various methods, notably via subversion, upcycling, or the use of pre-existing materials and archives.
They all carry the fundamental question of whether or not a human community is capable of overcoming the challenge of its survival—the intimate challenge of social and political transformation.
Six faces, mirroring the theory of the six degrees of separation (1) posited by Frigyes Karinthy in 1929 and expanded by Stanley Milgram in 1967 (2)—a paradigm that has shrunk due to the use of social networks.
EXPLO3 presents itself as an open format operating within a protocol of sharing. This includes participatory creations, particularly with local youth, regardless of the territory or dominant idiom.
The Narrative
The creation of this shared narrative is defined in reaction to the predicted collapse of our societies, an amnesia regarding our histories, subjugation by feudal and capitalist principles or warmongering ideologies, and the mass extinction of species.
From these narratives emerge new concepts such as "solastalgia," defined by Martin Hirsch (3). Unlike the notion of a country that one leaves behind, solastalgia is rooted in the concept of a country leaving us, for multiple reasons, but primarily due to environmental chaos. Glenn Albrecht (4) defines solastalgia as a state of mind...
"...which induces a diverse set of emotions, ranging from anger to sadness, from guilt to a feeling of helplessness or disgust, flirting with registers of apathy or, on the contrary, a need for action. As a healthy response to the evolution of the world, this trend is even experienced in an adaptive way. The pain felt could give rise to a form of rebirth, since it leads to mourning a certain vision of the future and pushes us to reinvent our imaginations, our aspirations, our desires, and our hopes. ... the disaster clock has not yet struck." (5)
(1) Theory established by the Hungarian Frigyes Karinthy, which suggests that any person on the globe can be connected to any other through a chain of individual relationships containing at most five links.
(2) The "small-world" study, known as the "Milgram paradox," 1967.
(3) "Les solastalgiques", Stock, 2023.
(4) "Earth Emotions", Les Liens qui Libèrent, 2020. Glenn Albrecht is an environmental philosopher. He focuses on the relationship between ecosystems and human health on both theoretical and applied levels.
(5) "Solastalgie", Isabelle de Maison Rouge, independent curator, 2023.
Partners
Ostende 44 (Nantes), Le Musée de l’Imprimerie (Nantes), MDB (Montreuil), La Galerie Menil8 (Paris) France; La Galerie BlackBox in A Coruña (Galicia), the City of Sarria (Galicia) Spain; the City of Bienno (Lombardy), the City of Darfo Boario Terme (Lombardy), the City of Iseo BS (Lombardy) Italy; the Locar Arte in Cammino association (Lombardy) Italy, the Borgo degli Artisti association, Fondazione l’Arsenale (Brescia BS, Lombardy) Italy; Galerie Nadar Casablanca (Morocco).
Collectives
AAC France, AAC Italy, AAC Maroc, Borgo degli Artisti, Pataka Santiago, ADM Artistes de MĂ©nilmontant, MDB Montreuil, Luna (Nantes).
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Artistic Team
Anne-Michelle Vrillet – Installation painter & curator (President of AAC), Barbara Crimella – Installation sculptor & curator (AAC Italy), Zine El Abidine El Amine – Visual artist (AAC Maroc), Marie SK – Visual artist (ADM), Daniela Gambolo (Borgo degli Artisti and participatory workshops in Italy), Olivier Fremont – Sculptor (Facilitator, Nantes)
LINKS
Non-exhaustive list of contributing artists for Explo3: https://www.aac-idf.com/2024/04/les-partenaires.html
Past Showcases
The traveling installation began at the Galerie Nadar (the first gallery opened in the Maghreb by Madame LaĂŻla Faraoui) in collaboration with Madame Assia Faraoui and the artist Zine El Abidine El Amine (2021). Following three showcases in Italy (Bienno, Darfo Boario Terme, and at the Castello Oldofredi in Lombardy) under the aegis of LOCAR and organized by artists Barbara Crimella and Daniela Gambolo (2022/2023), it became the centerpiece of the 12th Sarria Biennale (Lugo) before being exhibited at the BlackBox Gallery (Galicia) in Spain (2023/2024). It was then shown in Paris during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Galerie Menil8, and during the winter of 2024/2025 at the MDB space in Montreuil.
To date, 260 artists (established, emerging, and young artists) from 37_ countries are participating in this project: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Brazil, Canada, China, Chile, Cuba, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Moldavia, Morocco, Oman, Peru, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, ThaĂŻland,Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay, and the USA.