[Three scans survive, numbered 1–3 of a seven-page printout. A passage between scans 2 and 3 is missing. The translation includes all available article text and does not reconstruct that gap. Advertisements, cookie notices and unrelated links are excluded.]
On Tuesday 19 June at 8.30 a.m., the leather-goods house invited around fifty people to discover an invigorating performance by visual artist and composer Jacopo Baboni Schilingi at the heart of the Artistes & Robots exhibition at the Grand Palais.
Rating: 4.
Founded in 1945 by a Picardy saddler who had moved to Paris, Maison Camille Fournet was taken over in the 1990s by Françoise and Jean-Luc Déchery, with an eye to the future. By inviting friends and the media to discover Artistes & Robots, an exhibition that—from kinetic to digital art—questions the relationship between creator and creation, human and machine, this elegant leather-goods brand made a strong statement about its engagement with the concerns of today and tomorrow.
Guides awaited visitors to explain the works room by room, and breakfast and a photo opportunity were arranged on the magnificent outdoor loggia overlooking Paris. The “living” highlight of this exceptional morning was Argo, devised by composer and visual artist Jacopo Baboni Schilingi with dancer Peiju Chien-Pott, principal dancer of the Martha Graham Company.
On the sumptuous staircase connecting the two parts of the exhibition, the elegant dancer begins the performance concealed in shiny latex. Her movements follow music composed by Jacopo Baboni Schilingi…
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…to bring the performance to a gentle and beautiful close, face to face with its creator. Behind its machine-like sounds, the performance, named after Ulysses’ dog, is thus rooted in the heart of what is human: breath. It is all the more astonishing because it began again every eight minutes throughout the morning—a considerable challenge for the dancer. The composer’s undertaking is equally immense, since he will retain the sensors for life and draw inspiration from his inhalations and exhalations to continue creating. Work to follow…
Yaël Hirsch. Visuals: YH.