 Floating Bowl 2003 Floating Land is a "sovereign independent micro nation created for the presentation of contemporary arts, based on the issues of self-management, networks, survival, defence and the nomadic lifestyle." Sophie Dejode & Bertrand Lacombe have been developing the idea of this autonomous territory, which takes the form of a mobile floating island suitable for various types of water, since 2000. Floating Bowl is the name of the event organised by Dejode & Lacombe in the context of Floating Land, for which they have invited other artists to collaborate on the creation of a self-formulated system. Floating Land is designed as a convivial living space for an artists' collective.
Accordingly, Dejode & Lacombe have invited fourteen other artists - or artistic duos like themselves - to take part in the exhibition at attitudes: Virginie Barré, Sophie Bueno, Xavier Chevalier, Aïcha Hamu, L/B, Stéphane Magnin & Emilie Maltaverne, Arnaud Maguet, Olivier Millagou, Petra Mrzyk & Jean-François Moriceau, Naoko Okamoto, Bruno Peinado, Niels Trannois, Thierry Xavier, Shingo Yoshida. They chose them as much for their artistic, as for their personal affinities. Yet their objectives push them in two directions at once: first of all, the invited artists will create in a territory designed by Dejode & Lacombe, and will all temporarily share the nationality of 'Floating Lander' which gives a communal character to the exhibition. Secondly, Dejode & Lacombe pour oil on the flames of the unspoken rivalry which animates the microcosm of the contemporary art scene, by organising a mini-motorbike competition in which the competitors will be the artists showing in the exhibition. Each rider will personalise the body-work of his bike before the race. The competition has no pre-set rules. A jury composed of art critics and representatives of artistic institutions will decide on the criteria by which the winner or the winners will be decided. Free reign is thus given to speeding, tricks, style, look, ganging up, cheating, elegance, humour…
After the competition Dejode & Lacombe will create Robot Force, a sculpture representing a post human figure to be made out of the different motor bikes designed by the artists for the race. This work will then takes its place in the crowded exhibition space, which is already occupied by a wooden mountain which can be entered into, a submarine made out of a VW bus, as well as a welcome unit made from an individual bunker and an industrial vat. Most of the Floating Bowl artists were born in the seventies, are French, but don't live in Paris, and have often shown together. Some of them already have a rich and established body of work, while others are artistically young. On a general level, they all feed abundantly on popular culture (cinema, music, comic books, video games, graphic design) and derive many of their references from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Their art is often centred around citation, appropriation, mixing and re-mixing. Some, like Stéphane Magnin and Dejode & Lacombe, occasionally occupy the role of gatherer/catalyst - rather than curator - of projects. The group of artists formed in Floating Bowl provides an interesting panorama of young, contemporary art in France, be this in terms of their cultural references, working practice, or personal and artistic networks. The number 12 of the attitudes journal has a special quality to it. The pages referring to Floating Bowl not only present contributions from all of the artists, but they are also crossed by fragments of road. Dejode & Lacombe have designed the pages so that if you collect two copies of the journal, you will be able to compose an original poster measuring 97.5 x 138 cm, which forms the special edition for this exhibition. Jean-Paul Felley & Olivier Kaeser The Floating Bowl exhibition is supported by AFAA (Association Française d'Action Artistique), the City of Lyon and a generous donator. Our thanks also go to Choisy Hifi, JF Diffusion, the Avola carpentry at Saint-Martin-en-Bellevue and the Cneai of Chatou. For the 2003 programme, attitudes is supported by the Swiss Federal Office for Culture, Migros Cultural Percent and the Rampini Constructions company. The daily newspaper Le Temps and Imaginer Software - the alternative data processing are partners of attitudes. You can also bring your support to attitudes' activities and receive the attitudes journal by joining the friends of attitudes association.
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