Square Meters

Dans cet épisode, Square Metres présente l'École Kourtrajmé de Dakar. A l'initiative des réalisateurs Kim Chapiron, Toumani Sangaré et Romain Gavras, le collectif Kourtrajmé (du verlan de court-métrage) réunit une centaine d'artistes issus de domaines artistiques variés : réalisateurs, acteurs, auteurs, chanteurs, dj's et photographes. Depuis 2022, l'école a ouvert un nouveau site à Dakar. Dans cet épisode bonus, nous avons interviewé Emma Sangaré, scénariste, productrice et co-directrice de ce nouveau pôle pédagogique d'initiation aux métiers du cinéma.

Dans cet épisode, Square Metres présente Espace Trames. Fondé en 2018, l'Espace Trames est plus qu'un espace artistique et culturel. Créé dans le but de soutenir la création artistique contemporaine, à travers des projets d'exposition, des résidences et des événements culturels, cet espace est la trace d'une ambition réussie : celle de s'inscrire dans une dynamique artistique, au sein d'une ville en pleine effervescence.

Dans cet épisode, Square Metres présente Serena Cinquegrana, directrice de l'Institut Culturel italien de Dakar, un lieu de rencontre et de dialogue pour les artistes et les intellectuels, pour les Italiens à l'étranger et pour tous ceux qui souhaitent cultiver un rapport avec l'Italie.

Dans cet épisode, Square Metres présente Cheikha Sigil, designer et directeur artistique d'Espace Médina, un espace collectif dédié à la liberté artistique, où l'art se confond avec la vie, l'art qui vient du langage de la rue et de l'esprit vagabond.

Le deuxième episode de Square Meters - Special Dakar présente Océane Harati, fondatrice et directrice de OH Gallery à Dakar. Nichée au cœur du Plateau, centre historique de la ville de Dakar, se trouve OH Gallery, lieu inédit pour l'art et la création contemporaine. La galerie accueille des expositions monographiques et collectives ainsi qu'un programme hors les murs allant à la rencontre des publics.

Le premier épisode de cette troisième saison ''Spécial Dakar'' s'ouvre tout naturellement avec le grand Mauro Petroni, artiste céramiste et l'un des fondateurs de la programmation OFF de la Biennale de Dakar ainsi que du Partcours, une organisation regroupante une trentaine d'espaces artistiques dans la ville qui s'illustre par une manifestation annuelle au mois de décembre, initiée en 2012 et aujourd'hui devenu de plus en plus célèbre. Italien d'origine, en 40 ans à Dakar, Mauro Petroni a vu avec esprit et enthousiasme la ville changer, évoluer et se transformer.

Bonjour et bienvenue dans une nouvelle saison du podcast Square Meters. Cette saison est un peu différente : déjà, vous pouvez m'entendre parler timidement français ; ensuite, elle se déroule à Dakar, au Sénégal, lors de la Biennale de 2022. Le bruit du trafic de la ville, des travaux qui ne s'arrêtent jamais ou des voix en arrière-plan, les pauses et la spontanéité du dialogue font tous partie des échanges uniques que j'ai eus. Car cette fois ci, les mètres carrés qu'on decouvre à l'écoute sont ceux qu'animent certains acteurs locaux de la ville à travers différents projets artistiques – et pas seulement pendant la Biennale. Lors de mon voyage à Dakar, je voulais rencontrer et parler avec des gens qui y habitent, qui voient la ville changer, se transformer et se modeler. Je voulais comprendre à travers leurs yeux ce que cela signifie de participer à la vie culturelle de cette ville, ainsi qu'au programme OFF de la biennale.Comment perçoivent-ils cet événement d'envergure internationale ? Quel est leur regard, leur opinion, sur cet événement unique ?En quatre jours, j'ai frappé à de nombreuses portes. Pas assez, en vérité, pour comprendre réellement la scène artistique de Dakar. Mais néanmoins, chaque personne rencontrée a pu me donner un aperçu de ce qui semble être une scène artistique inouï, incontournable, rare. Je tiens à les remercier de m'avoir accordé leur temps précieux, entre les montages et les interviews.Je tiens également à remercier l'hôtel Terrou-Bi, sans qui ce voyage n'aurait pas été possible. Anna et Jo Rahal, à qui je suis extrêmement reconnaissant pour leur soutien, et à Think & Do International, un autre allié précieux de ce projet.Square Meters est disponible sur toutes les plateformes.Pour en savoir plus, consultez le site theroomprojects.com

Depuis ses premiers pas à l'École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris dans l'atelier d'Emmanuel Saunier, François Bianco compose des assemblages qui mettent en relation différents matériaux. Que ce soit de la pierre, du ciment, du métal, des sons ou des images, il entretient toujours un rapport poétique avec eux, et pratique toujours la suggestion plutôt que l'affirmation. La notion de fragment est omniprésente chez lui. - Anaël PigeatNé en 1985, François Bianco travaille à Arcueil, France.

Elsa Brès (b. 1985) graduated from Le Fresnoy national studio of contemporary art (2017) & Paris-Belleville school of architecture (2012) -where she teached architecture and landscape theory.Her films and installations focus on forces of resistance in contemporary landscapes.Talking about her workplace, Elsa Brès says: "All the collaborative aspects of my work design different spaces". She lives and works between Les Cévennes (Bréau) and Paris.

Antoine Donzeaud (born 1985 in Vitry-sur-Seine, FR) is a visual artist based in Paris, France. His practice explores both social and physical structures in contemporary society with regards to architecture and space, identity and community.Talking about his workplace Antoine Donzeaud says "It's a balance between mind space and physical space".

Laura Dondoli studied Fashion Design in Florence. Since 2008 she has been creating and curating costumes for theatre and live arts. She currently works as a freelancer in Italy and abroad. Talking about her studio she says "Creation is a lonely place [...] a silent and quiet space".

Antoine Renard is a visual artist living and working in Paris, France. He mainly practices sculpture, drawing and installation, his plastic language develops around issues related to adolescence, the body, intoxication and transformation. Talking about his workplace Antoine Renard says “I want my studio to be my laboratory”.

This episode features Arash Hanaei, visual artist from Tehran. Arash Hanaei lives and works between Paris and Tehran. After studying photography at Azad University of Tehran he developed his practice combining different mediums and techniques. Talking about his workplace Arash Hanaei says “A suburb is an empty space for new ideas”.

Hannah Archambault was born in 1996 in the Paris suburbs to a Polish mother and a French father. She studied photography at the Gobelins before joining the Royal College of Art in London where she is exploring sound art. Talking about her workplace Hannah Archambault says “Sound is living in the space”.

Square Meters features Nicola Lo Calzo, a photographer, queer artist and Ph.D. researcher from Italy. Nicola lives and works in Paris where he teaches photography at École nationale supérieure d'arts Paris-Cergy (ENSAPC). Trained as a heritage curator at the Polytechnic University of Turin, he shifted to photography in 2008. His photographic practice and research are attentive to questions surrounding heritage, coloniality, and identity.

Nelson Pernisco's work has to be explored the way we would approach the third-places he makes his own; seen as a space of free indiscipline where critical thinking breads new utopias. From urban squats to industrial wastelands, the visual artist took it upon himself to discover the various means of occupying territories, of constructing housings, and the way they act as a catalyst for political orders. His aesthetic is dry and in some way, brutalist. He relies on recycling poor and recovered materials, presented as touchstones of a world that may already be in ruins, and is at best under never-ending construction.

LaTurbo Avedon is an avatar and artist, working solely from the Internet. Their work emphasizes the practice of nonphysical identity and authorship. Over the past ten years they have explored the growing relationship between users and virtual environments. They create this body of work using the simulation tools of the current moment.

Italian director and performer from Treviso (Italy), Silvia Costa proposes a visual and poetic theatre nourished by a deep reflection on images. Alternating roles as writer, director, interpreter, and set designer, this protean artist crosses different aesthetic fields in a personal exploration of Theatre. Her creations are regularly presented in major Italian and international festivals.

Square Meters starts the second season welcoming the listeners into the studio of Thomas Sauvin, author of the project Beijing Silvermine. Since 2009, the French collector and artist Thomas Sauvin has salvaged discarded negatives from a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing, negatives that were destined to destruction. His Beijing Silvermine archive, one of the largest archival projects in China, now encompasses over 850000 anonymous photographs spanning the period from 1985 to 2005, thus allowing the reconstruction of a large part of the history of popular analogue photography in the country.

Square Meters is a sneak peek art culture podcast hosted by Alessandra Chiericato and produced by The Room Projects. In this second season, Alessandra introduces the listeners into the studio of nowadays artists and authors. From the description of their actual workplace to the designation of a potential one, the podcast offers a unique perspective from some of the most interesting people in the visual art scene, music, theatre, and art critic.

Square Meters ends its first season with a focus on The Room Projects. Talking about The Encyclopaedic Palace curated by Massimiliano Gioni, the role played by images in our research and curatorial practice, to finish with some thoughts around this podcast, Alessandra Chiericato lets you peek in our Room. This episode has been recorded at The Room Projects' office located at VOLTAIRE, a shared workplace in the 11th neighborhood of Paris, France.

The seventh episode of Square Meters features the Spanish visual artist María Tinaut. Her artistic journey began as an abstract painter until she was admitted to the Fine Art faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University. There, she started experimenting with mediums, questioning herself about photography and reproduction. Starting with the description of her personal photocopy archive that she travels with since the American days, talking about the color blue has a source of constant inspiration, to finish with some thoughts around the role of art and culture in pandemic times, María lets us peek into her creative mind. This episode was recorded at her Atelier located in Studio Buena Vista, in a small village nearby Valencia, Spain. 

The sixth episode of SQUARE METERS features the French Caribbean painter Alexandre Lenoir. After a life-changing experience in Casablanca, Alexandre found himself questioning his personal approach to painting in relation to his position in contemporary art. Starting by introducing Garance, one of his most inspiring collaborators, talking about the influence of people's energy in his practice, to finish with the research of his true self while “digging” into the painting, Alexandre lets us peek into his creative mind. This episode was recorded at his Atelier located at PADAF, in the southern suburbs of Paris, France.

The fifth episode of SQUARE METERS features the writer and visual artist Adrien Van Melle as its guest. For him, everything starts from a simple $1 notebook, in which a fragment of a conversation or a short story creates suggestions for a possible installation. Talking about an old mobile phone, about an orange chair stacked in a corner of his Parisian studio, to finish with the story behind a very cheap notebook, Adrien lets us peek into his creative mind. This episode has been recorded at his Atelier located at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France.

The fourth episode of SQUARE METERS features the painter Dorian Cohen. Born in Paris in 1987, Dorian's practice started with influences coming from public spaces, architecture, and urbanism. Looking for the juxtaposition between the beauty and the unsightly, the artist tries to reveal the pictorial potential of ordinary life through the codes of the classical figurative tradition. To start with the comparison of the white canvas to an unwritten page, then speaking about the use of red as a color to emphasize theatricality in paintings, to finish with the description of a big canvas he is preparing for his first solo show in Paris, Dorian lets us peek into his creative mind. This episode has been recorded at his Atelier located at Villa Mais d'Ici in Aubervilliers, in the northern suburbs of Paris (France).

The third episode of SQUARE METERS features French painter Rebecca Brodskis. Born in France in 1988, Rebecca's childhood was spent mostly traveling around the world. Her nomadic lifestyle has greatly influenced her practice, which led her to a deep fascination for human beings. Talking about the employment of an old Renaissance technique to prime the canvases, passing by the encounters she has during her daily commutes, to finish with the imminent relocation to Marseille to seek new vibrant inspirations, Rebecca lets us peek into her creative mind. This episode has been recorded at her atelier located at 6B in Saint-Denis, France.

The second episode of SQUARE METERS features sound artist Nicola Ratti. Born in Milano in 1978, Nicola has been active for years in the experimental fields. Since May 2015, he has been one of the founders and curators at Standards, an experimental sound research gallery located in Milano. Today he works as a musician, as sound director and sound technician with Romeo Castellucci–Socìetas, and as musician and sound designer with Silvia Costa. Talking about his first approach to music through cheap and basic materials, about sound's physicality as a form of inspiration itself, and the collective prospectives in pandemic times, Nicola lets us peek into his personal soundscape. This episode has been recorded in June 2020 at his studio located at STANDARDS, in the north of Milan, Italy.

The first episode of 'Square Meters' features the ceramic artist King Houndekpinkou as its first guest. Born in Montreuil in 1987, King's childhood in the suburbs of Paris was greatly influenced by the Japanese pop culture of the 90s, which led him to develop a fascination for Japan during his teenage years. For King, ceramics stood as a revealing material of the spiritual bond existing between the West African and Japanese cultures. This epiphanic discovery changed the course of his life and after three years of training and self-taught practices, he decided to dedicate his life to ceramics as an artist. Talking about his gold luster technique, his admiration for the legendary ceramic artist George Ohr [1857-1918], and the power of linage, King lets us peek into his creative mind. This episode has been recorded in February 2020 at his Atelier located at PADAF, in the Southern suburbs of Paris, France.