Mémoire de l’Avenir, a space dedicated to contemporary art, is located in Belleville, at the heart of a multi-cultural neighbourhood in Paris. The space has been designed for meetings between artists and thinkers of different social and cultural backgrounds, as well as an audience interested in the arts and their impact on contemporary society. We offer contemporary art events in our space, as well as satellite events at other cultural institutions.

In 2020, the COVID-19 health crisis has considerably impacted a part of our activity.

We had to close our exhibition space for several months, we were forced to cancel 30% of our artistic events and digitalized successfully 80% of our exhibitions and events involving artists, the general public and scholars.

Faced with the length and multiple phases of the ongoing health crisis, we developed ways of conducting remote actions. More than 50% of MDA’s educational workshops and activities have been postponed to 2021, while 70% of our cross-cultural dialogue mediations sessions, first cancelled, have been efficiently adapted to online experiences.

We had to recognise that the digital tools were not always adapted to all that make up our diverse public. Yet, we are striving to stay inclusive and accessible. Therefore, we did everything in our power to cope with situation by adapting to the technology on a case-by-case basis and by inventing new ways of pursuing the missions that are dear to us.

HAS TALKS

09/02/2021 HAS TALKS#1 : Eco-anxiété

Faced with environmental upheavals and the absolute urgency of interacting differently with the living world, awareness has grown and many responses have emerged over the last few decades – both on an individual and collective level in the form of ecological activism, eco-citizenship, eco-psychology or eco-feminism. In recent years, in France, the media has alerted us to a new phenomenon: eco-anxiety, defined as a feeling of distress, anxiety or even depression linked to the degradation of our environment.

This first edition of HAS Talks, was organised on the 9^th of February 2021 in conjunction with the second issue of HAS Magazine 02: Between Anxiety and Hope. It welcomed the choreographer Anna Chirescu, the neuroscientist Marc-Williams Debono, the artist Elsa Guillaume and psychotherapist Charline Schmerber.

20/05/2021 HAS TALKS #02 : Stones: Beliefs and Memories of the Living.

About Stones: Beliefs and Memories of the Living. It was organised in view of the release of HAS Magazine 03: Beliefs and Truths. Its aim was to better understand stones from a transdisciplinary perspective. By attempting to get beyond the traditional opposition between nature and culture, it proposed new processes and paradigms seeking a sensitive perception of nature and of living things – human and non-human alike.

It hosted the anthropologist Laurence Charlier Zeineddine, the linguist Valérie Gontero-Lauze and the artist Tiphaine Calmettes to explore the subject.

All the talks were recorded and are available on our website.

30.01.2021 THE SECRET

The discussion Le Secret was held on 30 January 2021 as part of the exhibition Sous le pli / Under Wraps by Suki Valentine presented online on the Mémoire de l’Avenir website. It is part of the interrogations that Suki Valentine has been developing for several years on the significance of secrecy – linked to the history of a country, or to the history of an individual, of his family – in the personal and collective construction.

The secret carries within it many aspects and functions. In the private sphere, if it is at times necessary as it can also go as far as to decay generations with it.  The same is true in the social, economic or political sphere… But when it turns into concealment, and is detrimental or unfavourable to the other or to society, it must be exposed. The precarious balance that it is in use, requires major democratic and political challenges, joined by that connection to the liberation of speech movements facilitated by certain public actions .

This discussion around the theme of Secret as part of a project and an exhibition of the American artist Suki Valentine; le Pli / Under wraps, currently presented online on Mémoire de l’Avenir’s website.

Find Suki Valentine’s exhibition Sous le pli / Under Wraps on our website.

EXHIBITION

The exhibition Paysages Tactiles (Tactile landscapes) is presented from May 19th to June 26th 2021. It proposes a sensorial approach to the notion of landscapes, in their physical and mental dimensions, by creating common spaces of visuals and sounds expressions, creating spaces of experiences, beyond visual restrictions. This exhibition, entirely tactile, is fully adapted to the recent sanitary restrictions, is bringing five artists together, who invite us to touch, to listen, and to see different works that all are distinctive proposals of notions of landscapes to experiment. The artists participating are: Delphine Gauly, Juliette Vivier, Marie-Claire Corbel,  Laura McCallum, Lamozé.  

Find the exhibition on our website.

EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS

Since January, a number of educational workshops have been carried out despite the organisational constraints due to the health protocol. While the access to schools has always been possible, thus guaranteeing continuity for all the workshops started at the end of the year, access to other fields of intervention was only formalised in March.

The enchanted book, led by Alexandra Di Folco and Clara Land Ezeckiel, is an extracurricular educational project. Accompanied by the visual artists, the children collectively wrote a story and made the book that contains and illustrates it. The workshop, which is aimed at primary school pupils, aims to question the place of books and the imaginary in the digital age.

Taking place at the Maison du Bas de Belleville, Danses Hybrides is a workshop designed for a group of families. The artist and dancer Alexia Martin led this intervention which was designed to work on the question of conflict and dialogue through the practice of dance. The music and dances of the Maghreb and Egypt allow us to reflect on the symbolic significance of the gaze and gestures and the messages they can convey.

Correspondances project took place at the Collège Pierre Semard in Paris under the direction of artists Fejria Deliba and Isabelle Gozard.  This action confronted the craft of handwriting with the immediacy of social networks through the performative imaging of the handwriting exercises. This approach also allowed the participants to question the notion of link, regardless of its value, whether social and civic, or sentimental.

Myriam Tirler and Alexandra Roudiere led Jour après jour, a workshop that took place at France Terre d’Asile – Villa Saint Michel, in the 18th district of Paris. During one week, the young participants imagined and built two photo novels. The photo novels capture the day-to-day trials and tribulations of these young people, their aspirations and their dreams, and show how they see themselves and their life in Paris. Through this project, they showed their passion for sport and their approach to love with humour and joviality.

Our Partner D’Atelier, Ankara, Turkey

Works around big data and singularities.

“We lived very hard days, Unfortunately our art school could not opened this year. But we continued our lessons via zoom. We already finished 8 months and 1 more month left. We could not touch with you about this years’ theme, our students loved to work on it. As a result 15 students between ages 14-20 made 13 artworks.”

See the projects http://www.memoire-a-venir.org/turquie-datelier.html

Results of the workshops of our partners D’Atelier

MEDIATION SESSIONS

On 09 March and 4 May 2021, Mémoire de l’Avenir welcomed 27 young people from the Mission Locale for a visioconference dedicated to the Musée de l’Homme. This videoconference mediation around the collections of the Musée de l’Homme retraces a history of humanity by crossing the biological, archaeological, anthropological and philosophical dimensions, based on the 3 main questions of the museum: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?

On 11 May 2021, MDA-HAS organised an online mediation around the collections of the Centre Pompidou, for young people from the Mission Locale de Paris. 45 participants experienced an exploratory visit of 20th century art through thirty works, around the great figures and movements that have changed the very definition of art. The virtual tour promoted parity in the representation of artists, in order to show, in equal measure, the works of women artists.

TRAINING WORKSHOPS

Each year, MDA offers to train artists, teachers and social actors on issues related to discrimination and living together in multicultural societies, using art as a tool for dialogue. This training course, entitled Arts and Cultures in Dialogue, aims to transmit theoretical knowledge as well as concrete and practical tools, while relying on the association’s experience in the field with social groups. It is intended for artists, but also for teachers, project managers, cultural facilitators, association managers or social workers, volunteers, and anyone who wants to build cultural and artistic educational projects. It took place on 12, 13 and 15 January 2021.

The training course on socio-cultural mediation in an intercultural environment offers an in depth study of the questions and practices of mediation in an intercultural environment, through artistic practice and cultural heritage as tools for reflection and expression, based on a transdisciplinary perspective, combining artistic, anthropological and philosophical contributions. Art and culture can be used as tools for dialogue, debate and critical questioning. They have the capacity to highlight unconscious perception and biases, to allow for questioning, and to defuse ignorance and fear, prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination of all kinds. It took place on 23, 24 and 26 February 2021.

European Humanities Conference 2021

In May 2021, the European Humanities Conference taking place online and at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, invited HAS to create the cultural program of the event.

The selection of artists and their projects was guided by and eventually paired with the different themes approached during the three day conference. Taking the fact that the event was mostly online, HAS presented videos of art, music and VR performances, digital and interactive projects, alongside of artistic films.

Through this invitation, HAS fulfilled one of its fundamental ambitions: to contribute to the development of a bridge between the arts and sciences. This was particularly illustrated through the accompanying evening of music and dialogue with the participating artists.

Featured artists: Active Creative Design, Addictive TV, Alain Séraphine, Alexia Traoré, Che Wei Chen, Lamozé, Marten Berkman, Mykalle Bielienski, Nour Awada, Romy Castro.