Once (upon) there was a vanishing*
Il était une fuite
Once (upon) there was a vanishing *
*reference to the vanishing point
Artists : Ignasi Aballí, Alice Anderson, Ouassila Arras, Xavi Bou, Marilyn Bridges, Elina Brotherus, Willie Doherty,
Marco Godinho, Harold Guérin, Naji Kamouche, Maria Laet, Philippe Mayaux, Zineb Sedira, Katrin Ströbel
The exhibition Il était une fuite tries to question the classical representation of the horizon, designed as a strict and arbitrary line, which delimit our territories.
To represent the real world, Renaissance artists theorized the techniques of perspective and the associated concepts of point of view, vanishing point and horizon line. Established as a norm, perspective shaped the way Westerners viewed the space around them.
The horizon line, located at eye level, influences artistic and aesthetic standards and the way we perceive the world. The horizon is conventionally defined as an imaginary circular line, symbolizing the junction between two opposing worlds – the sky and the earth – with the observer at its center.
In this exhibition, it is a question of achieving a new horizon, free of artificial barriers, which delimit our territories. These walls made of barbed wire, bricks, concrete or steel, erected and traced on the map of the world, make it difficult and even impossible for those who are sometimes unjustly considered “undesirables” to enter or escape from areas.
In people’s minds, the border refers to the affirmation of cultural identity and the sense of belonging to a geographical area in which there are various political boundaries with the supposed aim of maintaining security. Although their alarming and murderous existences, distance people from a common horizon. Rethinking our notions of the horizon means questioning our Western-centered reading of the world.
While suggesting the idea of overrun as an end, the exhibition seeks to overcome the limits imposed by the anthropocentric world, an obstacle to freedom of movement.
The act of running a way, naively attached to the idea of avoidance and cowardice, is here considerate as a powerful, courageous and vital act, but also as a way to emancipate from those limits. Through the artworks exposed, the horizon is thought as a space of sharing and this exhibition offers different manners of inhabiting and rendering the world.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the students of the Master Écritures Critiques et Curatoriales de l’Art et des Cultures Visuelles at the University of Strasbourg (Promotion Bruno Latour) and the three FRACs of the Grand Est region: Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and 49-Nord 6-Est Lorraine.
Curators of the exhibition are:
Marine Cortese, Lila Hechchad Meyer, Zoë Kemp, Kenza Khelfi, Julie Vezard, Augusta Weydert Hernandez.
Supported by : Janig Bégoc, Simon Zara (teachers at the University of Strasbourg) and the FRAC Alsace team.
The FRAC Alsace is funded by the Ministère de la Culture – DRAC
Grand Est and the Région Grand Est and is supported by the Académie
of Strasbourg. It is a member of Platform-Réseau des fonds régionaux
of Videomuseum – Network of museums and organisations
and organisations managing collections of modern and contemporary art
as well as Plan d’Est -Pôle arts visuels Grand Est.
Further information
FRAC Alsace
1 route de Marckolsheim
67600 Sélestat
See the map
Opening hours:
Wednesday to Sunday, 2pm to 6pm. Free admission. Guided tours every Saturday and Sunday at 3pm.
Guided tours every Saturday and Sunday at 3pm