At the gates of Paris, the Artagon association has invested a college from the 1970s and converted its classrooms into workshops for artists from all walks of life. Has very advantageous conditions, and with the ambition to anchor in the life of the neighborhood.
by Emmanuelle Lequeux
Cartier-Bresson would he recognize her, this street of Pantin where he grew up, near the textile factories of his family? She now bears her name; of these ways where one does not venture by chance. A stone’s throw from the immense cemetery of Pantin, she aligns buildings at La Doisneau, disused grounds of the SNCF, all dotted with workers’ houses. Who would imagine a hive in such a wasteland?
The Artagon team did not hesitate a second when Bertrand Kern, the mayor of the city, offered to invest the former college Jean-Lolive. Dedicated for ten years to support very young artists, the association is looking for anchor points. Its two founders, Anna Labouze and Keimis Henni, are Pantinois by adoption: they immediately detect the potential of the site. “This district is in full transition, with an eco -neighborhood which begins to build itself and immense associative wealth”, underlines Anna Labouze. Almost opposite, the 3,000 square meters of the La Reserve des Arts store is an Ali Baba cave for creators, with its tons of recovered materials.
utopia seventies
By 2024, the future National Center for Plastic Arts (CNAP) will settle a stone’s throw away. For the moment, everything remains to be built. “We are trying to anchor in sites where many remains to invent in terms of culture, as we have already done in Marseille,” insists the young co -director. At the edge of the four-chemins, a popular district shared with Aubervilliers, here is Artagon Pantin, open since mid-October: 5,000 square meters offered to around fifty creators, residents for one year. “This college in the early 1970s was no longer adapted to educational needs, but for us, it turns out to be ideal.”
Built by architects Jean Perrottet and Jacques Kalisz, also authors of brutalist jewelry that is the National Dance Center (CND), on the other side of the Ourcq Canal, it was at the heart of a School ensemble called “Les Mattes”, in memory of the Seita factory located there. But rather than sulfur, it smells good of seventies: green atrium, pink beams in y, spiral circulation, flexible spaces …
“During the selection, on more than 800 files, we especially sought to reflect the diversity of practices and issues today “, Specifies Anna Labouze. In this anthill intersect by chouf, poet and specialized educator at La Goutte-d’Or, and Alexia Fiasco, child of the 93, co-founder of the collective girls of Blédards and author of a beautiful series of photos devoted to transsexual children of immigrant families; Mehdi Fikri, Human journalist and director spotted by the Venice Mostra. Coming from Brazil, Gabriel Moraes Aquino is already dreaming of organizing patio hip-hop battles at the passageways, with his accomplice Kryzastyle. Enthusiasm on springs!
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