L'Alsace april 26th/avril 2012

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An artist, an artwork #1

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Bourtzwiller
An artist, an artwork: the Pax centre launches open workshops

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The team of the Pax socio-cultural centre wanted to use the extended entrance hall as a meeting place where “something happens”. The exhibition “an artist, an artwork” makes this wish come true.

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The projects of the Pax socio-cultural centre are organized around three priorities: support parenthood, encourage people’s participation and access to culture. These objectives underpin every action carried out by the team, as when they have decided to give another dimension to the entrance hall, both literally and figuratively.

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Véronique Moeglé, the facilitator in charge of the cultural development, got the idea to contact artists who will take part in the open workshops in May to ask them to exhibit as a preamble an artwork of theirs in the renovated place. “The responsiveness was beyond my expectations. Sixteen artists agreed to do it. Everything was done quickly. Our project of encouraging people to meet works and artists corresponded with the will of the latest to meet the public and join their peers”, she says.

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Here are the participating artists: Adam Allaoui, Marie-Paule Bilger, Vito Cecere, Jean-Jacques Delattre, Siam Angie Dots Minou, Sylvie Hertzog, Christophe Jenny, Sébastien Laope, Laurence Mellinger, Sabine Mugnier, Magali Merklen, Renato Montanaro, the Jack Price collective, porte renaud, Paul-Marie Vuillard and Henri Walliser.

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Even during the installation the artists established contacts with the people, who were surprised. This was a real satisfaction for the director Pascale Schieb: “for the Pax team, encouraging the access to culture is first of all arousing people’s interest in discovering new horizons, other ways of living, being or thinking, presenting different forms of artistic expression, enabling people to understand, preventing them from having a priori. In a few words, to make cultural events more accessible. We are like gardeners who sow. We want to play a transmission role and create an echo. And also to make people feel emotion before art.” This ambition doesn’t seem pointless at the time of the vernissage.

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Some secondary-school pupils seem very interested in photo and video editing. A group of youngsters mass together around Véronique Moeglé to register for the visit of the open workshops that she has planned for the 5 May. Some teachers of the district plan to come with their pupils to see other exhibitions, very likely to be launched after this one. Around porte renaud’s installation, the talks are going well between the young artist and the group of the elder women association who have just came back from a museum. And talks continue long after around cocktails made by two young girls who won the third place during the competition of alcohol-free mixing.

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        Catherine Ruff

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TO GO THERE Until 3 May at the Pax centre, 54 rue de Soultz, in Mulhouse. From Monday to Friday, from 9 to 12am and from 2 to 6:30pm, except Friday morning. Free admission.

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(under the picture) 

Pascale Schieb, the director of the Pax centre (next to the sculpture), and Véronique Moeglé, in charge of cultural development (in the foreground) already have other exhibition projects that this new entrance hall favours.

        Picture C.R.

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article published at the time of the exhibition/

article publié à l’occasion de l’exposition :
Un artiste, une œuvre #1