AGATHE SIMON THE POLAR PROJECT
BIOGRAPHY Agathe Simon is a Paris-based artist, born in 1977. As a Ph.D. recipient from the Sorbonne University and the Paris Conservatory, she has taught several years at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, the University of Paris- Sorbonne, and the University of Paris-Diderot. From 2007 on, and over a decade, she travelled throughout the world invited for art residencies, lecture-performances, and exhibitions. She has also carried out initiatic journeys in Central Africa, Peru, and Antarctica. On her return to Paris in 2017, she created an art company, The Group. With members from 25 countries, this intercontinental adventure develops artistic and humanistic projects open to all. Since September 2018, Agathe Simon has been teaching in the Department of Literature, Arts and Cinema at the University of Paris-Diderot, and conducts artistic creation workshops at the University Paris-Sorbonne. Agathe Simon creates experiences which question the boundaries of the lived experience and the senses, by radically reinventing the connection with the self, the others, and the unknown. These individual and communal experiences, created inside and outside the exhibition space, open onto another reality via the commemoration of fictional personalities (The Polar Project, its lecture-performance and its tribute ceremonies), the celebration of the body (Heart is Home, Ecstasies), and participative experiences (Day 1, Trilogy of Fire). Exploring various media, Simon invents a space of experimentation at the confluence of several fields: art history, narrative, shamanism, and geopolitics. Driven by a vision of humanism, her art process constantly embodies otherness and new horizons. It questions the possibility of an individual and social transformation. Recent works include Day 1 and Trilogy of Fire, two collective art experiences with The Group (2017-18, La Générale, Paris), the remote performance Heart is Home, mentioned by Artforum International Magazine (2017, Museum of Non-conformist Art, Saint Petersburg, Russia), and the three-screen installation Arctica, investigating the invisible in the Arctic (2016, Atka Residency, Greenland). Agathe Simon has created numerous individual and collective performances including: La Générale, Paris, France; Museum of Non-conformist Art, Saint Petersburg, Russia; University of Aix-Marseille, France (2017); University of Cergy-Pontoise, France; the Concordia base, Antarctica (2016); the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France; French Institute of Fès, Morocco; Trocadero Library, Paris, France; the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, France; Audiorama & Modern Dance Theater, Stockholm, Sweden (2015); Canal Algérie TV, Algiers, 2
Algeria; French Institute of Algiers, Algeria; Visby International Centre for Composers, Sweden; Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative, Halifax, Canada (2014). Simon has had solo exhibitions including: Audiorama & MDT, Stockholm, Sweden; MMP, Paris, France (2015); French Institute of Algiers, Algeria and Art and History Museum of Tlemcen, Algeria (2014). Her participation in international group shows has included: Digit & Rose, Museum of Non-conformist Art, Saint Petersburg, Russia; Transpositions II, Museum of Non-conformist Art, Saint Petersburg, Russia (2017); Transpositions, Museum of Non-conformist Art, Saint-Petersburg, Russia; Zaman/ Time, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France; Arrêts sur mémoires, Gallery CDG, Rabat, Morocco; P.R.N., Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France (2015), and Nocturne Halifax Art Festival, Halifax, Canada (2014). She has been selected for a number of art residencies, including Art Center Pushkinskaya-10, Saint Petersburg, Russia (2017); Atka Sailing Vessel, Greenland, Arctic (2016); EMS Swedish Performing Arts Agency, Stockholm, Sweden (2015); the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France; Argentinian Government Residency Program, Carlini Base, Antarctica (2014), and the Bogliasco Foundation, Bogliasco, Italy (2009). 3
THE POLAR PROJECT The Polar Project is a tribute to the famous French-Argentine novelist Gabriela Conti (1974-2010) who never existed. It notably comprises two exhibitions: Antarctica, following a creative residency in Antarctica, at the invitation of the Argentine government (2014-15), and Arctica, following a creative residency in the Arctic aboard the polar sailboat Atka (2016). 4
Gabriela Conti (1974-2010) Fictional Novelist Photograph: Agathe Simon A legendary figure of early 21 st century literature, the first woman of Argentine nationality to reach the South Pole, Gabriela Conti was invented by Agathe Simon, who ensured the socio-historical likelihood of her imaginary character with several experts. Agathe Simon has developped the existence of her imaginary character Gabriela Conti across several continents, via diverse media such as performance, exhibitions, films, installations, a radio play, a posthumous novel prefaced by a specialist in Latin American literature, and online micro-narratives. 5
Biography of Gabriela Conti Online micro-narratives In complicty with France Culture (France s number one Cultural radio station) By developing the hagiography of an nonexistent person, The Polar Project questions the decline of imaginary and critical dimensions in our era. Therefore, it warps the codes of biography, museography, documentary and narrative, by offering the museum space a fiction that has all the appearances of reality. 6
Tribute to Gabriela Conti, Antarctica Collective Performance, Concordia Base, Antarctica, 2016 Photograph: All Rights Reserved Agathe Simon coordinated from Paris this collective performance realized in complicity with the Concordia base, in Antarctica. For the six years of Gabriela Conti s death, the Concordia team writes on the weather balloon a tribute message for the famous French-Argentine explorer who died at the South Pole: «Gabriela Conti, We Remember, Concordia Base, 09.02.2016». 7
Tribute to Gabriela Conti, Stockholm Collective Performance, Audiorama & MDT, Stockholm, Sweden, 2015 Video: Magnus Bunnskog At the occasion of the vernissage of the Antarctica exhibition in Stockholm in March 2015, Agathe Simon proposes to the head of the French Institute of Sweden to pay public homage to the imaginary writer Gabriela Conti. Other testimonies are performed by Lara Szabo Greisman (Cultural Attaché of the French Institute of Sweden), Magnus Bunnskog (Swedish composer), Robin McGinley (English curator) et Tatiana Stadnichenko (Student at the Royal Academy of Arts). Video 8
Tribute to Gabriela Conti, Paris Collective Performance, City Hall of Paris 10 th arrondissement, 2015 Video: Hadi Moussally In complicity with Parisian elected representatives, Agathe Simon organized an official tribute for the 5 years of the death of famous French-Argentine writer Gabriela Conti (1974-2010) who never existed. In the form of speeches given in the City Hall of Paris 10 th arrondissement, this collective performance took place on February the 9th, 2015, during the vernissage of the Antarctica exhibition. From right to left on the photograph: Mr. Rémi Feraud (Mayor of Paris 10 th arrondissement), Mr. Éric Algrain (Deputy Mayor for Culture), Ms. Lea Vasa (Deputy Mayor for Sustainable Development), Ms. Agathe Simon, Ms. Cecilia Conti (Gabriela Conti s sister) and her husband. 9
Polar Worlds Lecture-Performance, University of Aix-Marseille, November 2017 Video: David Béchu The lecture-performance Polar Worlds is a tribute to French-Argentine writer Gabriela Conti (1974-2010) who never existed. By evoking the life and work of this imaginary novelist, Agathe Simon progressively hijacks the codes of Academic lecture, diverting it toward a fictional world. This lecture-performance was recently presented at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, the University of Aix-Marseille, the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, the Musical Library of Paris, the French Institute of Algiers, the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative (Canada), and the Trocadero Library in Paris. Excerpts of the lecture-performance 10
Gabriela Conti Performance, «Canal Algérie» TV Algeria, 2014 Invited for a live broadcast on Canal Algérie TV, Agathe Simon presents the life and work of Gabriela Conti (1974-2010), hijacking the codes of television interviews, and diverting it toward a fictional world which she clandestinely introduces into the Algerian audiovisual landscape. 11
Ayahuasca Radio Play France Culture, 55, 2015 In November 2008, Guillaume Sauvage, the author of Contresens (1995) and Memento (2004), had been living for several months in Peru. He received visits from Gabriela Conti, the famous French-Argentine novelist and explorer, awarded with the Premio Literario Buenos Aires and the Grand Prix de littérature contemporaine. Retracing the experience of a shamanistic ceremony in Amazonia, the radio play Ayahuasca presents, as though real, these two fictional writers. 12
ANTARCTICA By paying tribute to the imaginary novelist Gabriela Conti, the exhibition Antarctica (first part of The Polar Project) deconstructs museography, documentary and narrative. It offers a fiction that has all the appearances of reality. 13
The Conti Archives Installation, Variable Dimensions, City Hall of Paris 10 th arrondissement, France, 2015 Photographs: Agathe Simon The installation The Conti Archives is one of the works of the Antarctica exhibition. It looks like a Curiosity Cabinet. It features four videos, two sound installations and 120 objects and documents (from the late nineteenth century to today), with labels that specify their inclusion in the imaginary (and very documented) biography of Gabriela Conti. Each object of The Conti Archives installation has been carefully chosen by Agathe Simon thanks to specialists expertise (antique dealers, historians, writers, French and Argentine journalists, scientists, Antarctic winterovers, etc.), in order to be historically and socially coherent with the life of this imaginary novelist. 14
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Antarctica, Looking for Gabriela Fictional Documentary, HD, Stereo, 52 Video: Agathe Simon Antarctica, Looking for Gabriela is a 52 minute documentary, filmed in Antarctica. It is directed by the video artist Cecilia Conti, as a tribute to her sister, Gabriela Conti (1974-2010), the famous French-Argentine writer and explorer. This fictional documentary, directed by an imaginary character in homage to an imaginary character, is one of the works of the Antarctica exhibition. 16
Antarctic Music 5.1 Sound Installation, Audiorama Concert Hall, Stockholm, Sweden, 2015 Photograph: All Rights Reserved Agathe Simon composed Antarctic Music with two types of sounds: voices of people from all continents (excerpts from Gabriela Conti s posthumous novel), and sounds recorded in Antarctica in 2014: Sea Elephants, Petrels, Brown Skuas, floating ice on the Antarctic Ocean, landing of Hercules plane in Antarctica, take-off of Kamov Ka-27 helicopter on Chilean Base Frei, Vasiliy Golovnin ice-breaker and its Russian crew. Excerpts of Antarctic Music 17
ARCTICA The exhibition Arctica, the second part of The Polar Project, continues its tribute to the imaginary novelist Gabriela Conti. It follows Simon in her quest for the Invisible. It has been inspired by an Arctic legend mentioned in Gabriela Conti s posthumous novel, Vivre (Life). The works expose the artist s assumptions about the Invisible. 18
Arctica, Looking for the Invisible HD Video, Stereo or 5.1, 10 Video: Agathe Simon Arctica, Looking for the Invisible was filmed in the Arctic in May 2016 during a creative residency aboard the polar sailing vessel Atka. Arctica follows the artist in her quest for the Invisible. It has been inspired by an Arctic legend mentioned in Gabriela Conti s posthumous novel, Vivre (Life). It also depicts the creative process. Film Excerpt 19
Traces of the Invisible Negative Film Photographs, The Arctic, 2016 Photograph: Agathe Simon These negative film photographs is one of the works of the Arctica exhibition and presents Agathe Simon s investigation into the Invisible, following the traces of an Inuit legend quoted by Gabriela Conti in her posthumous novel, Vivre (Life). The photographic films were immersed at the same location where the photographs were shot; their degradation by the Arctic Ocean reveals a balance between the visible and the invisible. 20
Arctic Music 5.1 Sound Installation Photograph: SDB Narssaq The sound installation Arctic Music was created from sounds recorded in the Arctic in May 2016, with several microphones: two hydrophones (underwater sound recording), a 4-channel microphone, a dictation recorder and a super-cardiod microphone. It comprises four movements. 1. Inner Arctic (polyphony based on a sound diary recorded in the Arctic). 2. Arctic Fragments (collection of silences recorded in the Arctic). 3. For the Record (memories of non-recorded Arctic sounds). 4. Dreamed Poles (metamorphosis of a soundscape: floating ice recorded underwater in the Arctic and above the water surface in Antarctica). 21