CCC OD in TOURS (FRANCE) - First Artistic Programme devoted to NORWAY

USPA NEWS - The CCC OD (Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré) just opened its doors, after the decision to create it was taken in 2011 by 'Tour(s)plus' with a view to providing the Metropolitan Area with a major cultural facility in the sphere of contemporary creativity...

The CCC OD (Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré) just opened its doors, after the decision to create it was taken in 2011 by 'Tour(s)plus' with a view to providing the Metropolitan Area with a major cultural facility in the sphere of contemporary creativity.

The first Artistic Programme is devoted to NORWAY, and is carried out Under the High Patronage of the President of the French Republic François HOLLANDE. Her Majesty Queen SONJA of NORWAY was invited to the Event, along with all the Region's elected Officials. So, March 11, 2017, saw the celebration of this new 'Place to Be' for International Contemporary Art Creativity.

The CCC trace its origins back to the creation of an Annual Event in 1977, called 'Tours Multiples'. This Event was a response to the need to devolve Contemporay Creation and to disseminate it,and created 'real place for exchanging and debating ideas related to Contemporary Art with living Artists.

From 1983 to 1985, Tours Multiples was transformed into a national Biennale of Contemporary Art. In 1984, the CCC(Centre de Création Contemporaine) was born. It was one of the first Art Centres to be built.

Above all, the CCC's Programming has been characterised by separate Exhibitions arising out of long-term dialogues with Artists. Since its opening the CCC has undertaken projects with a total of 300 Artists, many of whom today are at the forefront of the International Scene. Programming at the CCC has followed in the Wake of European thinking inspired by such curators as Jan Hoet and Harald Szeemann, with a heavy emphasis on 'Individual Mythology'... Programming has thus evolved while still remaining faithful to a basic principle of 'recovering the time of the Work and the Artist'.

The CCC OD (Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré) is now the custodian of an endowment granted by the Painter Olivier Debré. For a Contemporary Art Centre, receiving a historic bequest is a special, rich opportunity, enabling it to create a Gateway between the artistic endeavour of the past and present. Throughout his careeer, Olivier Debré (1920-1999) showed a particular attachment to the LOIRE. He also had a special relationship with the CCC, for which he made his largest paintings in 1991....

The Exhibition 'Olivier Debré: A Journey to Norway' is on show in the White Gallery, and by doing so, the CCC OD is choosing to put on display a little-known and surprising aspect of the painter's work. Although Olivier Debré travelled throughout NORWAY many times between 1966 and 1998, the paintings he made there have remained little seen in FRANCE up until now.... The Artist has travelled a great deal in the course of his career, but the LOIRE is where his unchanging place Anchorage lies, the place he leaves to always return....

So for the Norwegian place in the Exhibition, it seemed essential to present a canvas depicting the LOIRE. The Central Space in the White Gallery is the Heart of the Exhibition the hot spot of the visitor journey. Doing so also provides the possibility of exploring the travel paintings and the paintings of the LOIRE starting with the Format... The space of the White Gallery enabes to demonstrate Olivier Debré's thinking through the graphic example to be seen in the Norwegian paintings, which sometimes seek to catch a fleeting clarity, or quite conversely, to signify the concrete weight and the dramatic hostility of Norwegian nature.

PER BARCLAY - OIL CHAMBER (March 11 to September 3, 2017). The Curator is Delphine MASSON.
'Oil Rooms' refers to a device that has marked the work of PER BARCLAY since 1989. It was originally an installation that the Artist, at the beginning of his career, produced for an alternative Art Centre in the NETHERLANDS. He spreads used oïl on the floor, leaving the viscous matter to fill the space forming a reflective surface.

INNLAND (March 11 to June 11, 2017) with Ahmad Ghossein, Tiril Hasselknippe, Saman Kannyab, Ignas Krunglevicius, Kamilla Langeland, Lars Laumann, Solveig Lonseth, Ann Cathrin November Hoibo, Linn Pedersen, Tori Wranes and Thora Dolven Blake
The Curators are Thora Dolven Balke, Elodie Stroecken.

Those Artists are very active on the Norwegian Art Scene since the 2000's. The Exhibition 'Innland' showcases eleven Artists from roughly the same generation, all with a relationship to NORWAY, whether they are born there, live there or have studied and spent time there.

For the first time, the Black Gallery turns into a Platform of production and expérimentations, laid out in a dense scenography. 'Innland' is a Norwegian term indicating the interior of a territory. As a title it questions the meaning of 'interior" of any defined space. Geographically Innland is far from the territorial boundaries, and as such, historically, further removed from outside influence that arrives across borders. It can evoke a variety of characteristics depending on where you come from.

A. K. DOLVEN - Tours Voices 2013 - Exterior Forecourt, Interactive Sound Installation (Cry Baby Pedal, Wires and Speakers) The Installation was donated by the Artist to the CCC OD.

It is a sound piece that the Norwegian Artist A.K. DOLVEN created specifically for TOURS. She recorded the voices of women from TOURS for it for her personal Exhibition at the CCC in 2013. Donated by the Artist to the CCC OD, the work is now in its final form, on the exterior forecourt of the building. A.K. DOLVENisone of the most renowned Norwegian Artists on the International Scene.

Source : CCC OD Press Trip

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