Des Territoires: A Raft of Art and Research at Ensb-a, Paris

From October 9 to December 30, 2001, the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (Ensb-a) in Paris hosts the exhibition "Des Territoires," curated by Jean-François Chevrier and Sandra Alvarez de Toledo. The show emerges from a research seminar initiated in 1994, exploring territory as both geographical and psychic experience, framed by autobiography. The curators adopt Fernand Deligny's metaphor of the raft—a mobile, crisis structure—to organize precariousness within the institutional setting. The exhibition features four spaces: an entrance with a photography workshop led by Patrick Faigenbaum and Marc Pataut; the Melpomène hall as a labyrinth of urban images from cities like Barcelona, Paris, Dhaka, New York, Tangier, Tulle, Nantes, Krakow, and Vilnius; a monumental staircase screening Deligny and Jean-Pierre Daniel's film "Le Moindre geste" and Gérard Dalla Santa's slideshow; and the Foch hall focusing on works at the border of Arte Povera, installation, and applied arts. Approximately 70% of the 25 artists are women, including Yves Bélorgey and Mark Sadler as the only painters. The exhibition integrates photography, cinema, narrative, drawing, and installation, rejecting pure photographic display. Parallel events include a film program at Cinéma des cinéastes, a special issue of the journal "Communications" titled "Le Parti-pris du document," and a collection of Jeff Wall's essays. The seminar continues weekly on Wednesdays at 6 PM.