Group Show: L’Escargot Noir and their New York Friends Present Art in a Valise, July 2010

L'Escargot Noir will be presenting their work in three different venues in New York throughout July 2010.
First, L’Escargot Noir will present the work of six French artists at Niagara Bar at 112 Avenue A in the Village Thursday night July 15th.
One of the artists—Katia Favodon-- will be having a show at NeroDoro Cafe at 395 Classon Ave in Clinton Hill for 10 days in July (7/16/10-7/26/10) of her hand painted Wall Paper designs.
Then we will have a show at a Chashama Window space at 112 West 44th Street between Broadway and 6th. The Show will be open from July 23-August 1.The concept of the show is somewhat summed up in the title "Art in a Valise". We are having the group bring over pieces from France that are easily transportable and may be assembled once in the gallery space,
The title of the show is "Art in a Valise" playing with the concept of creating art for transport, touching on the idea of the globalization of the art world. Each piece of work is a variation on how to play with size and compactability of objects in each artist’s distinct style.
Beyond the idea of simply creating a show of work that is transportable and expands the idea of how different forms of art may be created, molded and transported we are connecting this concept to the purpose of the group themselves, which is to form international collaborations with other groups of artists. They hope to eventually evolve this concept and have collaborating artists come to Paris or Mexico City for upcoming shows.
Below you can find our original proposal. You can also see some of the artists work at their website, http://www.lescargotnoir.com/
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THE EXHIBITION:
Art In A Valise

This group exhibition is intended as a journey, a means of exchange, transformation and exploration through a collaborative show between arts collectives. All six L’Escargot Noir artists share a passion for traveling as well as an interest in exploring a range of artistic forms and medias. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp and his concept of The Box in a Valise they are working on an exhibition with specific constraints keeping in mind size, weight, malleability etc. Simply, they plan to pack their bags with pieces of compact art which will open and expand into a full show once on NYC soil.

Each artist is currently creating new and original works exploring innovative ways to create pieces that are in line with the Art in a Valise concept. With experience in a wide variety of medias—installation, photography, video, large and small-scale paintings, drawings—each artist has created works based in an already developed style and media to fulfill this particular challenge.

Touching upon issues of the globalization of the art market, accessibility of art and culture internationally and the process of arts collectives through an exchange with other NY artists this show will hopefully be the beginning of what plans to be a long endeavor for L’Escargot Noir. Their objective is to travel internationally each year, expanding this concept of Art in a Valise by seeking out and involving other groups of artists in an exchange. The first stop will be NYC, the city where Marcel Duchamp decided to bring “The Box in a Valise ”. Irrefutably NYC—as one of the world’s most international cities with a deep-seated arts and cultural community—is the perfect location to begin this journey.

New York’s architecture provides the ideal backdrop for this exhibition of playing with space through contractible and expandable art. With a crammed skyline and abundance of buildings, NYC is a city built on a landscape with a variety of restrictions in regards to space. It is a place to discover innumerable ways to fill up space and manipulate infrastructure by extending up to the limits of the sky. Similarly, these six artists are exploring new ways to create works within the confines of a single bag, allowing their art the opportunity to take new forms and find their own creative contractible space.

During the exhibition, the artists wish to share their work methods and discuss a number of relevant questions regarding this show and the art world in general through open dialogue. Proposed topics include but are not limited to; Ways in which art can be constrained and manipulated in regards to space; how art and artistic communities may adapt to space, culture, economic circumstances, globalization etc. They wish to discuss exciting new arts and cultural endeavors currently happening on the ground in France and hope to learn about projects New York City based artists are working on; How/if their theories and working methods as individual artists and as a collective differ between New York and France. They currently are in search of another group/collective of artists interested in taking part in this exchange by contributing to the exhibition itself through a number of relevant pieces. L’Escargot Noir hopes to create a meaningful exchange with NY based artists and house a similar collaborative show in the near future with participating NY artists in Paris and Mexico DF.