Anticorps – Kevin Desbouis

12/15/2020 : TokyoSession #5, Gwenola Ricordeau

12/15/2020: TokyoSession #5, Gwenola Ricordeau

Gwenola Ricordeau in conversation with Cédric Fauq at 6pm (GMT+1) on Instagram (FR)

For this 5th #tokyosession, researcher Gwenola Ricordeau speaks to co-curator of the exhibition Anticorps Cédric Fauq about prison abolitionism, its imaginaries, as well as its ties with feminists and queer struggles.

Those issues echo some of the artists' interventions within the exhibition and their practice at large: Carolyn Lazard, Dominique Petitgand, Kevin Desbouis, Forensic Architecture and Ghita Skali. The abolition of the prison-industrial complex is also at the core of Jackie Wang's research, who presents the text "Oceanic Feelings and Communist Affect" on this website and whose first book Carceral Capitalism was translated and published in french last year (Gwenola Ricordeau wrote its postface).

Gwenola Ricordeau is assistant professor in criminal justice at the California State University in Chico (US). French, she's been living in the US for three years. Her research focuses on incarcerated's loved-ones, sexuality and gender in prison, as well as oppositions to the prison system. She notably published Pour Elles Toutes. Femmes contre les Prisons (Lux, 2019). Feminist and prison abolition activist, she regularly writes on social movements. She recently published « Mobilisations contre les « violences policières » : Autant en emporte le vent réformiste ».

This conversation echoes the exhibition's keyword "Touch".

Gwenola Ricordeau, with Cédric Fauq, TokyoSession #5

Gwenola Ricordeau, with Cedric Fauq TokyoSession #5

12/09/2020 : TokyoSession #4, Koki Tanaka

12/09/2020: TokyoSession #4, Koki Tanaka

Koki Tanaka in conversation with Adélaïde Blanc at 6pm (GMT+1) on Instagram

The 4th #tokyosession will focus on the film ABSTRACTED/FAMILY (2020), presented by the artist Koki Tanaka and in conversation with Adélaïde Blanc, co-curator of Anticorps. This film features in a section of the group exhibition in which works explore the ties that bind us together and consider other forms of closeness.

The film’s genesis, its making and the way it is received constitute some of the different stages of Koki Tanaka’s work, which itself acts as a platform for discussion of the notion of family, distance as a means of resisting discrimination, or even the role of closeness in the formation of a group or community.

Koki Tanaka, Koki Tanaka,ABSTRACTED/FAMILY (single channel version), 2020, extract
Courtesy of the artist, Vitamin Creative Space (Guangzhou), Aoyama Meguro (Tokyo)

Koki Tanaka, Koki Tanaka’s interview by Adélaïde Blanc

12/02/2020 : TokyoSession #3, Kevin Desbouis

12/02/2020: TokyoSession #3, Kevin Desbouis

Kevin Desbouis in conversation with Cédric Fauq at 6PM (GMT+1) on Instagram (FR)

Cédric Fauq, co-curator of Anticorps, hosts the next #tokyosession with artist Kevin Desbouis who, in the context of the exhibition, developed three interventions: Song of Songs, 2020 ; Untitled (CCMCastaner), 2020 ; ainsi que Untitled (Acedia), 2020.

Those works, of various natures (performance, tattoos, sculptures and poetry), each entertain a specific relationship to skins, one of the exhibition's key words. Summoning references as diverse as a drawing by Christophe Castaner, Rogue from X-men or confettis used in gender reveal parties, Kevin Desbouis relentlessly swallows and spits out many sources whom works render as distorting mirrors or unsettling versions.

Following the conversation, Consolation Prize (2020), a new video by the artist, will be made available on this page, as well as on Palais de Tokyo's Instagram and Youtube channel. The poem Song of Songs (2020) will also be made available as a downloadable PDF below (in english and french).

Kevin Desbouis, *to be abducted*, 2020

Kevin Desbouis, *to be abducted*, 2020

Kevin Desbouis, Consolation Prize, 2020

The strange posture taken by two flamingos trying to feed the same baby is looped while in the background resonates a sound and a voice extracted from ‘‘The Portrait of Dorian Gay’’ a 70’s gay porn adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Portrait of Dorian Gray. The result takes the shape of a fugitive moment about love, it’s confusions, and this brief instant of lucidity when we realize we are maybe the only author of an impossible situation.

Kevin Desbouis, with Cédric Fauq, TokyoSession #3

For this third TokyoSession, Cédric Fauq curator of the exhibition “Antibodies” at the Palais de Tokyo, invites the artist Kevin Desbouis to discuss one of the strong themes of the exhibition: the skins.

11/25/2020 : TokyoSession #2, Ghita Skali

11/25/2020: TokyoSession #2, Ghita Skali

Ghita Skali in conversation with Cédric Fauq at 6PM (GMT+1) on Instagram (FR)

Cédric Fauq, co-curator of Anticorps, hosts the next #tokyosession with artist Ghita Skali who presents Ali Baba Express Episode 3 (2020) within the exhibition.

Using borders, one of the exhibition's keyword, as a filter, we will come back to the production of this work, shedding light on its political and humoristic load, as well as its formal aspects. After the conversation, Ghita Skali's latest video work The Hole's Journey (2020), which we will also discuss during the Instagram Live, will be made available on this page from 6.30pm to midnight only.

The recording of the conversation will be made available on this page the following day (FR).

mindmap-de-ateliers — Ghita Skali, *Authority Hole*, 2020, mindmap

Ghita Skali, *Authority Hole*, 2020, mindmap

Ghita Skali, with Cédric Fauq, TokyoSession #2

For this second TokyoSession, Cédric Fauq curator of the exhibition “Antibodies” at the Palais de Tokyo, invites the artist Ghita Skali to discuss one of the strong themes of the exhibition: the borders.

11/18/2020 : TokyoSession #1, A.K. Burns

11/18/2020: TokyoSession #1, A.K. Burns

A.K. Burns in conversation with Daria de Beauvais at 6PM (GMT+1) on Instagram (EN)

Daria de Beauvais, co-curator of Anticorps, inaugurates the program #tokyosession with artist A.K. Burns who presents two sculptures in the exhibition : Marianne Deludes the World (2020) and Pitch Black Dry Sack (2019).

The current pandemic, the US presidential elections or the figure of David Wojnarowicz will be some topics of this discussion, whose guiding thread is the idea of insurgence, one of the key words of the exhibition

Anticorps: how do bodies that are open to their environment respond to the threats they face? From the defensive to the offensive, the strategies they adopt are explored in works that speak to the latent or manifest violence inflicted upon them. United in their need to confront the pressing dangers of an increasingly hostile external world, these dismembered bodies call for a collective resistance.

A.K. Burns, Survivor’s Remorse, 2018. Video, HD color, stereo sound, 20’11”.
Courtesy of the artist and Michel Rein (Paris/Brussels).

«Survivor’s Remorse» is a video installation that looks at the valuation of various forms of vitality—not only lives but the material residue of lives—in particular through an arts economy built on mythologizing artist.

This work was created to in response to the experience of being invited into the Harvard Art Museums Archives to peruse a series of photographic works by David Wojnarowicz. I was there by invitation to respond—artist to artist—across a generational and situational divide. But what divides David and me most is his premature death. In all likelihood our queer paths should have crossed. This is a fact I reflect on all too frequently; a whole generation is missing from the experiences of my generation. Trauma precipitates well beyond its apex.

It was in this sterile, evenly lit, white-gloved environment, inside this meticulously preserved sarcophagus, that I see the remains of David. His images of a society that values his body of work more than it valued his body. Survivor’s Remorse looks at how both art and bodies are maintained and the socio-political influences that create a chasm between the value of things and people.»A.K. Burns

A.K. Burns with Daria de Beauvais, TokyoSession #1

For this first TokyoSession, Daria de Beauvais, co-curator of Anticorps at the Palais de Tokyo, invites artist A.K. Burns to discuss one of the keyword of the exhibition: insurgence.