in Blois

FOR A NON-PREFORMATED APPROACH OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARTIST AND TERRITORY IN WHICH THE MEETING OF 2 SPECIFICITIES PROVIDES AN OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE SOMETHING COMPLETELY NEW.

Blois - Catherine Contour / 1997-2007 
example of an original weaving of meetings between a town and an artistic process.

Blois has hosted my work since 1997 when, on my return from a stay in New York I participated with Emmanuelle Huynh in the amazing work of Erik Dietman Modèle, modèle, modèle… (Model, model, model …) which brings us into contact with enormous masses of earth for modelling at the Museum of Objects.  
The creation of Chambre (Room) in 1998, at the invitation of Salvador Garcia, then director of the Halle aux grains and joint organiser of the festival 1er Bal, then brought me back to Blois for the first stage in this epic adventure in a hotel in the middle of the country. The meeting with Alain Goulesque, director of the Blois art school (the only school in France dedicated to a child public) was decisive. In our exchanges I benefited from the wealth of his knowledge in the field of art and from his proximity with numerous artists: plastic artists, performers, designers, filmmakers, graphic artists, etc. The result was a dialogue on the question of pedagogy in art, a reflection that was to lead us to the children’s museum at the Centre Georges Pompidou where we exhibited some of the fruit of our work in a conference-performance entitled L’art passe par l’expérimentation (Art needs experimentation). We shared the many episodes of the Protocoles méta (Meta protocols), a nomadic project initiated by the artist Jean-Paul Thibeau. In 2003 and 2004 I presented 2 Impromptus chorégraphiques (Choreographic Impromptus) to the art school in Au bord des protocoles méta (along the meta protocols) and Au bord de la nuit (Along the night) (a sleepless night from derive (drift). Finally, in 2007, a vast project derived from a crossing of desires focussed on Blois and its surroundings: Mushi-kiki and Feuilleton-épisode N°1 (Serial – episode no. 1) were created, accompanied by the artistic creation shop Herbe (Grass) and other activities.