cité internationale des Arts, paris residency, 2019
By invitation of the Cité des Arts, Joe and Chanelle took up a 3 month residency at the Paris studios to work on their current series This Is Not A Love Song, specifically the Sound Archive associated to that project. Using the residency as a base, Joe and Chanelle visited Art Museums in France, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands, and made audio recordings of ambient sounds within exhibition spaces.
The CIté des Arts in an incredible international residency program, housing 300 studios in the heart of Paris, with 50+ institutional and national partners. A diverse cultural exchange is created between visual artists, academics, writers, musicians, film makers, dancers and interdisciplinary professionals from across the globe.
This is not an exhibition page per se, but rather an important record of activities undertaken at the Cité. Featured are images of studios occupied by Joe and Chanelle, their Marias Festival Open Studio and Collaboration; and series of experimental workshops.
Studio residence of Joe and Chanelle. On the far right is a map of Europe charting the excursions to Art Museums. Each studio apartment is a one bedroom space with ample room for working, with small bathroom and kitchen. Centre, a locally sourced LP player and vinyls bought from Bad Boy Records, a punk record shop located in the Bastille area. Open Studios are a regular occurrence at the Cité, where artists showcase the fruits of their stay.
Studio 2005, this non-residential studio located on the ground floor was perhaps once a printmakers studio with sturdy timber benches and cupboards circling the right side of the room. On the back wall, found vintage LP’s overpainted with acrylic paint complement the series The Very Best Of [Paris Sessions].
Rest and Resist a two night performance by Jasminka Stenz in collaboration with Joe and Chanelle. Performed as part of the open studios for the Marais Festival and exhibition Tour du Monde en 14h (Around the World in 14 hours). Open to the Parisian public and and Cité residents. Thousands of visitors toured the open studios, engaged with live performances and concerts, and exhibition in the main gallery.
Joe and Chanelle opened their studio with This Is Not A Love Song [You Are Cordially Invited], playing sounds from a Museum into the courtyard on their LP player. Inside guests were invited to take part in their ongoing project, signing up to make a recording while on their travels or in their home city.
Chanelle’s 36th birthday party with fellow residents. Her birthday present, a fully stocked cocktail bar, encouraged a diverse social network to visit the studio throughout the residency. This has led to a new developing work in 2020, Play Something Else Cowboy [Bourbon and Tequila Bar], a site for connectivity and exchange through conversation.
Jack Prest is a conceptual artist and producer working at Studios 301 Sydney.
Studio 2005, a courtyard of performative objects used during an experimental workshop with Joe Wilson, Chanelle Collier, Jack Prest, and Jasminka Stenz. Installation objects were made performative with interaction by the artists through movement and repositioning. Jasminka performed to the objects and in response to them. A live soundtrack was created by Jack using microphones that relayed and amplified the sounds of the performance, collected and played in digitally altered real time feedback. Pictured is a pause between movements.
Over looking the Seine river, Chanelle checks Instagram for news from home.
Yaraslav Likhachev and Joe Wilson, studio jam. Yaraslav is a jazz musician from Siberia, currently working in Munich, Germany.
Jasminka Stenz is a performing artist, dancer and academic. Her work and pedagogical techniques make use of the human body as a subject open to curation and choreography. Rest and Resist, was a direct performative action taken in response to an object. Seen in the artists studio, a ladder anchored on an angle by rope to a pavement stone; Jasminka mimics and interprets the action, building a relationship between the object and the body.
Studio 2005 courtyard experimental workshop. Through the direction of artist and sound engineer Jack prest a one week audio and visual workshop.
Paintings on vintage record covers sourced from the local area around the Cité des Arts and exhibited as part of the Marais Festival, Paris, in September. During this festival Joe and Chanelle opened their studio for This Is Not A Love Song [You Are Cordially Invited]. They invited resident artists and friends to contribute to the project by making a recording in a major art museum in their home, city or place of travel. These painted record covers The Very Best Of [Paris Sessions] were offered as a gift in return.
Letters home
We had a meet and greet with other residents today, and went on a walk to see another australian artist exhibiting a couple of arrondissements over. My cold got worse as soon as we arrived, and I went to the doctor today, he gave me some medicines and a delayed script for antibiotics in case I don’t get better soon. It's still quite warm here but we dodged the furnace weather. Our Studio apartment has three french windows facing the river (and the busy street), it’s on the second floor, they're double glazed so we can block out the traffic at night. We might move though, because there isn't space for us to also work, we'll look at another studio tomorrow and see. Alternatively, we might book a separate working space just for September. We did a big shop for veggies at the Bastille market. My throat is quite sore after walking in the dry stinky heat so I’m making a chix soup and going to take it easy for the night.
Looks like we’ll be moving apartments. It means there will be a bit more room for us, with a bigger bathroom. The new room has a really big window in the bedroom that looks over the walking thoroughfare between streets next to the Jewish museum; there is another window at the opposite end in the kitchen, it stares right into the other apartments 4 meters away, we’ll have to get a curtain. I’ll really miss our tiny apartments 3 window view of the street and river, there is also two gigantic trees on the island between which is a visual relief. Strangely, I quite like the sound of traffic and the rumble of the metro going past – all the windows are double glazed if you want the peace and quiet. Chanelle and I are also going to take the extra work space for September, there is an art festival held here at the Cite and across the whole arrondissement, so lots of visitors. We’ve sent some applications for a bit of funding from back home, and have a few more to try. We had a very productive meeting with one of the staff here about contacting French art institutions, Francois made some enquiries and asked some of his connections on our behalf from the Cite des Arts, he also wrote a letter for us to use if we get stopped in the museum, that explains our project and our affiliation to the cite, signed by the director here. The markets are every Tue, Thurs, and Sun, so we’ll go down to stock up on fruits today. Lots of Love, Joe and Chan xx
We’ve settled into the new apartment, and had a little house warming with some Australian residents and a Swedish resident; we bought a record player for the project and got some cheap records, so it was also a record party. There are 7 Australian studios here, two women that were students at NAS while I was working there, are in the NAS studio we occupied last year. I don’t miss the five flights of stairs to get up there. We are now on the second floor, which allows for a good view but not too much stair climbing. Last night we met with some of the resident musicians and had a late-night jam, Chanelle got to sing a lot and had a very good time. I had way too many tiny Heinekens and cigarettes. Was a very buoyant atmosphere with an international crowd. Our Swedish friend from our house warming, Carl Johan, joined us; the studio belonged to a guy from New Caledonia (and he has a connection to an institution there – so we might visit for a working beach island trip); there was a terrific Armenian composer; and a couple from Ecuador. The music here is one of the most delightful aspects. It was Assumption Day yesterday so I couldn’t launder my clothes, Chanelle did a hand wash, and I made an application for future funding. Chanelle will go out this arvo with her friend to try find a killer second hand suit, and some more cheap records. I think I’ll stay home and try cook a veal ragu. We’re booked to visit Berlin on the 1st of September, and will visit Adriano, former director of Mils Gallery. It won’t be a long stay, we’ll back to Paris on the 4th. Lots of Love, Joe & Chan
Hello from Paris. We are settling in. We both got to have a hot shower for the first time in over a week, the boiler has been out in the main part of the Cité; since France goes on holiday throughout August, good luck getting parts or a maintenance crew. Of course, it was only a test, so the hot water has gone again, many assurances it’ll be on by Friday.
We’re both quite exhausted, most likely due to the very easy lure of having afternoon drinks that inevitably become an extended evening. The air here is very dehydrating, and the water is somehow different. Sam’s wife Marie visited for an afternoon on her way back to Sydney, we had a lovely catch up; only I strained myself carrying her big travel bag around, now I’m a bit sore – but getting better with stretching.
We’ve moved into our new working space and it is great, it’s on the ground level which is a nice change for Paris. Not much else is going on, we’re settling into the mundane activities of working (and doing admin which never seems to end). Ironically, it’s easy to get a residency and then spend the whole time applying for the next residency and funding to go there, only to do the same once you get to the next one.
There is an open studio tonight, so we’ll get to see what another artist has been up to. Then maybe a drink by the river. Hope all is well for you. Lots of love, Joe and Chan xx
We have settled into everyday life and our days are less raucous and more tiring. Yesterday did a big market shop for fruit and veg, started cooking and the day was pretty much done. Getting some good work done in the studio, and have been emailing the euro art institutions to get permission to record. We’ll be going to the Bilboa Guggenheim in October at the invitation of the curator, who has organized a chaperone to meet us.
We caught up with Zara when she arrived in Paris, and made sure she was comfortable in her hostel. She’ll be coming for dinner here at the studio tonight and there is a concert in the auditorium that we’ll go to also. Our friend Jack Prest arrived in Paris for work yesterday, we caught up for beers and dinner at a Chinese place, great eats. He’s helping us with the sound engineering on our project.
Chanelle’s Birthday was last Monday, and we had a boozy cocktail party with new friends in the studio. I managed to find all the tools for cocktail making, and we all got very toasted. There was some killer music, with a Russian on baritone saxophone and a singer playing guitar. We listened to records and in the early evening and made a trip to the local Scottish bar to play pool. Everyone came back to the studio again for some delicious pizza and more cocktails. The recovery was a week long for all involved.
We’re looking forward to seeing Zara and her friend, I think she’s having a really good time here in Paris. She’ll be heading south to Athens soon, but I’m not sure when. I’ve made a ratatouille sauce for dinner, and we have some fresh ravioli and tagliatelle from the markets to go with it. Lots of Love, Joe and Chan x x