From February 18 to May 12, 2024, Friendship : That Shiver, That Aspen, a group exhibition organized in collaboration with Centre d'art contemporain d'Ivry—le Crédac.
At CRAC Alsace and Crédac, we are really motivated by sharing ideas, collaborating and pooling methods. One day, we brought to the table the Temple de l’Amitié (the temple of friendship), located at 20 rue Jacob in Paris and home to the American writer Natalie Clifford Barney from 1908 to 1972. This temple and its garden fascinate us. They hosted an influential literary salon, extravagant parties, lively discussions, torrid encounters and timeless friendships. We share these bonds of complicity with the artists and their pieces. Friendship provides our practices with a unique experience of art. Friendship constitutes a space for thinking, creating, entwining. Friendship leads us to push open doors: the doors to the garden of the Temple de l’Amitié.
Reading the poem Au Temple de l’Amitié by Natalie Clifford Barney, the words “Friendship : that shiver, that aspen”* resonate with us. Near to the aspen, we perceive bodies, laughter and friendships. These bodies capsize, laughter erupts, and the aspen shivers, meanwhile, a snail: “Like the shell of a snail, our friendship grows by a new ring each year.”** One more ring.
The consideration of friendship as a method more than a subject helps us shape this exhibition that will straddle our two art centers and be constructed collectively with the artists, their friends and draw on the energy that drives us resolutely. We thus give full rein to the plurality of voices among which we invite you to add yours.
Friendly regards,
The teams of CRAC Alsace and Crédac
* Natalie Clifford Barney, Les Nouvelles pensées de l’Amazone (Paris: Mercure de France, 1939).
** Ibid.
Friendship : That Shiver, That Aspen brings together Boris Achour (with Émilie Renard), Noémie Bablet, Caroline Bachmann, Anna Byskov (with Bertil Byskov, Margaret Byskov, Camila Farina and Sophie Lamm), Thomas Cap de Ville, Caretto & Spagna, Lola Gonzàlez, Donna Gottschalk, Tom Hallet, Eric Hattan (with Silvia Bächli, Rut Himmelsbach, Guido Nussbaum, Hannah Villiger and Anna Winteler), Dorothy Iannone and Sarah Pucci, Youri Johnson, Edit Oderbolz, Hatice Pinarbaşi (with Aram Abbas, Zahna Siham Benamor, Hugo Ferretto and Elif Pinarbaşi), Marthe Ramm Fortun, Marnie Slater (with Robin Brettar, Matilda Cobanli, Judith Geerts, Jessica Gysel, Katja Mater and Clare Noonan) and Sarah Tritz.
From April 27 to July 13, 2024, the exhibition Friendship : That Shiver, That Aspen unfolds at Crédac, in Ivry-sur-Seine.
