Xanadu presents:
Déstockage Astral
The aʁ lɑ̃ɡaʒ collective, Frédéric Danos, Giselle’s Solutions, Buster Keaton remix and Ted Nelson
Iméra, 2 place Leverrier, 13004 Marseille
Thursday 29 June 2023 ::: Exhibition, performances and cocktails 6pm – 10pm
For this last exhibition, it’s a going-away party! The Xanadu gallery is doing some burlesque house-cleaning and spiritual renovation. You’ll discover its secrets, a cult book on cyberculture, and be able to walk away with an object from our collection by taking part in our raffle, “Tout doit disparaître” (Everything must go). We’ll explore new spaces, cleanse our minds, commune with the stars and drink cocktails to the glory of Xanadu.
Désorceler l’université – cycle 2 (Collectif aʁ lɑ̃ɡaʒ, 2023)
• Les étoiles cachent leurs feux brillants – Performance
• Astro blue – Magic cocktail (with Gerard Sasges, historian and barman)
• Fragments d’un discours astral – Astrological ritournello and scratch cards
The witches-artists-researchers of the aʁ lɑ̃ɡaʒ collective (Agathe Bastide, Ilona Carmona and Delphine Mazari) propose to unbewitch the Iméra for an evening. In the Observatory, they will set up their magic circle to purify the space and offer spectators a suspended moment between earth and sky. Echoing this circle, they will sing an astral ritornello for the audience, and will offer a magical beverage to enjoy the summer.
Everything must go (Frédéric Danos et Xanadu, ft. Amazon, eBay, Leboncoin et Rakuten, 2023)
Since the very beginning, the Xanadu gallery has been collecting objects linked to the abundant etymology of its name – from the palace of Kubla Khan evoked by Marco Polo, to Charles Foster Kane’s castle, Bill Gates’ vacation home, or Olivia Newton-John’s 80s hit – but also a whole constellation of vintage and rare objects. As this is our last exhibition, we thought we’d share them with you in a big raffle, “Everything must go”. Bring your coins 😀🪙💰🎉
Big Bookmark (Giselle’s Solutions, 2023)
Big Bookmark is a commissioned work in a series of bookmarks produced by Giselle’s Books. It is a form of amplified page marker whose shape allows the book to remain open to a selected page, while highlighting the cover in a continuous gesture. Big bookmark is designed specifically for Xanadu to the exact dimensions of Ted Nelson’s Dream Machines / Computer Lib.
Dream Machines / Computer Lib (Ted Nelson, 1974)
Ted Nelson’s “Dream Machines / Computer Lib”, published in 1974, is a manifesto for the democratization of computing, asserting that every individual should be able to understand and use computers. Nelson envisions these machines as extensions of the human mind, even sketching the beginnings of what would become the Web with his Xanadu project. This book, rich in funky annotations, schematics and diagrams, remains a fundamental text for computer freedom.
One Year at Xanadu (Buster Keaton remix and Xanadu, 2023)
Remix of “One Week” by Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline, 1920, with music by Electric Light Orchestra for the film Xanadu by Robert Greenwald starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, 1980
The aʁ lɑ̃ɡaʒ collective is made up of three witch-artist-researchers: Agathe Bastide, PhD student in visual arts (CNE, AMU) and teacher at Beaux-Arts de Marseille-INSEAMM; Ilona Carmona, PhD student in Aesthetics and Art Sciences (LESA, AMU), associate professor in secondary schools and lecturer at Aix-Marseille University; and Delphine Mazari, former PhD student and associate professor in secondary schools. All three have joined forces to form this collective, which questions the place of language in and with the visual arts in contemporary artistic practices. For the aʁ lɑ̃ɡaʒ collective, questioning the relationship between art and language is a way of proposing new forms of construction, transmission and reception of knowledge in order to renew the real.
Frédéric Danos says yes to everything. Poet born in 1959, he uses performance, he is interested in landscape, family biography, cooking, he publishes in magazines, he is a member of the acoustic noise trio Jeune fille orrible and co-hosts the morning show every other Wednesday on Radio psg matin. With Astrid de la Chapelle, Sarah Garcin and Marie Lechner he founded Le club saucisse, a culinary open source company. He published a cookbook, Cuisine domestique with Editions du Tigre, in 2014. With Sarah Garcin and Ferdinand Dervieux he developed eWank, a neo-genre cyborg application to stroke and make your phone come. He directs documentaries, plays in films and is an actor in novels. He plays in theater. He is a member of the l’Encyclopédie de la parole since 2008. His first text for the theater, The Encyclopedist, was created in June 2021 at the Festival d’automne in Paris. He is working on a film adaptation of Georg Büchner’s Lenz and still hasn’t varnished his kitchen shelves.
Giselle’s Books, Giselle’s Solutions and Giselle’s are the transhumant entity of the artistic research project co-established by Lucas Jacques-Witz and Ryder Morey-Weale. In 2023, it includes an exhibition program interested in publication, an archive of books shaped by a lending library and dedicated acquisition fund, a production house focused on paper-based realizations, as well as a consultancy organization. In addition to the activities carried out by Giselle’s, the group sporadically takes part in exhibitions, workshops and presentations.
Buster Keaton (1895-1966) was an icon of American silent cinema, renowned for his deft physical comedy and daring stunts. He started out in vaudeville at the age of three, before moving into film in the 1920s. His films such as “The General” and “Sherlock Jr.” are masterpieces of cinematic art, characterized by stoically expressive humor. Keaton’s legacy lives on today, inspiring generations of comedians.
Born in 1937, Ted Nelson is an American computer pioneer. He invented hypertext, a system of linked documents that was a the precursor of the Web. His most ambitious project, Xanadu, initiated in the 1960s, envisaged an interconnected global information network. Although this project was never fully realized, it inspired the conception of the modern Internet. Today, Nelson remains an influential figure as his pioneering vision continues to shape computing.
We would like to thank all our partners during the four exhibitions for their generosity and support!
The aʁ lɑ̃ɡaʒ collective’s performance, Les étoiles cachent leurs feux brillants, received an extremely warm and enthusiastic welcome from Lionel Ruiz, director of the Marseille Observatory Planetarium.
The aʁ lɑ̃ɡaʒ collective’s project was supported by Épistémologies depuis les arts, a research program of Aix-Marseille University’s LESA (Laboratoire d’Études en Sciences des Arts), co-directed by Damien Beyrouthy and Judith Dehail.
Big Bookmark was a commission given to Giselle’s Solutions to create a display for Ted Nelson’s cult book Dream Machines / Computer Lib.
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More info on: http://www.xanadu.institute
Facebook event : https://www.facebook.com/events/283569030818103
Xanadu is a curatorial project by Christophe Bruno and Jeff Guess, artists in residency at Iméra, the Institute for Advanced Study of Aix-Marseille University from September 2022 to July 2023.
Xanadu is located next to the Parc Longchamp, in the heart of the gardens of the Institute.
Christophe Bruno 