European Manifesto of Weaknesses (or Elegy of a life without slippers and the memory of a soft cushion)
A proposition by Mehdi Brit and Morgane Rousseau, with Jeanne Moynot, Anna Byskov and Natsuko Uchino.

On 18 October 2013, we will celebrate the European Manifesto of Weaknesses (or Elegy of a life without slippers and the memory of a soft cushion) ("Le Manifeste Européen des Faiblesses"), echoing the famous Cabaret Voltaire as well as the energy and madness of the Dada movement. This manifesto is in response to our attempt to draft a transgressive theory somewhere between the absurd and performance, for the manifesto is a popular, cross-cutting and vindictive response that explores the winding paths between art and society. Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, now home to our "Dadaist" residence, will open its doors for a discussion that directly links the audience to a participative artistic situation, as we all wish to propose, experiment and transgress. The European Manifesto of Weaknesses reveals our obsession for performance and examines a creative meeting in the form of a collective project to discover and share with three artists - Jeanne Moynot, Anna Byskov and Natsuko Uchino.

Jeanne Moynot (to be published soon)

Anna Byskov: born in 1984 in Quito, Ecuador, Anny Byskov is developing a burlesque poetic universe. Today she adds performance art to her work, focused on self-portrait films. By considering herself a tool for her work, her body and sometimes her spirit are brought to bear in off-beat situations where nonsense and the absurd win out over reason. The artist stages precarious actions that are always on the razor’s edge. Anna Byskov is fully committed to her work; in the name of self-derision and tragi-comedy, carried forward by the desire to attempt the impossible, she does not shrink from the task, as she calls it, of stumbling against her own self.

Natsuko Uchino is an artist whose practice and experience are characterised by cross-disciplinarity. Ecological concerns underpin her multi-form work of sculpture, film and performance. A student at Cooper Union and a founding member of the organisation Art and Agriculture NY, Natsuko has shown her work at the 2nd Land Art Biennial in Mongolia, the 6th Global Conference in Evian, Gavin Brown’s enterprise (New York), New Museum (New York), Rocket gallery (Tokyo), CCA (Kitakyushu), Rijksakademie (Amsterdam), Elaine MGK (Basel), la Villa Romana (Florence), Kunsthalle (Baden-Baden), Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhagen), le Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Paris), la Friche Belle de Mai (Marseille).

Mehdi Brit is an exhibition curator and art critic focusing on performance and its contemporary forms: Quand la transgression flirte avec le luxe, Hôtel Particulier Montmartre, 2010-2012; Sarah Trouche: Résistance(s), Fondation Brownstone, 2011; So Swiss: la scène de la performance en Suisse, Pavé dans la mare, Besançon, 2012; Les Performances - Fil rouge du Festival de la Croatie en France, 2012; Cycle de performances /Nuit des musées du Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, 2012-2014; Performance: Empreintes et passages à l'acte, Astérides/Friche Belle de mai, Marseille-Capitale Européenne pour la Culture 2013. Editor-in-chief of the journal Diapo, he is currently working on a piece based on interviews about performance in France and In Process, a new season of performances at the FIAC 2013.

Morgane Rousseau is a set designer, designer and director. After studying at Columbia University in New York, Morgane created the artist’s residence at Château de Bionnay in 1992, thereby supporting exhibitions and performances over nearly ten years as well as increasing the renown of the greatest contemporary French artists (Lawrence Weiner, Mario Merz, Roman Opalka, Jean Pierre Raynaud, Phillipe Ramette et Pierrick Sorin). After the Ouvertures evening events combining video, musical performance and contemporary art, she organised a number of exhibitions (Carte Blanche pour le Printemps de Bourges) and then opened the Hôtel Particulier Montmartre in 2007, creating a personal, elegant, magical space.

Image: European Manifesto of Weaknesses (with Anna Byskov, Morgane Rousseau, Jeanne Moynot, Mehdi Brit, Natsuko Uchino), 2013