En coulisses
En coulisses
Yes ! There are backstage at the Frac.
The display is full of surprises, don’t you think? These heights, the visual echoes between paintings and photographs are indeed astonishing. Maybe you already know it : this collection is yours. It is a common good that a team of professionals is taking care of so that in decades, we can still understand and appreciate it.
The Frac Bretagne collection brings together works of artists from different generations and art scenes whether local, regional and international. Abstraction is one of the historical bases of the collection which also unfolds around thematic axes: works in relation to nature, that question the status of the contemporary image, the artist as a witness to his/her time, as well as as large monographic bodies.
The works go in and out from this storage for exhibitions and participatory projects. The FRACs are indeed the most widely distributed public collections in France. This principle of mobility defines these institutions as essential players in regional policies aiming to reduce geographical and social disparities in access to culture. Thus, FRACs are facilitating the discovery of contemporary art by the most diverse types of publics.
For you, the Frac has recorded voices to listen to. You’ll her an improbable flight attendant, fine connoisseur of conservation issues, witnesses recounting their memories of the works that you can see, technicians who know the collection better than anyone, works that speak to each other… and also the public with whom the Frac sets up numerous projects throughout the region and who has bring art pieces into their venues.
Image : View of the North gallery, 2021, Frac Bretagne, Rennes. Photo credit : Frac Bretagne
Le Pédilove
Le Pédilove
This installation by French Artist Anaïs Touchot (born in 1987 in Dinan), situated in Frac Bretagne’s Canyon, is a space where the public is invited to relax, read, listen, scribble, hide, or chat, surrounded by barricades/palisades and tatami mats. Le Pédilove offers a place for lounging, encouraging bodies to adopt a slightly softer attitude, waiting and lascivious. Words painted on fabrics, table and signs play with expressions lifted from hypnosis, meditation, and coaching tutorials, adding a “fortune cookie” aspect to the artificial environment.
By inventing a space that borrows codes from multiple places, Anaïs Touchot carries on with her work as a “builder” or “demolisher” of shared spaces, affirming her role in the production of forms in which she diverts the weight of materials, removing any aspect of solemnity. A spirit of derision hovers in the titles of her latest works: “I will leave my old skin there”, “Muddy Glory”, “Lost Cat”, “Beauty worker”. These installations use catchphrases and buzzwords as a way of anchoring oneself in a shared banality, one that levels hierarchies, bringing together the art of the beauty salon, the football match, or the cat bar. “Relax, everything will be fine”.
The Canyon
The so-called “skylight” space was transformed in 2019 into a “canyon”, a hybrid space between an artistic experimentation platform and an educational space. It is inhabited by the passable installation “Le Pédilove” by Anaïs Touchot. It is a friendly and flexible place that promotes debate and the collective as well as individual experience – it is equipped with tables, seats, documentary resources, etc.