Resulting from collective reflection of artistic and institutional situation in Paris, Société Anonyme was designed as a one-year project, initiated by the collective Work Method, the curators of which Nataša Petrešin, Thomas Boutoux and François Piron, invited to Paris ten artists, curators and collectives to reside temporarily in the city and develop a specific project together with the French interlocutors and like-minded persons. The first phase of this residence and exploration took place in spring 2007, in the art centre Le Plateau, while the second visible phase will be realized in Kadist Art Foundation late this year. The production part of the project was supported by the American Center Foundation. Société Anonyme selected groups and organization on the basis of their designing and encouraging original approaches to artistic practices and production, creating at the same time a relevant alternative to mainstream art institutions (museums, galleries, commercial publishing, academies, biennales, art fairs etc.). Participants in the project were selected on the basis of their proved skills to intervene in local situations different from the context they originate from and which they are active in, as well as their openness towards sharing production experiences with others. Participants in the project are: Un groupe comme les autres / Ayreen Anastas, François Bucher, Rene Gabri (New York/Berlin); Chto Delat? What is to be done? (St. Petersburg/Moscow); Erick Beltran (Mexico City); tv-tv (Copenhagen); Nico Dockx & Friends (Antwerp); What, How & for Whom? (Zagreb); transit.cz (Prague); b_books (Berlin); "Curating the Library"/ Moritz Küng (Antwerp), Tere Recarens (Barcelona/Berlin).

François Piron - biography

Curator and art critic.
He teaches contemporary art history and theory at the L’École nationale des beaux-arts in Lyon. He was the director of Laboratoires, residence for artists and artistic centre in a northern suburb of Paris, with the aim to focus on disciplinary boundaries and relations between art and social space. He is currently operating a centre in Paris in which is located his curatorial agency Work Method and the commercial experimental gallery Castillo-Corrales, together with a group of curators.