La Traverse issue 6

Read the full version at the Foundation reception desk!

Editorial by Antonia Scintilla, Fondation Pernod Ricard Director:

"A new season has begun at the Pernod Ricard Foundation, and with it comes the sixth issue of our journal - which, as usual, offers new perspectives on the projects taking place in our various exhibition and discussion spaces.

While La Traverse 5 focused on the spectral mood which, in recent months, seems to have found its way into society as a whole - and which is reflected in our 24th Prix, "Do You Believe in Ghosts?", orchestrated by curator Fernanda Brenner - the following pages introduce alternatives or, more aptly perhaps, escapes, to certain narratives or myths that have forged contemporary imaginations. Josèfa Ntjam's exhibition, which artist and researcher Mawena Yehouessi will accompany at the Fondation at the end of autumn, has of course largely guided this approach - so much so that this work conjures up transformative entities that shake up perception and nourish thought with rich speculative material. But it is also, more generally, through the proposals of those we will be welcoming over the coming months that these new voices emerge, bringing with them a whole horizon of attitudes and commitments essential to the renewal of the art scene in France and elsewhere.

This issue continues with words and images from the six fantastic artists taking part in the 24th Prix, sharing personal anecdotes and poetic inspirations that shed light on their work. As a warning to the viewers of matter gone wild, Josèfa Ntjam's first large-scale exhibition in an institution, Mawena Yehouessi uses the plasticity of her language and writing for the benefit of her philosophy. Extending the echo of this work, Julien Bécourt further explores the notion of Afrofuturism through the privileged filter of techno music. Following Théo Robine-Langlois's visual essay, which seems to pick up all kinds of voices around him like a radio, we meet up again with Colette Barbier for an interview with Ariane Loze, an artist with multiple identities, who observes the evolution of behavior through the filter of digital applications.

Finally, we wanted to reproduce a recent painting by Sylvie Fanchon (1953-2023), exceptionally in color, on the center page of this journal. Sylvie was a formidable painter and an inspiring and demanding interlocutor. She left her mark on a whole generation of artists, as well as on those who, like us, had the good fortune to cross her path. Her work will be with us for a long time to come.

This Traverse is dedicated to her."