If sport is considered as an eminently popular activity, contemporary art is all too often perceived as elitist. But this opposition is superficial, for art and sport share a common thread: passion. Both are emotion intensifiers. They are also marked by the multiplicity of their practices and offer forms of expression.
Consequently, Art & Sport is an event that aims to bring these two worlds together by offering a multifaceted exhibition throughout France. The idea is to use a sports facility or event in each region of France and overseas to reach out to a public that is often far removed from museums and art centers. Drawing on the collections of France’s 22 Regional Funds for Contemporary Art (FRAC) - which are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year - Art & Sport aims to contribute to the democratization of contemporary art by offering a variety of aesthetic experiences in an unusual context.
Daniel Firman, Gathering, 2000, collection FRAC Bourgogne ©ADAGP, Paris 2024
Football stadiums, swimming pools, boules pitches, skate parks, etc. are all places that will become, for the duration of an exhibition, a new playground. Some spaces will host a single work - the works presented are not sports-related - which will be an opportunity to highlight the FRACs’ support for emerging creation, with particular emphasis on young artists in the field of video: this medium offers an important breadth of vocabulary that can speak to the greatest number of people, as everyone is familiar with images in motion. In addition to these monographic presentations, some of the collective propositions will offer themes echoing the host structure, carefully avoiding sport becoming a subject in its own right: these will include the marine worlds in a nautical resort, the multicolour on a climbing wall with polychrome tracks, but also an exhibition on the primordial notion of care in today’s fitness and wellness centers, all of which will help to create this conversation between contemporary art and sporting practices. The spaces will be used during opening hours or during sporting events to encourage regular users to discover the works.
The project is therefore designed to create a fruitful dialogue between the worlds of art and sport, especially as contemporary art is particularly fond of displacement and disruption. Sports facilities will become unexpected exhibition spaces in which videos, photographs and installations will appear to provoke a step aside, in the form of a funny, surprising or contemplative moment.
As part of this awareness-raising process, which is an integral part of the mission of the Regional Funds for Contemporary Art, the project’s ambition is to offer a mediation ensured by a user of the facility, so that the latter in turn can share their thoughts and feelings, with the aim of bringing art and sport together in a spirit of exchange. Short explanatory texts will of course be available to accompany people discovering the works in each region.
Taking on an abundant dimension, this dissemination is intended as an affirmation of a work that is as close as possible to all audiences, and the embodiment of the spirit of the FRAC, which have been making art more accessible for everyone for 40 years.
Art & Sport is conceived first and foremost as a generous event that dispenses with clichés about contemporary art to take on the role of an ode to diversity.
The participating locations are: Nevers, Saint-Brieuc, Mulhouse, Douaisis, Pau, Le Mans, Grenoble, Marseille, Saint-Lô, Paris, Corse, Tours, Occitanie (to be determined)
General curator for all exhibitions Fabien Danesi, Director of FRAC Corsica
