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France, a sales inventory
By Clotilde Viannay & Philippe Vasset
Nations increasingly behaves like companies : they build their brands, manage their stocks
and look at their cash-flows. "France, a sales inventory" pushes that logic to the extreme by
making a catalog of every state-owned assets that France is trying to sell, be it weapons,
museum franchises, or surplus grain.
Items up for sale are classified by sector (military, agroproducts, art & culture) and
described in details on index cards contained in a metallic filing cabinet. A point of contact is
provided for the potential buyers
CLOTILDE VIANNAY
Lives and works in Paris
Information, whatever the medium is, consists of a narration or fiction. Clotilde Viannay
exhibits documentary resources, reassembles and redistributes those elements through
which the story is usually created. Her works function as strategic displays, taken from
various forms of documentary and related to geopolitical events. Combining several points
of view, her installations propose a new reading and interpretation, reflecting the complexity
of information. In May 2008 Clotilde Viannay will present a new piece especially created for
the show Bass Diffusion Model. This work operates as a census office for evaluating the
strategies and level of identity diffusion of French savoir-faire and culture. The endeavour of
her task (gathering more than 4000 informational files about heritage, culture, army,
education, etc. organized within a typical administrative furniture) is a failure assumed
process, satirising patriotic ambition.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS / FESTIVALS
2007 Analyse de la souffrance spatiale - Une étude pilote pour comprendre la notion de
‘perte de repères’, exposition à la DIACT (Délégation Interministérielle à l’Aménagement et à
la Compétitivité des Territoires)
2006 La force de l’art, le Grand Palais, Paris
N7-S11, Bétonsalon, Paris
2005 Festival International de la photographie de Lianzhou, Musée provincial de Lianzhou,
Chine
2004 In Extremis, Printemps de Septembre, Rendez-vous des Images, Toulouse
2003 Signes de nuit, Cinéma le Balzac, Paris - Stade de France, Fondation Italo-suédoise,
Biennale de Venise Off, Italie (à l’occasion d’une résidence d’un mois)
2002 Vidéo fréquence II, La Vitrine, Paris
PHILIPPE VASSET
Lives and works in Paris
PhilippeVasset is a writer and a journalist. He wrote four novels, all published in France by
Editions Fayard. His first novel, Exemplaire de démonstration, was published in the UK by
Serpent¹s Tail Publishing under the title Scriptgenerator,in Italy by Minimum Fax and in
Russia by Metcheryakov Publishing.He is also the Managing Editor of Intelligence Online, a
bi-weekly newsletter about political as well as business intelligence (http://www.
intelligenceonline.com).
By Clotilde Viannay & Philippe Vasset
Nations increasingly behaves like companies : they build their brands, manage their stocks
and look at their cash-flows. "France, a sales inventory" pushes that logic to the extreme by
making a catalog of every state-owned assets that France is trying to sell, be it weapons,
museum franchises, or surplus grain.
Items up for sale are classified by sector (military, agroproducts, art & culture) and
described in details on index cards contained in a metallic filing cabinet. A point of contact is
provided for the potential buyers
CLOTILDE VIANNAY
Lives and works in Paris
Information, whatever the medium is, consists of a narration or fiction. Clotilde Viannay
exhibits documentary resources, reassembles and redistributes those elements through
which the story is usually created. Her works function as strategic displays, taken from
various forms of documentary and related to geopolitical events. Combining several points
of view, her installations propose a new reading and interpretation, reflecting the complexity
of information. In May 2008 Clotilde Viannay will present a new piece especially created for
the show Bass Diffusion Model. This work operates as a census office for evaluating the
strategies and level of identity diffusion of French savoir-faire and culture. The endeavour of
her task (gathering more than 4000 informational files about heritage, culture, army,
education, etc. organized within a typical administrative furniture) is a failure assumed
process, satirising patriotic ambition.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS / FESTIVALS
2007 Analyse de la souffrance spatiale - Une étude pilote pour comprendre la notion de
‘perte de repères’, exposition à la DIACT (Délégation Interministérielle à l’Aménagement et à
la Compétitivité des Territoires)
2006 La force de l’art, le Grand Palais, Paris
N7-S11, Bétonsalon, Paris
2005 Festival International de la photographie de Lianzhou, Musée provincial de Lianzhou,
Chine
2004 In Extremis, Printemps de Septembre, Rendez-vous des Images, Toulouse
2003 Signes de nuit, Cinéma le Balzac, Paris - Stade de France, Fondation Italo-suédoise,
Biennale de Venise Off, Italie (à l’occasion d’une résidence d’un mois)
2002 Vidéo fréquence II, La Vitrine, Paris
PHILIPPE VASSET
Lives and works in Paris
PhilippeVasset is a writer and a journalist. He wrote four novels, all published in France by
Editions Fayard. His first novel, Exemplaire de démonstration, was published in the UK by
Serpent¹s Tail Publishing under the title Scriptgenerator,in Italy by Minimum Fax and in
Russia by Metcheryakov Publishing.He is also the Managing Editor of Intelligence Online, a
bi-weekly newsletter about political as well as business intelligence (http://www.
intelligenceonline.com).
| CLOTILDE VIANNAY AND PHILIPPE VASSET |