Author Description

Silence characterizes Vassivière Island. In spite of its strong vocation for tourism, the Centre international dart et du paysage is a place where silence predominates. It conditions the destiny and activity of the art centre, which, as defined by its particular, archetypal status, is no ordinary site of transit for artworks but a place for creation and production. The art, culture, architecture and landscape structure inscribed in the Centres birth certificate obliges the artists to launch into a complex and radical adventure, to experiment with their own work in relation to these omnipresent and constituting elements of the site. This new exhibition by Belgian artist Nico Dockx, opening February 18, 2006, seems to perfectly incarnate Director Chiara Parisi's vision for the Vassivière art centre. Parisi wishes to engage the Centre more actively in research and, as in preceding exhibitions, drive it toward site-specific experiments. Nico Dockx practice is particularly varied: artist, archivist, librarian, film director, curator, graphic artist, translator, performer. For his exhibition at Vassivière (as was the case for artists previously invited here), he accepted to take on the entirety of Aldo Rossi's cumbersome architecture and to transform it into an evolving laboratory - bringing together sound as well as image, his personal archives and as well as those of his close relations. Dockxs work continually develops in confrontation with, and in relation to, other actors. On this occasion he has invited artists Aglaia Konrad and Mark Luyten with the Building Transmission collective to accompany him in producing the exhibition, which they intend to enrich with new collaborations and new elements throughout the duration of the show. The project daybyday & another day is a repetition and an evolution, an improvisation on the favourable terrain that is time. One thinks of Nietzsches eternal return, only with an additional element, one more emotion, offered by the artist