With François Hers, artist and founder of New Patrons

Excerpt from the conference "Art in the Present" at Sciences Po, Paris, with François Hers, founder of the New Patrons. Conference proposed in the program of La Nuit des Idées, January 31, 2019.

Artist: Remy Zaugg

Beginning with a commission for an artwork to accompany the renovation of the historic wash house in Blessey, Zaugg’s project ended up encompassing its surroundings entirely: bringing residents’ attention to the degraded state of the village, the artist strove to progressively intervene across the entire topography, restoring old abandoned paths and dry stone walls, and even creating a large pond.

Artist : Félicie d’Estienne d’Orves

The artistic project L’Atome primitif (The Primeval Atom) pays homage to the pioneering work of Georges Lemaître, who was father of the Big Bang theory and a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain. The work invites visitors on a walk into the universe through the streets of Louvain, and to travel back in time to the beginning of cosmic history.

With Yasmin Afschar, mediator

With Paul B. Preciado and Bartomeu Mari

Facing problems of integration in the district El Raval, the method of the New Patrons represents a source of inspiration for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona to rethink the museum as a place of production of collective knowledge and to change its relationship with the public.

With Alexander Koch

Interview with Alexander Koch (Die Neue Auftraggeber), Berlin, about the implementation of the New Patrons protocol in Germany.

With Xavier Douroux and Thérèse Legierse

What does the expression "commanditaire" (patron) mean? This word has a precise root and meaning in the history of France. Its translation into other languages poses certain difficulties that reflect the rich political and cultural heritage of each country. Interview with the mediators Xavier Douroux, in France, and Thérèse Legierse, in Belgium.

Why does an artist come to believe that the task at hand is to return art to its political function? It's no longer up to artists to do this, nor to the authorities, but to society itself. And that society can do this! But how? By trusting the artist! And what else? By implementing an exercise in democracy governed by a Protocol that defines a new sharing of responsibilities and creates the forms of a dialogue whose ultimate goal is to bring forth as many works of art as society can recognize and express the need for. The result is a society that has  no longer access to artworks only, but to artists and creativity, in order to shape itself and meet the cultural challenges it faces.

This book aims to think about the relationship between art and democracy. How can artworks change society? How to integrate the citizens in the signature of the work? How to understand the articulation between public or private interventions, market and spectators? These are some of the questions to which 47 contributions, coming from many disciplinary fields, try to answer.

Going beyond simple commentary or posing the usual questions, this is a statement of the conditions for an entirely revolutionary mode of action. For every epoch, a protocol; for every situation, tools for analysis and construction of an artwork both common and singular: such are the New Patrons’ ambitions for our times. The idea of an artist, François Hers, that radically transforms the conditions of artistic emergence and appropriation, and the commitment of a mediator, Xavier Douroux, who draws the first lessons from the process of implementing it.

The English adaptation of the New Patrons publication Faire art comme on fait société, supplemented by contributions from protagonists from the Anglo-American intellectual scene. Drawing on American and French contexts, the work puts into perspective a form of democratic artistic engagement that renews the relations between creation, culture and society.

Reflecting on the conditions necessary for the development of the New Patrons protocol, French artist François Hers calls for a greater involvement of museums as well as an art history that would relate creative processes to political conditions. English translation of the original French text.

English translation of the original text. Going beyond simple commentary or posing the usual questions, this is a statement of the conditions for an entirely revolutionary mode of action. For every epoch, a protocol; for every situation, tools for analysis and construction of an artwork both common and singular: such are the New Patrons’ ambitions for our times. The idea of an artist, François Hers, that radically transforms the conditions of artistic emergence and appropriation, and the commitment of a mediator, Xavier Douroux, who draws the first lessons from the process of implementing it.

Journalist Laurence Grivel is at the inauguration of the work Philosophie de l'ameublement by Emmanuelle Lainé. The Vertigo program is dedicated to the commission of the EMS Le Nouveau Prieuré.

↗ Listen to the program

As part of Kunsttage Basel, New Patrons mediator Yasmin Afschar explains how the protocol works and discusses the challenges of the Kaserne commission in Basel.