systems
arthurfouray.systems maps ways of experimenting with arts.
Arthur Fouray
PPP+
2024
PPP+ is a game of associations, a corpus of possibilities where prospects and projects can form storyboards, narratives, scripts, events, and exhibitions.
rt4a
2021
Through the use of an impersonal acronym, rt4a embraces a diverse array of practices and identities, fostering a dialogue based on interconnectivity and multiplicity.
D*************
2018
D************* *** ** ***** ************ ****** *’********* ************* *** ******** ** ***** ** *’***.
Screen
2017
The artist book Screen emanates from the 2015 Spectre exhibition research, fusing the flipbook, painting and silkscreen formats in one cinematic object.
Exhibition Making
2015
Making and organising exhibitions for others is essential in the lives of artists. Exhibition Making outlines a collaborative approach to conceptualising and organising solo or group shows, successively as a part of the teams at Silicon Malley, DOC!
Arthur Fouray
2014
From the cinematic screen to abstraction and tangible objects, this normalised approach expands possible narratives on the evolution of visual storytelling, playing with situations and interfaces, blending historical art forms and nuanced layers of monochromatic paintings.
a plus o minus
2013
The a plus o minus project explored objects in pop culture as musical or linguistic symbols, offering a critical perspective on consumerism through art, co-envisioned with Nastassia Cougoulat Montel.
mmm
2013
From an online diary to an artist book to a series of photographs, mmm (inverse of www) blurs the line between more than two years of private musings and art, visually coded using typefaces appropriated from artists and art institutions.
Pre–Natal
2011
An emergence as a playful critique of ‘contemporaryart’ where installations evolve like conversations, and labels become soft invitations.
before Arts
1991-2011
Arthur Fouray
09.05.1990, Paris, France
Lives and works in Marseille, France
Curriculum Vitæ
Solo Shows
- Caravan, 2017, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland
- 2080, 2017, ZQM, Berlin, Germany
- Osmosis, 2015, La Placette, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Spectre, 2015, Espace Quark, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1984 (feat.1990), deuxième partie, 2019, Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Geneva, Switzerland
- 1984 (feat.1990), 2019, Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Geneva, Switzerland
- Galerie Joy de Rouvre, 2018, Art Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
- Greffes, 2017, Académie de France à Rome, Villa Medici, Rome, Italy
- 3 years, Smart Move, 2017, Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Geneva, Switzerland
- PRIX Novembre à Vitry, 2017, Vitry sur Seine, France
- MONO, 2017, DOC, Paris, France
- Ristretto, 2017, Le Marquis, Saint-Denis, France
- Nouvelle Collection Paris, 2017, ENSBA, Paris, France
- Jeudi x PRPArt Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
- Frédéric Gabioud, Arthur Fouray, Baker Wardlaw, 2016, Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Geneva, Switzerland
- Cruising, 2016, Salts, Basel, Switzerland
- RÉ DO, 2016, Curated by Silicon Malley, La Cabine, Clermont-Ferrand, France
- Kiefer Hablitzel Prize (nominee), 2016, Swiss Art Awards, Basel, Switzerland
- Les lèvres nues, 2016, DOC, Paris, France
- Tous les tableaux sont à l’envers, 2016, Circuit, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Accrochage Vaud, 2016, MCBA, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Private Life, 2015, Can Sep Simo, Ibiza, Spain
- Nuit des musées, 2015, Curated by Simon Paccaud & Stéphanie Serra, Musée Jenisch, Vevey, Switzerland
- Life is a Bed of Roses, 2015, Curated by Stéphanie Moisdon, Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris, France
- S.Y.N.N.A.L.L.A.G.M.A SHOW, 2014, Espace Quark, Geneva, Switzerland
- Summer Camp, 2014, Happy Baby Gallery, Crissier, Switzerland
- The Rise of the New Creative Class, 2014, Allianz Club, Renens, Switzerland
- Matthieu Laurette : une monographie dérivée (1993-2023), Mac Val, Vitry-sur-Seine, France
- Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, 2023, les presses du réel, Dijon, France
- Art Club, 2018, Académie de France à Rome, Villa Medici, Rome, Italy
- Caravan, 2018, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland
- Arthur Fouray, SCREEN, 2017, Tombolo Presses, 104 pages, Nevers, France
- FPWM C.06 (Arter, to Art, Artarre, Kunsten), 2016, Éditions Climanen, Geneva, Switzerland
- Arthur Fouray, M, 2015, Micronauts Publishing, 388 pages, Vevey, Switzerland
- Agnès Varda – A day without seeing a tree is a waste of a day – Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives: Chapter 3, co-curated with Hans Ulrich Obrist, with works by Adel Abdessemed, Nairy Baghramian, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Katharina Grosse, JR, Annette Messager, Laure Prouvost, 2023, LUMA Arles, Arles, France
- Édouard Glissant – Where all the world’s imaginations
can meet and hear one another – Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives – Chapter 1, co-curated with Hans Ulrich Obrist, with works by Valerio Adami, Etel Adnan, Miquel Barceló, Tosh Basco and Wu Tsang, Daniel Boyd, Tony Cokes, Patrick Chamoiseau, Julien Creuzet, Manthia Diawara, Melvin Edwards, Édouard Glissant, Koo Jeong A, Dozie Kanu and Precious Okoyomon, Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, Julie Mehretu, Jota Mombaça, The Otolith Group, Philippe Parreno, Raqs Media Collective, Asad Raza, Anri Sala, Sylvie Séma-Glissant, 2023, LUMA Westbau, Zurich, Switzerland
- Etel Adnan – The world needs togetherness, not separation. Love, not suspicion. A common future, not isolation – Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives: Chapter 2, co-curated with Hans Ulrich Obrist, with works by Etel Adnan, Simone Fattal, 2023, LUMA Arles, Arles, France
- Édouard Glissant – Where all the world’s imaginations
can meet and hear one another – Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives – Chapter 1, co-curated with Hans Ulrich Obrist, with works by Édouard Glissant, Sylvie Séma-Glissant, Etel Adnan, agnès b., Julien Creuzet, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Manthia Diawara, Julie Mehretu, Philippe Parreno, Asad Raza, The Otolith Group, Koo Jeong A, 2023, LUMA Arles, Arles, France
- Matthieu Laurette, Demands & Supplies, 2020, Silicon Malley, Prilly, Switzerland
- Pierre Joseph, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, 2018, DOC, Paris, France
- On Italian museography…, 2018, Organised by EPFL Studio Master 1 and Silicon Malley, with works by Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Antonios Prokos, David Viladomiu, Lerna Bagdjian, Eric Bonhôte, Lois Bouche, Svenja Clausen, Noé Cuendet, Vincent Dorfmann, Florent Dubois, Floriane Fol, Fanny Frykberg Wallin, Alexandra Fuchs, Eva Hürlimann, Valentine Jaques, Valdrin Jashari, Daniela Lopes Peñaloza, Nina Mosca, Marion Moutal, Philippine Radat, Germán Ribera Marín, Valentine Robin, Felix Spangenberg, Constance Steinfels, Annabelle Thüring, Silicon Malley, Prilly, Switzerland
- Christophe Lemaitre, Manners Maketh Man, 2017, DOC, Paris, France
- La Nuit Juste avant les Forêts, 2017, Co-curated with Corentin Canesson, Lucas Erin, Eva Vaslamatzi, with works by Carlotta Bailly-Borg, Benjamin Husson, Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, Flora Moscovici, Rallou Panagiotou, DOC, Paris, France
- Terrasse 2017, 2017, Organised by Silicon Malley, Prilly, Switzerland
- Lauren Coullard, BREAK(FEAST), 2017, Organised by Silicon Malley, Prilly, Switzerland
- Francesco Cagnin, So Leggere, 2017, DOC, Paris, France
- Demelza Watts, free time, 2017, Organised by Silicon Malley, Prilly, Switzerland
- Silicon Malley, Terrasse 2013–2017, mixed media, 300 x 300 x 125 cm, 2017, Organised by Silicon Malley, Art Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
- Noémie Vulpian, César Chevalier, Cluster, 2016, Organised by Silicon Malley, Prilly, Switzerland
- Francis Baudevin, Guitars, 2016, DOC, Paris, France
- Rob a Robe, 2016, Co-curated with Lauren Coullard, with works by Pauline Bastard, Jennifer Beteille, Louise Boghossian, Corentin Canesson, Lorraine Châteaux, César Chevalier, Claude Closky, Lauren Coullard, Philippe Decrauzat, Marcel Devilliers, Ligia Dias, Kim Farkas, Antonin Fassio, Arthur Fouray, Frédéric Gabioud, Mathieu Gargam, Daiga Grantina, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Michel François, Sylvie Fleury, Antoine Giraud, Tarik Kiswanson, François Lancien-Guilberteau, Damien Le Dévédec, Rafaela Lopez, Jean-Philippe Lucas, Gabriel Méo, Justin Meekel, Tricia Middleton, Nouvelle Collection (Kim Bradford, Marie Benoite Fertin, Matthieu Brion, Alexis Chrun, Ludovic de Courson, Robin Garnier-Wenisch, Tania Gheerbrant, Caroline Grout, Dounia Ismaïl, Mahalia Kohnke-Jehl, Aurore Le Duc, Laure Mathieu, Garush Melkonyan, Sarah Nefissa Belhadjali, Lulù Nuti, Julia Pitaud, Lucie Planty, Camille Raimbault, Claudia Tennant, Elsa Werth & Marie Glaize), Néféli Papadimouli, Pierre Paulin, Kristin Reiman, Juliette Roche, Louise Siffert, Zoé de Soumagnat, Anafaia Supico, Eva Taulois, Thibault Tavernier, Alexis Tolmatchev, Virginie Vallée, Manuel Vieillot x Lois Blamire, Sara de la Villejegu, Demelza Watts, Camilla Wills, Alicia Zaton, DOC, Paris, France
- Nicolas Degrange, Suite, 2016, Organised by Silicon Malley, Prilly, Switzerland
- Robin Lebey, 1, 2015, Organised by Silicon Malley, Prilly, Switzerland
- Myriam Stamoulis, Guitare, Tanpura et Tabla électronique, 2015, Organised by Silicon Malley, Prilly, Switzerland
- Thomas Baud, Giulia Essyad, Thomas Koenig, Thomas Vogel, Laura Zalewski & Guillaume de Nadaï, CCI, Organised by Silicon Malley, Prilly, Switzerland
- DOC, 2016–2018, Curator Team, Project Space, Paris, France
- Silicon Malley, 2015–2022, Co-Founder, Artist-Run-Space, Prilly, Switzerland
- A + O –, 2013–2015, Online Project
- LUMA Arles, 2019–2024, Archivist & Curator, Arles, France
- Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, 2017–2019, Studio Manage, Paris, France
- Philippe Decrauzat, 2017, Assistant, Paris, France
- Pierre Huyghe, 2013, Assistant, Pierre Huyghe Studio, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
- ECAL, 2013–2015, Master HES-SO in Fine Arts, Renens, Switzerland
- ECAL, 2011–2013, Bachelor HES-SO in Fine Arts, Renens, Switzerland
- ESAG Penninghen, 2008–2010, Art Director Bachelor, Paris, France
- École Alsacienne, 1998–2008, Baccalaureat, Paris, France
PPP+
PPP+ is a game of associations, a corpus of possibilities where prospects and projects can form storyboards, narratives, scripts, events, and exhibitions. In two words: Oblique Strategies. It is a toolbox, a database stemming from a theoretical strategy: to sketch 100 projects on a weekly basis.
PPP+ serves as an acronym for Projects Prospects Possibilities +, as a designation similar to units of measurement such as miles per hour (mph) or protocols such as peer-to-peer (P2P) and the World Wide Web (www). It can be viewed as a fictional and subjective method for quantifying or qualifying the emergence of ideas and conceptions as blueprints.
PPP+ is composed of collections containing both text and images. The image’s content defines the title of the collection itself, ranging from photography to drawing to objects. The compendium first spreads digitally through social media platforms, then generates collections of cards on the website rt4a.systems, which serve as a template for real physical playing cards. The use of these different mediums aims to contextualize PPP+ in collective and open-source contexts. The core of PPP+ is suspense, the tension between an stimuli and its concrete activation.
A project can be done, poorly done, not done. It can be self-censored, too large or too small to be done, too idealistic or unrealistic to be done.
A prospect can evolve into a work, a series of works, a presentation, a representation, a utopia, or a dystopia.
A possibility can be linked to another possibility, become one with multiple possibilities, or evolve into a universe, ever-transforming and ever-realizing.
PPP+I
DRAWINGS
- A two-kilometer wide concrete cube sitting in a low ocean.
- An encyclopedia created
from impassioned
discussions with plants. - A zoo imagined
for bubbles,
with cages
for bubbles of different sizes and organised
by colours, liquids
and shapes. - Opening museums during the day
for the general public and at night exclusively for artists. A giant glass ball rolling freely with the wind
in a field of flowers.- A sign at the entrance
of an exhibition, warning
of the presence of an artist
or multiple artists
in the space:
Beware of artist(s). - Drones lit with cobalt lights, arranged
in square formations reflected on the sea under the moonlight. Wearing glasses that make everyone around you
appear to be wearing pink suits with furry hats.- Generate, as an artist,
a scenario in which
an intelligence agency collaborates with a gallerist
to organise an opening for wealthy collectors aiming to gather intel from them. Profits are split with
the gallerist. - Reproducing the packaging
of the game ‘Sorry’
as an oversized sculpture. - Inventing job titles using terms from dead languages
to address the employment void
of the 21st century. - Never produce
a finished object
or work; only write and imagine drafts of ideas, mixing them together. - Instead of opening
art contexts during the day, open them only at night and
add couches, chairs, and stools inside
the gallery spaces. - Install thousands
of lit lamps of various sizes in a room, creating an environment
so intensely bright
that it is impossible
to photograph. - A 100m³
windowless room bathed in dark turquoise blue light,
a pedestal at the center showcases
a 1997 Bondi Blue iMac G3 with
a red screen, broadcasting
local radio news. - A blanket, embroidered
with the text: 'How to revert power from context
to content?' - A blank blackboard
with a dark green
glaze, borderless
and installed on a concrete floor
of a space, ready
to be walked on. - Write a travel guide about an exhibition space, detailing a tour that describes the lighting, power outlets, windows, and scratches on
the walls as if they were monuments. - Filling a skyscraper's glass corridor with household dust. The interior of the corridor remains locked, visible only from outside. Synthetic household dust is gradually mixed with real household
dust over time. A society where daily
rituals and ceremonies revolve around art, E.G.: Mondays for book reading • Tuesdays for movie-going • Wednesdays for music listening
• Thursdays for exhibition
visits • Fridays for attending a spectacle.
- A space where
the floor tiles are
keys which, when stepped upon, activate or affect
the environment
in diverse manners. An exhibition of works floating in the clouds.As an experiment, empty
all the art institutions
of a city (E.G. New York),
and see how the citizens appropriate these spaces.- Reversing the timeline
of events for an exhibition: starting with the closing, progressing to being open
to the public, then to the opening, followed by installation, production,
and finally research. - Designing a card game
similar to Pokemon cards, where collecting and exchanging are as crucial,
if not more so, than
the actual game. Instead
of creatures, these cards would feature artist names. - A darkened room, with a 2m wide disco ball at its center, stroboscopic lights, and jazz music filling the space. Some works hung on the ceiling
can only be perceived
by looking at the disco ball
when the flashes occur. A world where all construction materials, instead of having natural dyes like grey, brown,
and beige, would be in neon colors.- An illustration of Pablo Picasso with, around
his head, instead of
an aureola, the bright side of the Death Star from Star Wars (1977). - An exhibition titled: ‘Ideological Software’
- An exhibition where visitors become the spectacle, as they would be required to wear light costumes, such as capes, to enter the space.
- A contemporary art museum as a refurbished cruise ship. If it moves from city to city, this could embody carbon footprint in arts. If it stays still, this could be an illustration of decay.
- A museum
conceived by exchanging
with cows. - In an exhibition space
styled like a school
or open workspace, visitors
are prompted to sit at tables
and work for a set duration (30 minutes, 1 hour).
They could also be assigned specific 'office' tasks. - Entering an exhibition,
spectators are asked
to close their eyes while
inside the space. The room
itself could be blacked out,
or visitors could be provided with blackout glasses
to wear. - A train, arranged as a white cube, would be an ideal exhibition space.
- In a vast space illuminated
by intense white
lights, reminiscent
of studio flashes
or construction site lighting, a pair of
high heels is the sole focus, positioned
at the center. - An art center designed to welcome any communities,
aiming to hospitable
for anyone,
by adapting
rather than imposing. - Inventorying errors occurring when producing a task. These errors
or missteps might
not only inform
but could be
the task itself. - Assemble a team
of screenwriters
to conceive a show
with multiple episodes
over one year. The robot from 'Le Roi et l’oiseau' releases the last bird from a cage amidst
the ruins of glass skyscrapers reflecting
a desert landscape like mirrors.- Commission artists from a city to use all available public platforms: screens, billboards, music in shops, stores and markets, and on the streets when possible, contextual web and social media advertising, etc.
- A plane as a
museum offering
the experience of
a casual opening.
Destinations
would be
essential,
and flight duration, too. - Take a picture every day of the same element, from a different angle, in various lightings,
or within specific contexts. What emerges: the focus itself, the ritual, both, or something else? - Conceive an object based on the following interrogation:
If we assume that [books, poetry, philosophy, music, radio, cinema, series, video games, etc.] can all be
enjoyed wherever and whenever a 'user' desires,
how might contemporary art offer the same accessibility? - An exhibition space with only curved
walls. - A room with walls covered in sandpaper.
- Walls painted
in pale pink mixed
with glitter. - An exhibition that can only
be visited by one visitor
or a group of visitors
at a time. If the exhibition
is empty, the person managing
the exhibition space must
go out and canvass the streets until they find interested onlookers. - An exhibition consisting
of a residency and a complete takeover by an artist for
the duration of the exhibition
and the withdrawal of the
people managing the exhibition context. The artist would
take over all tasks related
to the venue for the duration
of the exhibition… An island, replicating
the epiphany from 'The Invention of Morel' (1940)
by Adolfo Bioy Casares, could present a complex museum dystopia.- Create an installation based
on the following statement:
We have generated billions
of representations of humans
in space, fully aware that
most of us will likely never experience it in our lifetimes. Are we driven by fear, or
merely limited by our pace? - Like party
or dining buses, refurbished electric buses could serve
as mobile white cubes, offering
new possibilities for exhibition making. - Building shields made
of the most precious materials, with each
one inscribed with different words reflecting current political struggles
and activisms such as: feminism, decolonialism, ecology, queer, trans. - Install gigantic billboards connecting
the Haussmannian buildings’ roofs, displaying posters made by artists. - Write a script about: Could
an asteroid be considered an exhibition space or an artwork in the near future? Could a planet be? Will Earth become the Venice of the 31st century (if not destroyed – most certainly)? - An exhibition space acting as a gigantic board, where visitors can write on the
glossy walls if they
call the artist first to discuss the purpose
of their writing. - Conceive a show with only
one visible work in a room, changing the work every day
for 90 days (thus, requiring
90 different works). - An installation visible through the windows
of a vehicle designed
in the shape of a flying saucer, featuring
a double-axis system that allows you to move within the vehicle while maintaining a consistent directional orientation. - A public artwork consisting of a large metal sign along
a desert road,
displaying the words 'Brutal Bourgeoisie' painted in white on a
red background. - Every day, write
a project on the
city walls, one
that is feasible within the specific context of the written project.
PPP+I
Through the use of an impersonal acronym, rt4a embraces a diverse array of practices and identities, fostering a dialogue based on interconnectivity and multiplicity. By chance, when ‘Arty Fouray,’ a potential nickname for Arthur Fouray was transcribed vocally on a phone, in 2014, it resulted in an acronym: RT4A.
Matching the character count of Warhol’s name (4 for the first name, 6 for the last name – with each syllable having a double meaning), it is an experiment with a hasardous, unpredictable, yet arbitrary source material: a given name, consciously deconstructed beyond traditional, ego-driven notions of artistic identity.
By shedding an identity and adopting an impersonal code, a set of letters and numbers, RT4A performs a kind of symbolic violence against the artist’s ego and the cultural capital typically associated with a known, individual artist’s name.
It even becomes a simulacrum – a copy without an original, an entity that undermines the difference between the ‘real’ and the ‘imaginary’. The RT4A project can be seen as an avatar, a fake, complicating the distinctions between artists and ‘constructed’ identities.
As a signature, it embodies a paradox: simultaneously the mark of an artistic act and an impersonal symbol obscuring individual identity. It not only facilitates the incorporation of other artists’ practices into RT4A but also ensures that its creations are not confined to the temporal boundaries of a single artist’s lifespan.