Ode to Nature by Raphaël Dallaporta and Morgane Porcheron

The Contemporary Art Fund [N.A!] Project has always defended the idea of action without a fixed location. Without a museum. Without a permanent exhibition space, open to the world. Linked to multiple artists in different countries, it is their projects that guide their choices. For this autumn, they have chosen a square of European artists committed to sustainable development in a place - La Ferme Urbaine de Saint-Denis - which gives back its place to nature in our urban and modern lives: Raphaël Dallaporta proposes to put the sun and the rhythm of the seasons back at the heart of the organisation of our lives; and Morgane Porcheron creates a living work of art. in situas a metaphor for man's control over nature.
An invitation to a great journey whose destination is unknown to encourage the dynamics of exchanges, and allow a multidisciplinary look at various environmental, socio-economic and political situations.

"We love contemporary art. The one that innovates. That enchants. That questions. Who understands his time. And does not hesitate to shake it up. Because of [N.A!]'s values, we favour creations related to nature, the environment, global changes, biodiversity, food, and humans.
Convinced that art can raise awareness on these subjects, we see ourselves as an incubator of ideas. Of projects. Of encounters. Of debates. We support artists who take the public on board. Who transform the public's view with their own eyes. Their creations. Their installations. Their performances. We believe in art as a means of inspiration and action.
Alongside the artists, we wish to contribute to a positive approach. Not guilt-tripping. Which is based on the knowledge of experts at the same time. And on the sensitive and offbeat vision of the artists. Awakening and amazement. By combining the two, we want to nourish the debate. Nourish art tomorrow.
Bertrand Jacoberger, Initiator of the NA-Project - President of Solinest "

Raphaël Dallaporta writes with light in Saint-Denis

Winner this year of the [N.A!] Project grant and of the Niépce Gens d'images Prize, first prize in French professional photography, Raphaël Dallaporta has moved to Espace 365 of Zone Sensible - Ferme Urbaine de Saint-Denis for a project that, between photography and astronomy, puts nature back at the center of our lives. Thanks to his [N.A!] Project grant, Raphaël Dallaporta has been in residence at Zone Sensible since June 2019.

He imagined on site a work around the curves of time. In order to write with light, the photo-grapher has this time swapped his lens for an ancestral instrument: the sundial. He presents a giant version of it on the space dedicated to contemporary art at the Saint-Denis Urban Farm, l'Espace 365.
A meridian line materialized by a ground installation, separating the year in two, will mark the solar noon. As a gnomon, a stick planted in the earth which draws the position of the sun from its shadow and indicates the time and seasons, a 5-metre high chair at the top of which those visitors who dare to do so can sit down for a few moments. Each passage will leave a trace as the shadow cast by the seated person will be transferred to the ground and marked by a marker that will remain in place. All the markers will thus form a constellation of people who have marked time.
The presence of natural clocks in the heart of the Urban Farm activates the intimate conviction of being in the right place at the right time.

In his calculations, Raphaël Dallaporta benefited from the complicity of the astronomer Denis Savoie, one of the world's leading specialists in sundials, who recently helped NASA determine the geographical North of the planet Mars.

By inviting the public to celebrate the equinox by inaugurating a meridian on the site of Zone Sensible, the artist creates a memorable alignment where the last market garden land of the 93rd becomes, by the favour of the stars, the centre of the world.

Raphaël Dallaporta's work has been critically acclaimed for the rigour of its protocols and the relevance of its installations, in which unusual connections are established between history, science, art and technology.

Each of his projects, seeking to make visible phenomena, or territories, respectively hidden or inaccessible, are finalized by a monographic publication. After having been a resident at the Académie de France in Rome - Villa Médicis in 2014- 2015, he realized the project Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, l'inappropriable, published in 2016 by Xavier Barral and exhibited in Kyoto, Japan and at the Centquatre-Paris. His works are also in the collections of the Fond National d'Art Contemporain de la Maison Européenne de la Photographie, the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne and the New York Public Library. For all of his work, he will be awarded the Niepce Prize in 2019.
www.raphaeldallaporta.com

Morgana Porcheron lets nature take over.

Heiress of Arte Povera and Land Art, Morgane Porcheron is interested in the relationship between nature and human constructions. Finalist of the [N.A!] Project grant, the artist is installing a living work on Espace 365, alongside that of Raphaël Dallaporta.

For Zone Sensible, with the support of [N.A!] Project, Morgane Porcheron imagines Structured Construction, a work composed of two minimal, architectural, large-format and evolving sculptures.
Initially, the installation resembles fragments of red earth architecture that break up the green space. These shapes refer to the greenhouses present on the Urban Farm site. The earth, a dense and natural material usually baked and used for habitat construction, is used here "raw", so as to form two feeding cocoons filled with compost and bean seeds. The plants then grow and pierce the earth, which cracks, revealing the steel frames of the structure. Eventually, Red soil, topsoil and shoots mix with the agricultural soil, without leaving it up to man to decide on its final shape or evolution.
This living work and in situ is a metaphor for man's mastery over nature but also a tribute to it.

Morgane Porcheron was born in 1990 in Lyon, lives in Paris and shares her studio in Montreuil. She trained at the Institut Supérieur des Arts de Toulouse where she obtained her DNAP in 2013, then at the Beaux-Arts de Paris where she obtained her DNSAP in 2016.
In her artistic practice, Morgane Porcheron collects elements related to our surrounding space, then elaborates an archaeology of everyday life. The foundations, its strata, the hidden but essential components of architecture are part of the forms she exploits through sculpture, installation and photography.
His artistic universe is linked to the living, the landscape and construction. In his compositions, a double tension is at play: the ambivalence between craftsmanship and manufacturing, a to-and-fro between man's intervention on nature and the constancy of nature to regain its rights.
www.morganeporcheron.com

The Poetic Party

The artistic collective Parti Poétique, based in Saint-Denis (93) since 2003, articulates with the bee and the pollination service its research between art and environment. The Parti Poétique develops and pursues the implementation of a participative mission between artists, inhabitants, cultural and scientific actors while promoting the active part of art and creation in the public space. Since 2011, it also carries out a mediation adapted to a diverse public far from artistic and environmental concerns in its daily life.

The association is particularly attached to the implementation of actions and projects creating collaborative and participative dynamics between the public. In particular, it has set up citizen actions, such as the "Pollen-Club", a participatory project for the pollination of the city, and has also built partnerships both with local authorities (Region, City, Department ...) and private or public structures between art and science (Centre Pompidou, Fondation Cartier, Domaine de Chamarande, Museum of Natural History, CNRS ...).

At the crossroads of art and the environment, and after a program linked to the COP 21 in Paris in 2015, since then, it seemed appropriate to the organizers to focus the entire program on the now sensitive link between our environment and our food and to think and enhance the natural link between: NATURE, CULTURE, FOOD.

The collective is very attached to the continuity of production and the enhancement of the Ile-de-France region through local agricultural production. Since 2017, the collective has been developing the Zone Sensible - Ferme Urbaine de Saint-Denis project. This project is based on the takeover and transformation of what is the last 19th century market garden farm still in operation in Seine Saint-Denis.
ZONE SENSIBLE develops as an open-air creative laboratory, centred on the themes of NATURE-CULTURE-FOOD. This permaculture operation promotes the cultural and culinary richness and biodiversity of the 155 nationalities present in Seine Saint-Denis. By bringing together inhabitants, farmers, researchers and cooks, the Parti Poétique is building a participatory project that conveys the values of good food around the meal.

Sensitive Zone - Ferme Urbaine de Saint-Denis

The Poetic Party in 2016 applied for and won the call for projects from the City of Saint-Denis for the takeover of the last 19th century market garden farm still in operation at the Portes de Paris. This candidacy is part of our "Nature + Culture + Food" program in the perspective of the creation of the MIEUX! cooking academy, in partnership with chef Alain Ducasse.

This resumption of activity, which includes both rehabilitation and requalification of an agricultural and cultural programme, makes it possible to think about a new local food system and a new popular dynamic around our food. At the same time a place for discovery, sharing of experiences, environmental education, mediation, conviviality and awareness of local, healthy and quality food, ZONE SENSIBLE seeks in its programming to implement a diversity of actions for a variety of mainly urban audiences. It also makes it possible to encourage the participation of a public far removed from the themes of healthy food and sustainable development and to encourage access to art and social inclusion through the development of an innovative cultural offer, in an area devoid of cultural facilities (1.67 cultural facilities per 10 000 inhabitants, i.e. 3.3 points less than the average for Ile-de-France).

Open to the public in May 2018, and developed as an art and food production centre, Zone Sensible brings together a large and transgenerational audience around a multidisciplinary programme (exhibitions, concerts, open-air cinema, theatre, banquets) around its three experimental themes: Nature-Culture-Food.

The [N.A!] Project 

Only two years after its birth, the breakthrough healthy snacking brand [N.A!] creates its endowment fund dedicated to contemporary art. To reinforce its commitment to nature. To affirm its innovative vision of art that is environmentally friendly. And to invite the general public to change the way they look at the world. About what threatens it. About its preservation. About the role we all have to play in it. On the major issues facing society. These are the ambitions of the [N.A!] Fund, renamed [N.A!] Project in 2018.
Committed for many years to working alongside artists, the fund offers contemporary patronage. Much more than just financial support. Without any patrimonial aim. And which is part of a long-term commitment.

Its priority means of action is to support artists' projects. Hence their name. Their great artistic and citizen project goes through these multiple projects. They each study each one, upstream, with their designer. This project can take place over several years. When it is finished, the privileged links they have forged last. An [N.A!] artist [N.A!] Project the rest.
Over the years, they have built up a network of artists throughout Europe. The crossings, encounters and interactions between them are very important to them. This is why they regularly invite two, four or ten of them to traveling events. Academies, residencies, temporary spaces, participation in a festival... they are what they call their "Escales".
Finally, thanks to its knowledge of artists and their environment, the [N.A!] Project is involved in the co-production of all projects with the stakeholders. Programme 2019/2021 :

• - Until October 19: group exhibition of artists in residence 2019 at Espace 365 of Zone Sensible - Ferme Urbaine de Saint-Denis
• - from October 23rd to December 23rd: Cosmopolis #2 by Fernando Garcia Dory at the Centre Pompidou
• - October / November: the artists presented at der Tank by [N.A!] Project exhibit at the Centre Culturel Suisse
• - from November 13 to 17: David Wahl in residence at the Musée de l'Homme
• - November 21-22: CinéMaterre, international film festival in Metz
• - during March 2020 : installation by the artist AnneMarie Maes of a connected beehive in the garden of the headquarters of Solinest, in Brunstatt.
• - June 9, 2020 : Art Basel (der Tank)
• - from June to September 2020: Serpentine Gallery, London " General Ecology " 2020
• – 2021 :
• - 10 years of the [N.A!] Project (4 highlights)
• - Elefsina, European Capital of Culture
• - Bruges Triennial

Collective exhibition of artists in residence 2019 at Espace 365 of Zone Sensible - Ferme Urbaine de Saint-Denis, until March 2020.