L. always flirts with extremes, M. works within means. L. is a night owl, M. is undeniably matinal. L. is joyously pessimist, M., sadly optimist.
They create a balance, forming a pair of curiously functional oppositions. They find mutual ground through a shared consideration of philosophy, politics and poetry, inducing interrogative forms that align with existentialist and situationist thought. Questioning the every-day and observing society, they highlight anomalies through elements as diverse as exaggeration, the supernatural, détournement, the absurd... Their practice integrates mediums such as performance and installation, resembling ever more to film as a result of their persistent obsession for incorporating elements of reality. Often the resulting impression is that of being in a scene of science-fiction, or an unsettling near-future scenario à la “Black Mirror”*. To enter into that universe is to visualize one‘s own world to the last exacerbated detail, to breath life into it, and to witness the impossible; but also to be confronted with what is evident: the hellish image of one‘s own reality. Rather like the play by Jean-Paul Sartre, it is a contemporary“No Exit”.
*British television series created by Charlie Brooker, produced by Zeppotron, 2011
Text by Marine Bourlois (translated from the French by Darla Murphy)
ceci n’est pas
( un objet )
A guided visit of a four-part exhibition, (scale models, boxes, pictures/videos, installation); Toulouse, 2014
The guided visit leads to four different spaces. 1 ’’ The first room displays 20 scale models of (the) fictive objects.
3 ’’ The third room presents ten fictive scenarios in the form of photographs, videos and collages featuring the fictive objects. Each scenario illustrates a piece of a potential story.
The scale models are entirely white. A narrator presents each scale model to the audience.
4 ’’ The fourth room is built like a film set, reproducing two rooms of an apartment.
2 ’’ In the second room, twenty art storage boxes are placed in a line.
Within this scene, the twenty fictive objects are presented among other objects from everyday life.
Each box is labeled with the description of the fictive object it refers to.
From Google Docs With <3 collaborative writing theatre play, live online show, Google document, Skype, emails, OBS live stream; staged for the first time on the occasion of the Artist Ambassador Convention, WWW/UK, 2016
In From Google Docs with <3, a Google Document becomes the central meeting point for a group of people from different time-spaces to write and stage a theatre play. A protocol frames the process whereby everything remains discussable, changeable and fluid. After one week of collaborative writing, the play was performed for the first time as The Saturday Night Live Online Show using the live stream service OBS, live Skype calls, Youtube and other media to interpret the text and images put together by the co-creators. The Saturday Night Live Online Show was spontaneously staged as a snapshot within the process of writing and rehearsals, which in itself was a public event. What kind of narrative structures can be found in cyberspace? How can we use digital channels and tools to write and stage
a collaborative theatre play? Are surrealist and dadaist methods predictions of what we‘re facing in new media today? « Let´s create a beautiful mess ! » Production: Artist Ambassador Convention/Food Sketz Direction: Lisa Hoffmann & Marjorie Potiron Starring: Kenza Benabderrazik, Antonije Buric, Loran Chourrau, Robyn Cole, Erik Damiano, Perrine Delorme Rivory, Roman Detyuk, Victor Filin, Rachel Garcia, Anaïs Hay, Lisa Hoffmann, Johanna F. Krüger, Manor House (Natalie Oleinik & Seb Kann), Marjorie Potiron, Jérôme Saget Vinicius Timmermann Music: Steven Whiteley Illustration: Cristian Pineda Amo
La Soupe performance, duration about 3 minutes; Toulouse, 2014
A plate with a hole, full of soup, is placed on a table. The plate next to it is empty. Protagonist B watches Protagonist A eat the soup. Protagonist B is soupless. Soup is dripping under the table by way of an invisible process. Protagonist B eats the soup under the table.
opening of LaboratoireS, 13.11.2013
« the 10am poem » daily poetic practice
performative presentation of research by LaboratoireS, symposium on artistic research on the future of socioculture, urbanism and civil society, Hannover, 2015
L a b o r a t o i r e S artist collective created by Lisa Hoffmann & Marjorie Potiron; Toulouse / Weimar, 2013–2015
graphic research
LaboratoireS´s first Manifesto, 2013
« simultaneity » long-distance co-working situation, Weimar / Toulouse
customized workspace, 2013
« idleness » extract from LaboratoireS´s lexicon,2013
graphic research
strollologic field trip
« LaboratoireS on the road » creation of protocols for traveling, Berlin, 2015
« Rencontres »
« Monument for those who will have been » sculptural experiment
First Glue / Stage Business at the
Centre For Dying on Stage
mixed-media piece; video (04:58 min), newspaper (6pages, colour), performance (50 min); in collaboration with Steven Randall and Jessica Foley, music: Steven Whiteley, curator: Kate Strain, Wexford Arts Centre / Cow House Studios / IMMA, 2016
FG “ IS THERE ANYTHING MORE YOU WOULD LIKE TO ASK ? I suppose I’d just like to know what a typical day would be like here? ” SB “The caretaker sweeps the stage. The caretaker takes care of the stage. The caretaker takes the stage.”
First Glue / Stage Business (FG / SB) is the intersection of a film, a newspaper and a live performance on stage. The mixed-media piece was conceived in collaboration with Jessica Foley and Steven Randall within five weeks of creative research at the Cow House Studios residency program under the aegis of the Centre for Dying On Stage.
Rendez-Vous performance, duration approx. 15 minutes, Toulouse, 2013
(1) Protocol
(2) Performance
A guest enters a room, alone. A dining table has been set for a meal. A camera is filming from the other side of the table. The guest eats some orange soup, a green tart, some bread, a piece of cake and some fruits with a glass of red wine. This scene takes place nine times with nine different people who are all served the same meal.
Several tables are each prepared for a single participant in the same manner as in (1). Only this time, the camera is replaced by a screen at each table showing the video of a guest from (1). The participants eat the same meal as the person in the video. A camera films the scene.
How to form a design movement EnDevenir : Between Anxiety and Design artistic research project (exhibition catalog [120 pages, in colour], Manifesto [20 postcards], conceptual objects), Thesis by Lisa Hoffmann in collaboration with Marjorie Potiron, Weimar, 2015
Artistic movements have always accompanied the evolution of the history of art. The objects they produce are a reflection of a condition, a mentality, a time period. They are carriers of a whole current of thought. But what exactly constitutes a design movement? What forms do they take today? What do they seek to do? How are they expressed? This research project develops these questions through the form of an exhibition catalogue. The analyses and references of a fictional contemporary movement interact with and are sometimes merged with those of actual historical movements. This new design movement is elaborated through the creation and publication of a manifesto, emblematic objects, a photo of the collective and other various elements.
This project is shaped in the context of these uncertain times where we are socially torn between a necessity for efficacy and the will to find sustainable alternatives. As such, it is a need to respond to a certain malaise that drives this research.
Presque la fin, presque Theatre performance, duration approx. 25 min; Toulouse, 2015
Location :
A bunker
Characters : Olga: the singer Docteur Jung: the scientist Depoissonnière: the artist Irina: the synchronized swimmer Steeve: the tennis player and the writer
Synopsis : One is incurably silent, the other is anxious, or else a bit crazy. Another is diving in an aquarium, while the last tries to materialize time. As for the writer, he is composing his own ending to the world.
Panic Room performative experiment, duration 48 hours; staged for the first time in 2016, Toulouse
Rule n°1: It is forbidden to leave the bunker during the 48 hours of the experience. Rule n°2:
Nobody can join the experience once it has started.
Rule n°3:
All telephone and internet access to the outside world from the bunker is forbidden.
Rule n°4:
Any display of time inside the bunker is forbidden
Rule n°5:
Each participant will be responsible for bringing any equipment they deem necessary to the experiment. He or she will no longer be able to procure any materials once the experience has begun.
Rule n°6: The participants accept to partake in the experience without having previously formed any kind of hierarchy or having agreed on any kind of organization.
« Sysiphe » Allegorical discussion on design, excerpt (illustration), Master‘s thesis; edition (100 pages, black and white), Toulouse, 2015
List of the last things I did before the end of the world writing (ink on paper), 6-meter, Toulouse, le 21/12/2012
Education : I about the very beginning textile sculpture (wool, metal), variable dimensions; Toulouse, 2013
Autre drawing and sculpture (plaster); Toulouse, 2012
la
Gémellité
poem and illustration (ink on paper), 29,7x42 cm; Toulouse, 2011
No / stalgie installation, variable dimensions; Toulouse, 2011
Education : II about who you really want to be textile sculpture (wool); Toulouse, 2013
Syzygie et quadrature ou le principe de réalité interdisciplinary theatre piece; stage assistant, Toulouse, 2013
À quoi tu penses? textile sculpture (wool, felt, foam), 2,6 X 0,8 m; Toulouse, 2012
Fabulous Jakobshäuschen participative sculptures, photographies; Kunstfest Weimar, 2015
Présences sketches, video , objects (glass, porcelain, silver) Galerie le Salon, Paris, 2012
The Super Market Tour audio tour for a supermarket, poster, photographs, Berlin, 2015
Êtes-vous fous? movie trailer, 55 photographs with subtitles in 5 chapters, Toulouse, 2014
FP ( Future Perspections ) fabrication of concepts and various objects for the creation of an itinerant workshop, in collaboration with Anniek Vetter; 2012-2015
Make the nature scene audio-visual installation, Weimar, 2013
at the beach
/ in my dreams
installation, video performance; Odessa, 2015
Inselstück installation, theatre performance in collaboration with Kristian Gohlke; Saarbrücken, 2013
observe/analyze photography blog; since 2011 (ongoing)
Contact Marjorie Potiron: +33 (0) 633 486 874 Lisa Hoffmann: +49 (0) 173 2445689 marjorie.and.lisa@gmail.com Adress: Somewhere in Berlin. Come and visit us!
•ø∆º© Image Credits If not stated otherwise, all photographs have been taken by Lisa Hoffmann and Marjorie Potiron. La Soupe: image 2 - isdaT LaboratoireS: image 4 - Marine Bourlois First Glue/Stage Business: image 6, 8, 9, 10, 12 – Frank Abruzzese, image 3 Steven Randall Presque la fin, presque: image 2, 6 - Franck Alix, image 3, 4 - Marine Bourlois, 5 - Ninon Lemonnier List of the last things I did before the end of the world isdaT Education : I - about the very beginning: isdaT Autre: isdaT Education : II - about who you really want to be: isdaT Syzygie et quadrature ou le principe de réalité: Marine Bourlois À quoi tu penses?: isdaT Fabulous Jakobshäuschen: ©Fabulous Jakobsplan 2015 | Photo Iva Kirova At the beach / In my dreams: Simon Knab
Colophon Graphic design by Lisa & Marjorie font de l‘art. Type: Apercu (regular) by The Entente. Tout droits de reproduction réservés. Lisa Hoffmann & Marjorie Potiron, March 2016.