Our scene is set in the Museum Fodor in Amsterdam on November 9^th, 1972. We are told that it was “smoky, noisy and crowded”, and that the gathered audience made its presence felt through “frequent shouting”. The center of this fevered arena hosted the encounter between two Graphic Designers, two graphistes, two typographers, Wim Crouwel and Jan Van Toorn, in a country where their voices carry, where their thinking is important. A meeting, a conversation, or rather a confrontation, a controversy, it has been described as a debate, one that characterizes the way in which our discipline was represented in the 1980s and that continues to echo today.

The exhibition catalogue for the Château d’Oiron presents more than 170 artworks from the collection of Antoine de Galbert, placed in such a way as to dialogue with the permanent collection of contemporary art Curios & Mirabilia, assembled by the same Jean-Hubert Martin in 1993. The collection of Antoine de Galbert is deployed in exhibition galleries according to themes inherent to it, with great importance being attached to the eye, the face and its expressions, and to injuries. The confrontation of these two collections and the dialogue established between the two men give rise to new effects of surprise in the catalogue thanks to collages that are as frontal as they are playful. The catalogue displays all of the artworks presented in the space, including From here to ear by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot whose music can be heard within these 16th century walls. A number of artists are featured in both collections: Hubert Duprat, Markus Raetz, Wim Delvoye, Annette Messager, Christian Boltanski, Marina Abramovic, Bertrand Lavier, Nicolas Darrot… Others have onlyrecently entered Oiron: Théo Mercier, Gilles Barbier, Stéphane Thidet, Barthélémy Toguo, Jackie Kayser, Steven Cohen