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.

On the occasion of a visit to the exhibition at the MRAC Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée entitled Honey I rearranged the collection, Jérôme Dupeyrat and Thierry Chancogne continue their discussion of the controversial relationships that exist between art and Graphic Design, based on a historical collection of “artists’ posters”.

          The artist’s poster or affiche is at once the traditional medium used to advertise artistic events, produced by the artists themselves, the historical medium of a certain passion for French-style painted posters and the desire of a particular artistic practice to democratize art, the symptom or symbol of potential new relationships between Graphic Design and art in an era where artists have acquired a new graphic culture and Graphic Designers a new artistic ambition.

          The thematic exchanges nourished by theoretical, artistic, and graphic references taken from recent and contemporary history are punctuated by thoughts from Mathias Augustinyak, based on his experiences with designing posters for artists, artist posters, artistic posters, and the art of the poster.

Authors: Thierry Chancogne, Jérôme Dupeyrat, Mathias Augustyniak
Feat John Baldessari, Richard Hamilton, Jenny Holzer, Allan Kaprow, Christophe Lemaitre, M/M (Paris), Michael Riedel, Sturtevant

This catalogue documents a collective exhibition program inspired by the writings of Charles Fourier. “L’Écart absolu” is a dialogue between architecture, artistic heritage and contemporary works, in which artists come together, interact and experiment on the edge of design, visual arts, decorative arts and applied arts.

With Karina Bisch, Nicolas Chardon, Marianne Maric, Dominique Mathieu, Syndicat, We Are The Painters, Atelier Van Lieshout, Aline Bouvy & John Gillis, Stanley Brouwn, Stéphane Calais, Jacques Charlier, Meschac Gaba, Marie Goussé, Teresa Margolles, Superflex, Barthélémy Toguo, Danh Vo, Maarten Van Severen