Frac Champagne-Ardenne
Since 1984, the collection of the Frac Champagne-Ardenne has forged a clear identity around major mutually reinforced themes: art and life; art and encounters; art and celebration; art and play. It is an open, forward-looking collection, consisting of over 800 works that reflect the great diversity of contemporary practices; over the years it has gained considerable value in terms of cultural heritage.
Since its inception, the Frac Champagne-Ardenne has been based in the former Jesuit College in Reims, where numerous exhibitions are held each year. Solo exhibitions and thematic group offerings alternate with events devoted to emerging creative practice, namely the initiatives ‘Plein Jeu’ and ‘Video Club’.
The Frac’s collection is shown all year round at different venues throughout the Grand Est administrative region of north-eastern France and beyond, through exhibitions and visitor services for enhanced artwork encounters, designed in conjunction with the sites hosting each project. In 2017, French industrial designer matali crasset created for the Frac the ‘Tripod’, a mobile device using digital resources to engage young visitors, and the ‘Capsule’, a movable space for exhibiting artworks in unusual locations.
Together with the other two Frac structures in the Grand Est region – the 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine and the Frac Alsace – the Frac Champagne-Ardenne forms a network seeking to extend the dissemination of their collections and establish artistic and educational partnerships across the Grand Est area.
The Spirit of Play, between Rules and Turbulence
The history of the Frac Champagne-Ardenne has been marked by three major themes that have helped shape its collection: art and life; art and encounters; art and celebration. When I took over in 2017 I decided to supplement this cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse) with a new theme, namely ‘art and play’.
Beyond the entertainment and escape value provided by games, they also set forth rules, readily agreed upon by their players, which, through analogy with everyday life, act as an expression of communal living. In this respect, the Frac’s entire artistic agenda, entitled The Spirit of Play, between Rules and Turbulence, is firmly committed to fair remuneration for artists, equality and diversity, a keen interest in ecology, and is a player in the fight against marginalisation, social insecurity and violence in the workplace.
A large number of artists and theoreticians have accepted our invitation to the Frac and have actively contributed to the development of these ideas and, through their works, to the dissemination of imaginary realms: Emmanuelle Lainé, Eva Barto, Florence Jung, Ouassila Arras, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Susie Green, Sonia Recasens, Jennifer Douzenel, Corentin Canesson, Olivia Hernaïz, Cécile Serres, Mükerrem Tuncay, Rosalie Schweiker, Emeka Ogboh… Our thanks go to each and every one of them!
Marie Griffay has been director of the Frac Champagne-Ardenne since September 2017. After a period at the Institut d’Art Contemporain (IAC) followed by the Musée du Louvre, she became a curatorial assistant at the Centre Pompidou. In 2013, she was one of the winners of the ‘Young Curators Season – Nouvelle Vague’ and joined the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMC+) of Saint-Étienne Métropole. In 2016–17, she coordinated the percent for art tender for the new campus of the CentraleSupélec French graduate engineering school, which was awarded to Carsten Höller. In 2018, she became part of the collegial artistic direction of the live performance FARaway Festival and launched the annual publication CARF.
Technical acquisition committee
Ludovic Delalande
Claire Hoffmann
Marie Griffay
Emmanuelle Lainé
Alexandra McIntosh
Administration
Vitalie Taittinger
Marie Griffay
Contact
Frac Champagne-Ardenne
1, place Museux
51100 Reims, France
contact@frac-champagneardenne.org
T. +33(0)3 26 05 78 32