How do we keep creating? How do we refuse to be crushed by the way things are going? How do we keep moving? The stakes are high, now more than ever.

Initiated by the Beaux-Arts de Paris, Felicità Goodbye Horses brings together the about thirty “Félicités” artists (the students who graduated with congratulations from the jury) from the Beaux-Arts de Paris i n 2019 and the École nationale supérieure d’art de Bourges in 2019 and 2020.

Since October 2020, the group has been involved in a program of meetings aimed at questioning the modes of production and circulation of art, and at reflecting collectively on the challenges of our contemporary world.

Held for the first times outside the walls of the Beaux-Arts, the exhibition Felicità Goodbye Horses is the result of a collective effort. The works have been designed to occupy one 800-square meter floor of POUSH Manifesto.

A website and a publication complement the exhibition.

Curation by Mélanie Bouteloup.

Taking its title from Q Lazzarus’ haunting melody, covered so many times but still so distinctive, Felicità Goodbye Horses tries to make us look at the world beyond its material condition. It seeks to experience all the vitality of our intense proximity, in its nuances and its fiercest contradictions, in a state of perpetual contagion. Life is always connected to someone else’s life. What if we stopped the rhetoric and simply reconnected with each other? What if we really looked in each other’s eyes? What if we talked about our doubts, our fragilities and our hardships?

Intensifying our connections in a sprawling manner, we become increasingly ungraspable. Not living, not dying, but transforming. Like an octopus, feeling what is living with its thousands of suckers, one by on e, adhering, letting go, adhering again. Trying to intensify our coexistence, taking into account our most varied life forms and sensitivities. We are all vulnerable. Felicità Goodbye Horses aspires to transcend this violence that suffocates us and to try to develop other ways to come into contact, to speak, to interact, to be together and coexist.

THE FÉLICITÉS 2019 OF THE BEAUX-ARTS DE PARIS

Among the 109 graduates, 16 were congratulated by the jury, chaired by Mélanie Bouteloup and including Elise Atangana, Alain Berland, Ingrid Luquet-Gad, Franck Scurti and Alain Séchas. Léo Chalié, Émile Copell o, Gwendal Coulon, Pierre Delmas, Stéphane Gilles-Pick, Matthieu Hemmer, Cham Lavant, Garie Mirhon, Mathis Perron, Hatice Pinarbasi, Benoît Ponty, Sacha Rey, Caisa Sandgren, Anaïs Tohé-Commaret, Vincent Volkart and Yi Yang.

THE FÉLICITÉS 2019 AND 2020 OF THE ENSA BOURGES

Among the 17 students who graduated in 2019, 7 were congratulated by the jury chaired by Séverine Hubard, visual artist, and including Sylvie Lopez-Jacob, president of the thesis defence jury, PhD in philosophy and teacher, Vincent Carlier, visual artist and teacher, Gregory Buchert, visual artist, et Nicolas Hérubel, teacher at the Ensa Bourges.

Among the 16 students who graduated in 2020, 6 were congratulated by the jury chaired by Muriel Pic, writer, and including Éric Foucault, artistic director, Sammy Engramer, visual artist, Sara Ouhaddou, visual artist, and Éric Aupol, teacher at the Ensa Bourges. Germain Bruyas, Solène Charton, Charlotte Chicot, Tifaine Coignoux, Justine Gagner, Lucile Lacape, Maeline Li, Sihui Liu, Étienne Meignant, Nina M.W. Queissne r, Thomas Thuaux, Élise Voët, Huo Yunong.

GENESIS OF THE PROJECT

Designed as a sort of post-graduate course, the program of meetings (October 2021 – May 2021) was meant to accompany the three dozen artists who graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Paris and the Ensa Bourges when the COVID pandemic struck the world. It led to a one-week residency in Lizières (Epaux-Bézu) in February 2021 under the artistic direction of Ramuntcho Matta and to workshops at POUSH (Clichy) between April and May with artists Franck Leibovici, Neil Beloufa and Emmanuelle Lainé. The students of the Master Sciences and techniques of the exhibition (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), led by Christophe Viart, were invited to wri te texts on the artists of Felicità Goodbye Horses.

WEBSITE

Designed by Maxime Gambus, the website of Felicità Goodbye Horses reports on the program of meetings through an online diary. The contributions it contains combine works, notes and other additions (playlists, forms of life) based on near-daily conversations with the thirty or so artists participating in the program. The site is accessible through the Atlas of the Beaux-Arts de Paris.

CATALOGUE

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue in French.
Foreword by Jean de Loisy, Jeanne Gailhoustet and POUSH Manifesto.
Conversation between Mélanie Bouteloup and DSM4xzxzxzw.
The first part is a diary reporting on the concerns, working processes and references of the artists of Felicità Goodbye Horses. The second part presents interviews led by a team of critics and guest curators (Charlotte Coss on, Anaïd
Demir, Camille Paulhan, Anne-Laure Peressin, Élisa Rigoulet and Ann-Lou Vicente).

Graphic design by Agnès Dahan Studio.
Approximately 200 pages
Price 15€

This catalogue is available in the exhibition (2nd floor)

EXHIBITION

Felicità Goodbye Horses
June 22 – July 10, 2021
Free admission / registration is required : https://bit.ly/2SB777j

POUSH Manifesto 6 Boulevard du Général Leclerc, 92110 Clichy
From Tuesday to Saturday – 3 to 6 p.m.