about
works
Founded in 2009, It’s Our Playground is the Paris based artist duo made up of Camille Le Houezec (1986) and Jocelyn Villemont (1986). IOP has been developing a body of work on the porosity and circulation of art practices from a broad professional position (as artists, curators, and teachers), a variety of intervention formats and initiatives favoring working with other artists, and a combination of styles and techniques. Along with reappropriating images through online publishing and curating group projects, It's Our Playground’s recent activity has been shifting towards the production of composite visual works in immersive environments. They are represented by Galerie Valentin, Paris.

Solo exhibitions include 'Elle disait bonjour aux machines' at La Villa du Parc in Annemasse, 2019 ; 'Artificial Sensibility' at Bonington Gallery in Nottingham, 2017 ; 'Reconstructive Memory' at Galerie Valentin in Paris. Curated exhibitions include 'Deep Screen' at Parc Saint-LĂ©ger in Pougues-les-eaux, 2015 ; 'Show Room' at Glassbox in Paris, 2016. Group shows include 'Bande Ă  part' at Mrac in SĂ©rignan, 2018 ; 'Site Visit' at Kunstverein Freiburg, 2017, 'Ambiance d’Aujourd’hui' at Mains d’Ɠuvres in Saint-Ouen, 2016.
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itsourplayground@gmail.com


All images courtesy of It's Our Playground 2019


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Font in use Metal by Pizza Typefaces.
Flower Bed (Marguerite), 2019 - Wood, MDF, dye, fabric, embroidered labels, bronze casts, plastic. Flower Bed (Marguerite), 2019 (detail) Flower Bed (Violette), 2019 - Wood, MDF, dye, fabric, embroidered labels, bronze casts, plastic. Flower Bed (Violette), 2019 (detail) Sunflowers Analogue, 2019 - Single Channel video, HD, 21 minutes DIY Communication (Model 2), 2019 - Wood , oil paint on canvas, polystyrene, insulation foam, fastenings. Owen Piper, novel 2/4 (Suzi's story), 2019 Generative Spirit, 1/7, 2019 - UV Print on folded paper. 120 × 80 cm. Generative Spirit, 3/7, 2019 - UV Print on folded paper. 120 × 80 cm. Generative Spirit, 4/7, 2019 - UV Print on folded paper. 120 × 80 cm. Sunflowers Analogue (wall drawings), 2019 & MonPaysage.zip (PartI), 2019 by Christophe Scarpa - Dry pastels, acrylic, metal, 3D printed tongs. DIY Communcation (Model 1), 2019 - Wood , oil paint on canvas, polystyrene, insulation foam, vent, fastenings. DIY Communcation (Model 3), 2019 - Wood , oil paint on canvas, polystyrene, insulation foam, plastic fastenings.

ELLE DISAIT BONJOUR AUX MACHINES

Villa du parc, Annemasse, France, 2019
Drawing special scrutiny from researchers and investors, the cognitive sciences study the exchanges between human behavior and the high-tech functioning of machines. The development to an unheard-of level of objects that are connected in daily life leads machines in turn to collect our data, improving their performance at a vertiginous rate as AI, Artificial Intelligence. Today humans and machines together are constructing their common environment.
For a number of years IOP has been drawing its inspiration from this rich field of investigation, linked as it is with memory, the senses, and our attention, while favoring emotional projection. Running counter to the dystopian fantasies to which this imagery often refers, IOP has been developing hybrid works that assert a strong penchant for color and motif, and fully embrace their affinity for the camera and desirability.

Elle disait bonjour aux machines continues then a cycle of exhibitions at the Villa du Parc that began with Reconstructive Memory and Artificial Sensibility. It brings together new works and installations that evoke the emotional contacts and mutual learning that occur between people and machines at different stages of life. With a welcoming title that refers to the greetings children will sometimes address to certain objects in their day-to-day world, the show follows the path a human being travels through educational experiences and transference objects that are specific to each age. What kids learn thanks to the tiny object with which they play and explore a world brought down to their level, the cult images decorating walls which teens project themselves into, or the video tutorial accompanying a DIY workshop, these are some of the things IOP connects to domestic environments that foster an intimate relationship to objects. The artworks seen there freely combine signs of a dematerialized culture with elements of a trendy décor, artisanal techniques, or amateur practices. Visitors to the IOP show will thus see side by side covers with embroidered badges in the style of contemporary folklore, woodblocks carved with floral motifs, posters that superimpose fleeting digital images, pedestals made of repurposed hay bales, smartphones done in wood, oil paintings executed from digital screens, etc. All of which yields a kind of lively and spontaneous graft of manual know-how and the digital, which successfully fuse thanks to the scrupulous combination of materials and styles that, on the face of it, are pretty foreign to one another.

In the film Sunflower analogue, an amateur painter passes on her technique for soft-pastel landscapes in reversed colors to a pre-Photoshop finish; it is a know-how that is tried out by art students who take it over and update it. Finally, Christophe Scarpa, a young artist and graduate of ESAAA, filters these images one last time by superimposing them on Plexiglas stained-glass windows which play with the incoming light and the sun’s inclination.

Elle disait bonjour aux machines draws on numerous collaborators who are involved at different levels in the artists’ daily creative work. Carried out by different hands, sometimes in the same family or a shared art community, together with the machines, lest we forget, the collective effort makes it possible to neutralize positions of authority, involve both high and low, and open up artworks to a strong polysemy, in other words, a wealth of possible meanings. These individuals include the English artist Owen Piper, who, invited to work on the fringe of the exhibition which was then just beginning to develop, wrote short stories that visitors can bring along with them as they move through the show. The stories will also be regularly read aloud on site.

In Camille and Jocelyn’s art, appropriation and transmission proceed in this way, by branchings and superimpositions of people who are known to the artists and admired, of objects they enjoy or are simply present in day-to-day reality, and of screen shots, which are combined with studio techniques, in the atmosphere of a daydream.

Text by Garance Chabert

Novels by Owen Piper
Acrylic panels by Christphe Scarpa
Bronze casts made in collaboration with Benoit Villemont
Wall drawings by LĂ©a Nugue and Romane Clavel
Publication by Charles Villa
Documentation by Aurélien Mole


VERSION FR

ParticuliĂšrement scrutĂ©es par les chercheurs et les investisseurs, les sciences cognitives Ă©tudient les Ă©changes entre le comportement humain et le fonctionnement high tech des machines. Le dĂ©veloppement Ă  un stade inĂ©dit d’objets connectĂ©s dans le quotidien entraĂźne rĂ©ciproquement les machines Ă  recueillir nos donnĂ©es pour se perfectionner Ă  grande vitesse comme Intelligences Artificielles. Humains et machines construisent aujourd’hui ensemble leur environnement commun.

IOP s’inspire depuis plusieurs annĂ©es de ce terrain d’investigation fertile, liĂ© au fonctionnement de la mĂ©moire, des sens, de l’attention, et propice Ă  la projection sensible. A rebours des fantasmes dystopiques auxquels renvoie souvent cet imaginaire, IOP dĂ©veloppe des Ɠuvres hybrides qui affirment un goĂ»t prononcĂ© pour la couleur et le motif, et assument pleinement leur photogĂ©nie et leur dĂ©sirabilitĂ©.
« Elle disait bonjour aux machines » poursuit ainsi Ă  la Villa du Parc un cycle d’expositions commencĂ© avec « Reconstructive Memory » et « Artificial Sensibility », et rassemble des Ɠuvres et installations nouvelles qui Ă©voquent les contacts affectifs et les apprentissages mutuels entre personnes et machines Ă  diffĂ©rentes Ă©tapes de la vie. Avec un titre des plus accueillants, renvoyant aux salutations que les enfants adressent parfois Ă  certains objets de leur quotidien, l’exposition propose de suivre le parcours d’un ĂȘtre humain Ă©voluant Ă  travers des expĂ©riences Ă©ducatives et des objets de transferts particuliers Ă  chaque Ăąge. L’apprentissage par l’objet miniature avec lequel l’enfant joue et explore un monde rapportĂ© Ă  son Ă©chelle, les images cultes ornant les murs oĂč se projette l’adolescent ou encore le tutoriel vidĂ©o en support d’atelier DIY sont autant de dispositifs qu’IOP lie Ă  des environnements domestiques qui favorisent la relation intime Ă  l’objet. Les Ɠuvres qui s’y figurent associent librement des signes de la culture dĂ©matĂ©rialisĂ©e Ă  des Ă©lĂ©ments de dĂ©coration tendance, des techniques artisanales ou encore des pratiques amateurs. Dans l’exposition d’IOP cohabitent ainsi des couvertures brodĂ©es d’écussons au folklore contemporain, des plaques de xylogravures en bois gravĂ©es de motifs floraux, des posters superposant des images numĂ©riques Ă©vanescentes, des socles bottes de foin, des smartphones en bois, des peintures Ă  l’huile d’écrans numĂ©riques, etc.. En rĂ©sulte une greffe vive et spontanĂ©e du numĂ©rique et des savoir-faire manuels, qui fusionnent avec succĂšs par le mĂ©lange attentif de matiĂšres et de styles a priori trĂšs Ă©loignĂ©s.

Dans le film Sunflower analogue, une peintre amateur transmet sa technique au pastel sec de paysages aux couleurs inversĂ©es, au rendu prĂ©-Photoshop ; savoir-faire qui est ensuite expĂ©rimentĂ© par des Ă©tudiantes en art qui s’en emparent et le rĂ©actualisent. Puis Christophe Scarpa, un jeune artiste diplĂŽmĂ© de l’ESAAA, filtre une derniĂšre fois ces images en y superposant des vitraux en plexiglas colorĂ©s jouant avec la lumiĂšre et l’inclinaison du soleil.
« Elle disait bonjour aux machines » fait ainsi appel Ă  de nombreux complices impliquĂ©s Ă  diffĂ©rents niveaux dans le quotidien crĂ©atif des artistes. Le travail collectif, rĂ©alisĂ© par diffĂ©rentes mains, parfois d’une mĂȘme famille ou d’une communautĂ© artistique partagĂ©e, sans oublier les machines, permet de neutraliser les positions d’autoritĂ©, d’imbriquer le low et le high, et d’ouvrir les Ɠuvres Ă  une forte polysĂ©mie. Parmi d’autres, l’artiste anglais Owen Piper a Ă©tĂ© invitĂ© Ă  Ă©crire en regard de l’exposition alors tout juste en train d’éclore, des courtes nouvelles qui accompagnent s’il le souhaite le visiteur et seront rĂ©guliĂšrement lues in situ.

Ainsi vont l’appropriation et la transmission dans l’art de Camille et Jocelyn, par ramifications et superpositions de personnes familiĂšres et admirĂ©es, d’objets qu’on affectionne ou qui sont seulement prĂ©sents au quotidien, de captures d’écran qui se mĂ©langent Ă  des techniques d’atelier, dans une ambiance de rĂȘve Ă©veillĂ©.

Texte de Garance Chabert

Nouvelles par Owen Piper
Vitraux par Christphe Scarpa
Moulages en bronze en collaboration avec Benoit Villemont
Dessins muraux par LĂ©a Nugue et Romane Clavel
Publication par Charles Villa
Documentation par Aurélien Mole