printemps on recommence
Artwork from the VIERNULVIER Collection
Artist: Pamina de Coulon | (GH) | 2018
In May 2018, Swiss playwright Pamina de Coulon took up artistic residency in and around the VIERNULVIER Café. During her stay, De Coulon painted and fabricated large coloured banners, with slogans referring to various historical revolts. The banners were on display in the Café during the festival.
In a struggle or revolt, banners are the perfect medium by which to protest, make demands or call to order. Banners and protest signs play an active role in the social history of writing and are a rare example of the use of non-commercial language in public spaces. They provide a caption and commentary on current events, documenting the things we do or indeed fail to do.
‘THE MAY EVENTS’ was an interdisciplinary focus programme, organised in collaboration with Kunstenfestivaldesarts and curated by Italian researcher Silvia Bottiroli. It explored the possibilities and forms of revolt and protest, seeking to investigate what the revolutionary moments in our contemporary society might be and where they might be found.
Fifty years after May ‘68 and the call for ‘poetry on the streets’, the European art world finds itself in a deep philosophical crisis. Faced with rising populism and an ongoing commercialisation of art institutions themselves, artists are trying to reorient their practice around a changing social landscape. Is political art dead, or is there still a role for the political in art?