Talkie Walkie Walkie Talkie

In the turmoil of the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, Talkie-Walkie Walkie-Talkie stimulated Franco-British artistic exchanges by engaging a new cross-border cooperation framework in the field of contemporary art.

Nine French artists from the “Côté d’Opale” and eight English artists from the English South-Coast were invited to collaborate at Fructôse studios and spaces from July 4th to 7th. Artists included Alfonse, Paul et les autres, Ruchi Anadkat, Jacob Bray, Martin Deknudt, David Droubaix, Aurélien Maillard, Fabien Marques, Elodie Merland, Claire Orme, Tomas Poblete, Melissa Ryke, Edward Sanders, Dan Scott, Nina Shen-Poblete, Holly Silngsby, Sara Trillo and Anaïs Vranesic.

Grouped into three different creative teams, these artists with different nationalities and artistic practices made collective creations around the trans-border concept. Utopian, caustic, pragmatic, delirious, in-depth, critical or far-fetched, these projects, carried out in the feverish atmosphere of a 48-hour artistic marathon, seek to build a link where the break threatens.

Starting from conversations around Borders and No Man’s Land, one group developed an installation using domestic and symbolic structures using found materials: a picket ‘fence’, a ‘house’ on wheels, a giant house plant. Symbolic gestures that suggest ideas of mobility, circulation, shelter and rooting. 

Another group draws upon the collective and democratic decision-making process, playfully grappling with Limbo as a positive and productive space in between, and grasping the nuances caught in the untranslatable in both the French and English tongues. SOUFFLE / GAZE. Words became performative, words were performed.

On Sunday, July 7th, Fructôse invited the public to discover the results of this Franco-British brainstorming during an afternoon of public restitution of the project.

A project initiated and organized by Fructôse, in collaboration with the City of Dunkirk.