Poetry Platform Hélène Bertin and Marie-Charlotte Calafat

As part of the Pernod Ricard Foundation’s « Poetry Platform » series, Les Mercredis de Montévidéo welcomes artist Hélène Bertin and Mucem curator Marie-Charlotte Calafat for a moment of dialogue based on their respective approaches. Their look at the object, from its creation to its collection, from its narration to its exhibition, questions the models of investigation as well as of sharing, in a prospective and sensitive interaction. It will be a question of exploring, thanks to the decompartmentalizing and audacious practices of Hélène Bertin and Marie-Charlotte Calafat, between forms and know-how, society and sociability, these current proximities between the visual arts and ethnology/anthropology, under the sign also of poetry.

Hélène Bertin‘s work strikes by its singularity and its elegance between visual arts, curation and history/anthropology. She works in Cucuron and her approach combines plastic research, exploration of artisanal and peasant techniques, and meetings with artists, associations, and families. Among her solo exhibitions, we will mention Cette femme pourrait dormir dans l’eau, CAC Brétigny, 2017; Tu m’accompagneras à la plage, Crac Occitanie, Sète; 2019; Cahin-caha, Le Creux de l’enfer, Thiers, 2020; Tohu-Bohu, Le 19 CRAC, Montbéliard, 2021; Couper le vent en trois, Palais de Tokyo, 2022. Her books have to do with life stories, such as the bio-monograph of the sculptor Valentine Schlegel: je dors, je travaille, <o>future<o>, 2017; or in 2021 two books of interviews, one with the winemaker, Jacques Néauport, the dilettante (in collaboration with César Chevalier), and Coucou cougourdon, an interview with Yusuf Henni, a gourd lover. She has also published a tale Le Chant de la Piboule, La Nòvia, 2019. Hélène Bertin is nominated for the 23rd Pernod Ricard Foundation Prize.

Marie-Charlotte Calafat is a heritage curator, responsible for the department of collections and documentary resources at the Mucem-Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditérranée in Marseille. After having been in charge of coordinating the construction of the collections and their transfer from the former Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires in Paris to the new reserves of the Mucem, Marie-Charlotte Calafat has been co-curator and curator of remarkable exhibitions within this institution. Often conceived in interaction with artists, they question memory, language, and formats. Among them are Document bilingue, 2017; Roman-Photo, 2017; Georges-Henri Rivière. Voir, c’est comprendre, 2018; Folklore also presented at the Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2020; Je signe donc je suis. Un abécédaire des métiers d’art, 2021. She has written numerous scientific texts, contributed to exhibition catalogs, and co-edited books, including Folklore, La Découverte, 2020, with Jean-Marie Gallais. She is a member of the editorial board of the journal Techniques&Culture.