An unprecedented, funny (without doubt) and unusual (for sure) performance around questions of copyright and intellectual property. A rambling (maybe) yet convivial (definitely) “chat”.

Antoine Defoort knows how to reinvent the art of performance in an incredibly uninhibited way. Trained as a mathematician, this voluble and crazy plastic artist and inventor sabotages the notion of contemporary art through highly-coloured and unclassifiable shows where the public never knows quite what to expect.

“This is the first phase of a project that may end up being called QSDFJKLMG (it will be a random title, which has to comprise between 7 and 12 capital-lettered consonants and has to begin with QSDF, which could give us, for example QSDFLMPRTP or QSDFLKH), but which for the time being and for reasons of convenience is called as mentioned above.

By drawing up an inventory of intellectual property and of its history and by shilly-shallying on its societal implications and challenges, this “chat” applies rigour and documentation, yet most likely tempered by a level of discourse that comes close to that of 4 o'clock tea on a Sunday afternoon with friends.

As usual, the formal aspects of the operation risk being subjected to special treatment; this proposal will (maybe) more likely conjure up a playback of poetry reading rather than a lesson in law.

Antoine Defoort

Further information

Antoine Defoort website

Updating: January 2012

Antoine Defoort was born in Lille. Trained as a plastic artist, he has an unfettered and quirky humour. If this guy from Lille, who began by studying maths and performance arts before turning to fine arts, started to take an interest in the performance of the installation, it is because he can store everything that interests him there: sounds, texts, videos, bodies. A surprising piece of work, bordering on digital art, contemporary art and schoolboy jokes.

“After a chaotic mini university experience, I began studying art via a variety of French institutions and I am now the owner of the prestigious Diplôme National Supérieur d'Expression Plastique (Higher Diploma in Plastic Arts), approved by the French Minister of Culture and Communication, the famous DNSEP diploma, that I obtained in 2004 in my school, called ERSEP in Tourcoing, which, for a laugh, my mates and I called ERPES. During these studies I gradually realized that contemporary art performance was the perfect container for storing all types of miscellaneous contents, and that was just brilliant because miscellany was one of my pet subjects (dada in French), and was, moreover, my references. The purpose of this piece of work is to establish connections. Connections between forms, senses, media, materials. We could say that this is really collections of connections. Or, if you prefer, “collexions”. Failures and approximations are adjusted with care and create a unique line of beauty. Even though I create shows and am invited to dance festivals, I still declare that I am a plastic artist, that I have an approach and I propose a framework that is based on visual art. I have a plan B just in case I fail in my artistic career, but I'm not going to tell you what it is, because if that fails too, then it's lousy. » (Antoine Defoort)

Source: Antoine Defoort 's website

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).

L’Amicale is a project cooperative that shares its resources  (production, administration, distribution, logistics, etc.) to create  cross-disciplinary hybrids of live performance and the visual arts.

Its members try to respond to aesthetic and economic concerns about  new approaches to stage work, while developing an approach to thinking  about production.

L’Amicale was founded in 2010 by Antoine Defoort, Julien Fournet and Halory Goerger, and is based in Lille and Brussels.
The  trio prefer to define their work as artisanal. Which it is. They have  opted to join forces in a cooperative that supports the projects  undertaken while also leaving room for impromptu arrangements, precision  and crazy digressions.

Each artistic project is partly contained in its material: the entire  team, in particular the creative forces, must be able to appropriate  the production framework and the development context.

When looking for the correct angle from which to tackle a production,  it is necessary to analyse, to monitor and to make prototypes.  L’Amicale therefore acts as a platform or meeting place for the  technicians, head of production, creators, communications managers and  other lab staff by aiming to maintain a clear symmetrical relationship  between the production team and the artists/project sponsors.

Antoine Defoort and Julien Fournet are associate artists at  CENTQUATRE-PARIS. From 2013 to 2020, L’Amicale is associated with Le  Phénix - Scène Nationale in Valenciennes, a European Creative Hub.

Source: https://www.biennaledeladanse.com