course for curators of contemporary art: course participants / study excursions / program collaborators / exhibition

Urška Jurman
A conversation with David Dronet

What is Station Mir and what does it offer?

Station Mir is a collective of artists working since 1995 in Hérouville Saint-Clair in the suburbs of Caen (Normandy). Our work consists of several different levels: from developing personal and collective art projects, running a residency program to making editions of CD-ROMs, books and audio CDs. In order to be able to realise all this we also realise some projects for money, mostly this includes video editing, graphic and web design, etc.
Station Mir offers the residency guests and us tools for web and graphic design, a sound and recording studio, a 3D studio, a video studio and an offset printer shop. In 1997 the art group named CloaQ moved to a house next to us. They work predominantly with wood, metal, mechanics and robotics. We joined our tools and knowledge and now we can practise and offer our guests a broader spectre of artistic activities. Thus, the first of the two characteristics of our residency program is a broad panel of working possibilities (from multimedia to wood and metal construction) and the second one is artistic collaboration and exchange of knowledge. People working in Station Mir and CloaQ are all artists and not merely technicians. We are involved in residency guests projects not merely on a level of providing a service, but also as artists. This is also one of the main reasons why most of the people visit our residency program - besides having the opportunity of a wide spectre of free working possibilities they also have the opportunity to mutually collaborate on the artistic level. These two specifics are the starting point for numerous collaborations and projects between various people working in different fields.
What is also important is that a lot of people come to our residency program through our personal connections and previous collaboration experiences.

One could then say that personal networking is of great importance for Station Mir?

Yes, Station Mir is definitely based on a network. The first level of our network is a local one. It started to grow through the gallery, which I started together with my colleagues during our studies (1989/92) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Caen. The gallery was our response to the fact that something was lacking. At that time there was not a single private gallery in Caen in which young artists could learn about contemporary art or show their artworks. That is why we took the responsibility in our own hands and opened our own art gallery. The gallery was located in our apartment, in which we organised around 25 exhibitions over a period of two and a half years.
I believe that artists should not wait for funds or a gallery that wants to present their work in order to do something. No, an artist has to do the work, organise himself and create his own milieu. This holds even more true in a small town context such as Caen, which has approx. 200 000 inhabitants. In Paris it is quite different; there exist a developed infrastructure (numerous galleries, exhibition spaces, etc.) and more opportunities, but in a small town one has to organise all of this for oneself. Beside this, life in Caen is also cheaper than in Paris and it is easier to afford things and to do more with less money. What is also important is that in a smaller town one finds it easier to create a local network based on personal collaboration and exchange. From our beginnings with the gallery we constructed a very strong local network between certain people and art institutions (like the art school, the art centre, the public collection of contemporary art, etc.) with whom we practice a parallel economy - a system of exchange.
During the period of the gallery we also created our first international contacts and collaborations; we hosted a number of people from abroad and we showed our works outside of France for the first time. At that time my friend Stephano Zanini and I developed a collective work entitled Trance Femel co (which is an anagram of France Telecom). This is a work of art that deals with the telephone and communication system. This project, which consists of performances, installations and videos was shown in different countries across Europe for a number of years. Through this work we had the opportunity to meet people who are active in the international network UniversCity TV, which was an informal network of artists, engineers, technicians, students, independent groups, etc. who worked with multimedia and interactive systems. Within this network we took part in the European interactive TV project Piazza Virtuale / Van Gogh TV, which was produced in 1992 for Documenta IX in Kassel by Ponton European Media Art Lab from Germany.
The international level of our network started to grow especially through our collaboration with UniversCity TV. From this experience we decided to establish Station Mir, one of the reasons being to keep the international part of our network active. Following the Documenta IX experience we invited people we met through UniversCity TV network to make live broadcasts on the local TV during the video festival in Hérouvills Saint-Clair.

Namely, the Art centre in Hérouville Saint-Clair organises an annual video festival, which is mainly attended by professionals from all over France and abroad, however there is almost no local public. That is why we decided to approach the people through the local television, which everybody in Hérouville Saint-Clair receives free of charge. In 1994 we performed the first live broadcast of the video performances and interviews with people involved in the video festival. After that we carried out the LabŠ programme - 10 editions of 26 minutes long programmes of video art, which were transmitted on the local TV for a period of 2 years (1996/98) - every day at a different time.
We did live television during the video festival in Hérouville Saint-Clair in the period between 1994 and 2000. At that time we started to produce a lot of video and that was actually the true beginning of Station Mir. That was also the time when we have just completed our study at the art academy and we did not have at our disposal a suitable infrastructure, or any material, tools, etc. to produce art works. That is why we decided to put together all what we had and this was the beginning of Station Mir. Basically, it was an idea of an association based on the system of exchange and mutual collaboration.

Networking, system of exchange and collaboration is probably your way of creating 'more with less'?

Yes, this is a parallel economy, a way of producing art projects, which enables us to do more complex projects without a lot of money. Out of the gallery and the UniversCity TV experience we developed a network on the basis of which we can organise a big team of people working on a big project, without a lot of money. We can do this because we offer people the opportunity to work at Station Mir for free and when we do a big project, we can ask them to return the favour and help us realise our project. Besides, a smaller city like Caen enables us to establish an easier connection with the entire structure within the city. As I have already stated, we are practising some kind of an exchange and collaboration deal with the art institutions from the city. This is also important for the paid orders that we receive; namely, 95 % of our paid projects come from art institutions in the city. And these funds are the funds we use to finance Station Mir activities.

When you describe Station Mir you use terms such as parallel economy, networking, self-organisation. At the same time you refuse (in your lecture yesterday) to be labelled as an alternative group. How, where do you see the position of Station Mir within the art system?

We are not an official institution and we are not an alternative group, we are somewhere in between the alternative and the institution. That does not mean that we are a step from the alternative towards an institution, we are literary in between. To me alternative means being against the system, to be something different. We are something different, but I do not fight the system. Sometimes I have a connection with it. For example, Station Mir is situated in a house, which belongs to the city and we can use it for free, because it was meant to be demolished. Besides, I do not want to situate and define myself according to the official, institutional level. When I say that we are not an alternative group, I basically mean that we do not refuse public money to finance our activities. At the beginning, when we started to develop permanent activities in Station Mir, we did not apply for any public money and after we carried out our activities for a couple of years the public institutions had the idea to offer us some financial support. However, we want to stay as independent as possible and we do not want to be dependent merely on the funds from one or two sources. Mainly we earn money with graphic and web design, video editing, etc. and we invest this money into Station Mir - we use it to purchase materials and technical equipment, we use it to sustain and run the place.
Maybe 15 % of our budget comes from the state, region and city cultural founding, 25 % comes from the state support for employing young people (these funds have now ceased for they were given to us for a period of 5 years) and the rest comes from our professional activities. But we have to constantly take care that we do not go too close to the business side. We are always on the edge, because if we want to support some art project without public founding, we have to spend more time on the other - business side. We always have to think and be careful about regulating these two parameters.

Can you name a few bigger collaborative projects that you carried out?

The local TV program was our first big collective experience. After this experience the CloaQ group joined us and together we started to develop new collective projects. Our first common project was Babel Tower, an installation realised in 1999 that dealt with language and media. We constructed a big tower, which contained stages as platforms for video programs, performances, installations, exhibitions, electronic music, etc. The program was also broadcast on local TV and via the Internet on Canalweb, which was one of the most important web TVs at that time. The festival took place for 4 or 5 days, but it took us 3 months to construct the structure. The structure was used just the once, because it was built for a specific space - the theatre in Hérouville Saint-Clair. This is the location of the Art centre, which organises the video festival within which our work was produced.
That was our first big installation and approximately 40 people co-operated on it. Each and every member of the team was involved on every level of the project - from building the structure to the artistic output, working in the bar, etc. After Babel Tower we had strange feelings, because we made it together in such a way that the participants could not find their own history within the project. The individual work could not be defined and this turned out to be a problem. Afterwards we decided to work in the same, collaborative way, but to expose the more personal works of art. The In Cube project involved approximately 20 people from the very beginning. We constructed 28 metal cube models, which one can organise like Lego blocks. By placing cubes side by side they become a big sculpture. Inside each of the cubes you can put your personal installation, sculpture, video, etc. This functions like a small gallery and a platform for music, video, performance programs, etc. So far we set up In Cube three times in France and once in Quebec.

Do you think In Cube was a good way of finding a balance between the personal and collaborative way of work?

At the end we had the same kind of problems with In Cube as we did with Babel Tower. We spent more time working on the construction and organisation levels than on the artistic level. This is also the reason why we did not make a project so large ever since and why we returned to more personal works or to smaller groups where a maximum of 2 or 3 persons are involved in collaboration.

How are the contributions and work divided amongst the Station Mir members?

We had three employees, who were paid from the state support for employing young people; they were in charge of the administration and business levels - they were more involved in the projects we did for money. People who are not paid can use the material, any help we can offer and infrastructure for their own projects, but when we do a collective project or when there is a residency guest who needs some help, they are also there to help. This is our deal. This is a deal based on trust. We do not have any contracts between us, we do not count working hours, etc. Everybody knows why we are here and this is certainly not to earn money.

How is it possible to run this kind of a place already for the past ten years?

This is pure art, because everything is based on a personal level. The personal level is also the engine of Station Mir. We always have to discuss everything; we do not have a hierarchical and specialised way of working. We do not have weekly meetings to reach certain decisions, because we spend all of the time together anyway and we constantly discuss different projects, etc. We also do not have a committee that would decide who is coming to our residency. Everybody has to be convinced that it would be interesting to invite a particular artist because of his/her project. If we find a project interesting, we go for it even though we might not have a budget for it. This also means that we have to do more paid projects in order to be able to realise the invited project.

Is Station Mir founded on the basis of a certain concept?

Similar to the gallery case Station Mir also offers a concrete answer to a certain lack of something. Basically it is a concrete answer to a personal problem, which we have encountered after completing the art school, when we were not able to find a suitable structure or organisation in which we could develop our own work (from material, space, etc.). This concrete and in a way also political answer to a personal situation turned into something which is of interest to a greater number of people than we thought at first. It turned out to be something collective and open for others - a platform for collaboration and not merely a resource centre. But we did not come up with a strategy (as regards how we want to develop our place) already at the beginning of our activities. Station Mir was not a concept from the beginning; it was more a tool, which turned into a concept, maybe one could even say a political attitude. Yes, let's rather speak about the attitude. Station Mir is more of a position than a concept. Everything that I have done with the gallery and with Station Mir is an attitude, because within this kind of projects one can find artistic, political, economic, philosophical, etc. dimensions. But all this was not elaborated on a theoretical, but on a practical level. Through the projects we do, through the way we work and through the people we work with one can see our principles, attitude and strategy, which was not planned as a strategy but more as a way of life. On the other side, viewed from the outside Station Mir was and still is perceived as a concept.

Can you describe some other art projects besides In Cube and Bable Tower in which your attitude - which also marks Station Mir - is shown?

In 1994 we did a kind of a performance at the performance festival in Quebec in which we were human tools. We decided to do everything, except a performance. During the festival we were bartenders, cooks, drivers, assistants, technicians, messengers, etc. We had uniforms and badges with names describing our roles and we were really providing all those services. We also asked all performers/artists at the festival to fill in a questionnaire as regards their skills, about what they know how to do. Afterwards we compiled a kind of a database from all this data. This meant that, for instance, if a performer needed an assistant, we had the data on people who were capable of helping him.
It was a very demanding situation, because it was not a 20-minute stage performance, we actually worked the whole week through. We found this situation much more interesting - we were always outside, but at the same time we were inside the frame; we were everywhere, but nowhere. It was interesting to observe the reactions of people, who found themselves a bit lost in this situation. They could not truly comprehend what was our position - if we were artists or what … We were not announced as something special, we merely performed various tasks all of the time; we were everything and nothing at the same time.

But still, it was a performance.

Yes, for sure, but outside the frame, actually we represented the frame. This performance also represented a good situation in which we could think about who is an artist and what is art. As you can see, in an art association like Station Mir, we spend a larger chunk of our time on administrative work, cooking, etc. than on actually 'making art'. I find it interesting to turn this part, which is normally not perceived as art into art. This is a question of attitude. Everything can become art or not, but this is what we are trying to do, turn things from the outside to the inside. Like my new work: I installed software on my computer, which captures images from my two screens at thirty-minute intervals. The principle of this work is to turn around my relation with the machine and render my time more creative - time spent working for others (as a graphic designer), time spent working for Station Mir or time spent sorting e-mails or surfing the Internet. This material is accumulated in the manner of a notebook or a diary and will become a focal point of a video installation, which will be presented for the first time at The Premises Gallery in Johannesburg in October 2004. This process questions the relation of intimacy and a computer, the mechanisms of networks and image copyrights. Certain screen captures show snapshots of artists for whom I work, who have send me an e-mail or whose web-site I have visited. In order to constitute a collection of shared instants I have decided to send them this capture, suggesting that they can 're-appropriate' this image, which had become mine for a moment. I have already made a web-site with all the feedback: www.station-mir.com/thesharedlibrary.

Before you said that after In Cube you did not deal with any larger projects because with large collective projects you had to spend too much time for organisation and you did not spend enough time for the artistic level. Now you also discussed your interest to turn things that are not perceived as art into art and as a recent example you mentioned your new personal art project. What are the benefits and dangers of a personal way of working and a collaborative way of working?

The basic difference between working on your own or in a group can be found on the level of rational managing of egos which are highly present with artists and is sometimes hard to make them compatible. I think that the perception of democracy in art is very complex. History has proven that it is not necessary for the majority to see something right, thus one has to remain special, unique and defend his personal positions. However, collective practice enables self-questioning and self-confrontation as regards these realisations from a very pragmatic viewpoint. It brings a different understanding of the creation through language and exchange and enables anybody to blossom in his own, personal practice.

I find it crucial to discuss attitude within the frame of art and not merely artefacts …

This is also my culture, my personal background, which goes from the Dada movement to Fluxus and which puts a greater emphasis on the attitude than the object.
This approach is present also within the Club Automatique project. When we do this project, people are confused, because they are waiting for something concrete to take place; they are waiting for a play or a performance, but it is nothing like that. Club Automatique is more about a feeling, an atmosphere; it is a project in which you have to go deep into a project, in which you have to become involved. It is a kind of a party with contents - it includes food, lectures, performances, music, video, etc. Everything is interconnected, even the cook is involved in the system: his knife is connected through a MIDI system to sound and picture, so that he can control the video and sound during the live preparation of the food. Usually we also organise a workshop prior to the event (which lasts approximately 12 hours). We try to involve local students, artists, etc. in this workshop and we try to build a big team. Sometimes we also make a live broadcast of the project on the local TV station or via the Internet.
So far I have been a part of the Club Automatique crew for 3 times: in Slovenia, during the hEXPO festival in 2000, in the Art centre in Hérouville Saint-Clair in 2001 and in Indonesia in 2002. The basic group (Gérard Couty, Michel Piet, Rotraut Pape, Jacques Bigot, Christopher Müller, Mike Hentz and me) is very informal and changes for each project. We meet for a project, otherwise we do not work together; namely, the members of the basic group are not members of Station Mir, but are based in France, Berlin and Hamburg.
Club Automatique also shows my approach to making art. My approach is also related to the question of food, which is a good way to turn things around. The food offers a certain frame, but in fact you turn this frame into something else, where the viewer becomes an actor in the centre of the scene in which he can influence the situation.

At the lecture you also mentioned the EntreLaps festival, which dealt directly with the issue of the (local) public to which you wanted to translate - also with the help of food - your work within Station Mir.

We find it very important to work on the local level (the issue of the local public was also a reason why we started off with all the work for the local television station) otherwise you remain within a small circle of contemporary art. And the world of contemporary art is closed in itself. I think it is important to work on both levels.
Our big projects can be a bit spectacular, but most of our work takes place in the laboratory, 'under the water'. That is why it is sometimes difficult to explain to people what we are doing in our house for days on end. Similar as was the case with the local TV program we decided to organise the EntreLaps art festival with which we wanted to establish a connection with the local community. We organised a series of events last summer and our main aim was to involve the close surroundings of Station Mir. We organised exhibitions, concerts, performances, etc. on 7 consecutive Saturday evenings. This festival involved over 70 artists and a team of 30 people who worked on the organisation. It was important for us to offer the people an opportunity to see the other side of our work in Station Mir. We invited neighbours to come for a nice dinner, take time to meet the artists who were at that time in the residency in Station Mir, talk to them directly and see their works of art. Over 1000 people came. This project dealt with the approach to people, involving them and giving them some clues as regards the approach to contemporary art. And the best and simplest way is to talk to them and spend some time with them in a conventional situation. And food can play important role within that.

Are there any similar centres to Station Mir in France? Do you collaborate with any similar initiatives?

We collaborate with certain video festivals and artists from all over France and further. There are plenty of residency programs or studios in France, but our special characteristic is that all people in Station Mir are artists and we are involved in the residency artists' projects also on the artistic and thus mutual collaborative level.

Will the end of the state program for employing young people in any way effect the Station Mir activities? Where does Station Mir stand after 10 years and what are your plans for the near future?

The situation has changed greatly, for it is now much easier to work with audio-visual or multimedia on your own, because computers and the rest of the technical equipment are much cheaper. Due to this changed conditions people do not feel the same necessity to join an association in order to organise themselves, definitely not as much as was the case 10 years ago when we started with Station Mir. We were also very lucky that we received this support program from the state for five years. Through this program we could employ three people and this gave us some extra time. However, this aid program is over now. I feel that our current situation is a paradox, because it will probably be more complicated on a personal level. We will have to earn for our living, but on the artistic level we hope to regain greater independence and freedom by not spending so much time on running around after the money and being more concentrated on our artistic projects. I think we have finally reached the edge between the artistic and professional levels; everyone will choose his own way.
Station Mir is not finished - we are still preparing certain projects, such as personal exhibitions, collective audio CD, residencies, etc. But we have to find another way to continue our collaboration with artists with whom we have worked for a long time and with all the people we meet on a regular basis and who want to be involved in Station Mir or take advantage of our technical and human support. This is a great challenge!

November 2003