Between 1969 and 1990, the Présence
Panchounette collective banzaï-attacked
the art world with an onslaught of press
releases, fliers, irreverent mailing and butthead
deeds. Primally active in Bordeaux, the
group spread its action on to the international
art scene, whose aesthetic hypocrisies and
ideological taboos it pinned down with jovial
ferocity. Celebrating the “chounette spirit”,
they promoted an apologia of the worst,
riding on a real trivial pursuit, supporting
the vulgar versus the seriousness of
“modernity”. Présence Panchounette would
stand out, fighting against the values and
tastes championed by the most influential
cultural circles of that time. But, bad omen,
the bravado of the Bordeaux-based collective
would also anticipate movements born in
the Eighties, like
Appropriation and
Neoconceptual
art, which, as such, would find
their place gently and comely in the historical
official bios or genealogies. Concerned with
not smothering its verve in the pernicious
Pandora trunk of compromise and mendacity,
Présence Panchounette turned its back on
honours and remained stone deaf to the
attracting songs of institutional sirens, until
it announced its disbanding in 1990.
