A film by Robert Milin to question the conditions and implications of “art in the suburbs.”
In April 2010, Robert Milin was invited by the city of Saint-Denis whithin the framework of
an “Artist in residency” scheme. He was to spend the next two years in Saint-Rémy, a
difficult quarter. Facing the difficulty of making artworks in the public space, he decided to
react making a documentary film. In his flat changed into a film studio, Robert Milin invites
various interlocutors to question them about the point of art in such a place.
Two critical texts by Eric Chauvier and Delphine Suchecki enclosed in the booklet clarify
the artist's approach and give an additional analysis on issues of contemporary art in such
context.
With the participation of Sylvie Blocher, Thomas Hirschhorn, Didier Marcel (artists),
Saïd Karamani, Ahmed El Madbouh et Myriam Argano (residents), Guy Tortosa
(critic), Nathalie Viot (Ville de Paris), Johannes
Schaub (collector), Aline Caillet (philosopher), Eric Chauvier (anthropologist),
Laurence Doupuy-Verrier (Ville de Saint-Denis),
Christophe Girard and David Proult (local elected officials).
Robert Milin (born in 1951 in Brest) is a French artist. His videos, photographs and radio pieces derive from long periods of observation, strolling and chance encounters. Milin invites volunteers or accomplices to effect small shifts there where social interactions occur, and where they might re-emerge. His works, informed by the ordinary, by so-called amateur practices and by everyman's and everywoman's DIY, are constructed and flourish in routine, common spaces. The participation of individuals or of groups, with whom the artist establishes a modus operandi, can be seen in installations in public places.
