As part of his yearlong residency at the Chanot Contemporary Art Centre in Clamart, the artist Edgar Sarin invites students from the École d’Art d’Issy-les-Moulineaux – Les Arcades to participate in a four-day workshop centred around the methods described below. This workshop is also an opportunity to follow the production of an artist residency and of an exhibition, all while working alongside the art centre’s team.

The Chanot Contemporary Art Centre (CACC) becomes the site of the creation of a micro-society whose activity can only be perceived through the traces that it leaves, which take the form of an exponential accumulation of earthen sculptures. The choirs—as the different groups composing this micro-society are called—are never visible to the public. It is only by returning to the site and exploring this exhibition over the course of its duration that the evolution of these active vestiges becomes perceptible. On the occasion of his yearlong residency at the CACC, the artist Edgar Sarin encourages different groups (art school students, regular and academic spectators, the art centre’s own team, etc.) to become part of this society and to contribute to the construction and development of the exhibition. Each choir thus makes the project its own, bringing it to life and transforming the site by becoming part of the allegorical and functional fabric of earthen amphorae, including the architectural structures used to fire and store them.

Alongside the artist, the students learn the methods used to work, treat, and model clay. In addition, the exhibition includes an amphora mould that students test out ; they also take part in the creation of a vast fresco displayed in the exhibition.