The commission

As part of the Master's degree in "Creation and Study of Contemporary Arts", and more specifically, the "Exhibition-Production" course and the action of the New Patrons programme, a group of students from the visual arts department of Lille University and ESA (Ecole supérieure des arts du Nord-Pas-de-Calais Dunkerque-Tourcoing) decided to commission an artist to create a collective living space. There are two different art courses on the same campus but there is no meeting place for students. The aim of the commission was to encourage exchange between the students of the two schools, while experimenting with the New Patrons process.

The artwork

To carry out this project, artconnexion suggested a collaboration with the artist Sammy Engramer. Sammy Engramer multiplies experiments, plays with words, reinterprets objects and symbols.

In response to the commission, he designed European Think Tank, a modular piece of furniture, whose 72 shapes are as many stools and tables to be assembled or dispersed in the space of the visual arts campus in Tourcoing. Like a puzzle, the shapes and colours interlock with each other, referring to the flags of Europe.

At the same time, Sammy Engramer exhibited a series of three works at the Galerie Commune, under the common title YUROP, on the issue of "the image of Europe". The inauguration of the work followed the Art Prod° Lab seminar organised by the students of the Master’s "Exhibition-Production " course, a week of talks, workshops and meetings with artists: Claude Rutault, Alain Bernardini, Krijn de Koning and Tadashi Kawamata...