The commision

The pupils at Montebello European Lycée, located in a working-class district of Lille and specialising in language teaching, fall into two categories: local pupils from modest backgrounds, and primarily of Maghreb (North African) origins, and those from privileged backgrounds, attracted by the quality of the langage teaching. While the lycée enhances the value of exchange through language and the discovery of different cultures, there is no communication between the two population groups. In order to encourage exchange and find a coherent identity for the lycée, teachers and administrative staff took the initiative of involving an artist on the ground. As the commissioning group saw it, the work was to question language in terms of sounds, how it captures reality, and how it perceives. They also expressed other requests that the artist intervene in the field of the new technologies; the work, accessible by everyone, should establish a bridge between the lycée and the local community; several generations of pupils could be involved in producing the work.

The artwork

The pupils and staff of the lycée were invited to express their feelings and points of view in the mini (sound and picture) recording studio, situated within the establishment. One rule was set right from the start: each contributor had one minute available. In a kiosk located outside the lycée, a semi-public broadcasting area was set up. The second stage went beyond the ways and means of recording in order to highlight the processes inherent in communication: all contributors find they have been assigned the words of another contributor. The studio was a temporary installation, reduced to a light, mobile structure, able to be transported to a different establishment: exchange, communication. Subsequently other artists, co-opted by Kopp, will be able in their turn to make free use of the set-up created at the start, in order to give it an evolutionary dimension.

The artist

Since the mid-1990s, Jan Kopp has been creating works in the form of events, dealing with human relations and their social context. The spectator is invited to try out the work, mainly by exploring language and the most up-to-the-minute means of communication. While the project made it necessary for him to be involved over a long period, it also offered the artist the chance to go further in his experiments, both from the technological point of view and that relating to the collective dimension of the event.