source: bombsite

Claire Fontaine lives in Paris. Her “assistants” are Fulvia Carnevale and James Thornhill, an Italian-British artist duo. With a readymade name—taken from a popular brand of French stationery—Claire Fontaine also describes herself as a readymade artist who finds herself working within the context of a politically impotent contemporary society. As her assistants, Carnevale and Thornhill make her objects, paintings, neons, videos, and, in the case of this interview, answer questions about her work. Written texts are also at the core of her work and accompany each exhibition.

Exhausted by the ruins of authorship, of political activism, of the May ’68 rebellion in Paris, and of strategies of opposition, Claire Fontaine prefers what she calls the “human strike,” a subjectivity that gets rid of itself, a whatever singularity. By exemplifying readymade and stereotypical identities imposed by social or cultural superstructures, she becomes an empty vessel. Despite her state of exhaustion, Claire Fontaine creates an art that seeks to transform political crisis into subjective emancipation. She understands that making art can’t oppose or rebel or subvert the political condition of late capitalism, so she presents herself as an artist on strike, a readymade subjectivity, a hole in the landscape through which a revolution might creep, arriving from elsewhere.
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source: miamiartexchange

Named after a common brand of French stationary, Claire Fontaine is a “ready-made artist,” exemplifying an empty, standardized identity produced by contemporary capitalism. Her works include neon signs, sculptures, videos, light-boxes, and texts, and while her message is often militant and radical, she more closely resembles subjectivity-on-strike, compromising our ability to define it and institutionalize it.

The practice of Claire Fontaine is one that recognizes and responds to contemporary culture’s feeling of political impotency. Claire Fontaine’s motivation arises out of a history of radical protest, in particular, the Paris student uprisings of May 1968. By contextualizing her art practice in this way it function more as a reminder of when art carried an urgent political message, as much art did in the 1960s, however, that is not to invoke nostalgia for that historical moment.

Claire’s life is also a remix; a constructed identity of appropriated elements that are collected only to be redistributed.

“By exemplifying readymade and stereotypical identities imposed by social or cultural superstructures, she becomes an empty vessel. Despite her state of exhaustion, Claire Fontaine creates an art that seeks to transform political crisis into subjective emancipation. She understands that making art can’t oppose or rebel or subvert the political condition of late capitalism, so she presents herself as an artist on strike, a readymade subjectivity, a hole in the landscape through which a revolution might creep, arriving from elsewhere.”

“Claire Fontaine’s work asks us to reconsider our assumptions as art viewers as well as members of society and to question daily facets of life that are often taken for granted,” said MOCA Associate Curator Ruba Katrib. “Economies is a visual meditation on alternative value systems and on the contradictions connected to concepts of ‘ownership’ today, which is especially relevant in the current economic climate.”
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source: theimagist

Claire Fontaine est une artiste collective qui a été fondé en 2004 et vit à Paris. Après avoir tiré son nom d’une marque populaire de cahiers pour écoliers, Claire Fontaine s’est auto-déclarée une « artiste ready-made » et a commencé à élaborer une version d’art néo-conceptuel qui souvent ressemble au travail d’autres gens. Elle utilise le néon, la vidéo, la sculpture, la peinture et l’écriture, sa pratique peut être décrite comme un questionnement ouvert de l’impuissance politique et de la crise de la singularité qui semblent caractériser l’art contemporain aujourd’hui. Mais si l’artiste elle-même est l’équivalent subjectif d’un urinoir ou d’une boîte Brillo – aussi déplacée, privée de sa valeur d’usage et interchangeable que les produits qu’elle crée – il reste toujours la possibilité de ce qu’elle appelle la « grève humaine ». Claire Fontaine se sert de sa fraîcheur et de sa jeunesse pour se transformer en singularité quelconque et en terroriste existentielle en quête d’émancipation. Elle pousse au milieu des ruines de la fonction auteur, en expérimentant avec des protocoles de production collectifs, des détournements, et la mise en place de divers dispositifs pour le partage de la propriété intellectuelle et de la propriété privée.