Fabrica: Les Yeux Ouverts

Unless you were fortunate enough to be visiting Paris recently, you missed the exhibit, Fabrica: Les Yeux Ouverts, held at the Centre Pompidou, 6 October through 13 November 2006.

In English, “Les Yeux Ouverts” means “I see, I look, I am.” The concept relates to the common Western expression, “I see”, which someone might say to indicate they understand the full meaning and impact of what another person is telling them—even if they were not really paying attention. Fabrica: Les Yeux Ouverts asked exhibit visitors to look carefully at what they were seeing, to consider its scope and potential, as well as what meaning it might have to them personally—and, if possible, to the world.

To accomplish this, the exhibit invited the public to not just view, but to interact with work created by students at Fabrica—a private-sector, multidisciplinary art, design and communication research center in Treviso, Italy. The exhibit also provided visitors a rare glimpse into the Fabrica design experience and its facilities, designed by Tadao Ando and located at the Villa Pastega Manera, a classic seventeenth-century villa.

Fabrica | origins and mission

Fabrica was established in 1994 on the initiative of Luciano Benetton, Chairman of the Benetton Group, and Oliviero Toscani, former Benetton art director who established Benetton’s visual identity and designed its groundbreaking, controversial advertising campaigns from 1982 to 2000.

Fabrica’s range of activities extends from graphic design to cinema, including industrial design, writing, interactive media, photography and music on the way. Its program is led by an international team that encourages the creative development of young professionals (under the age of 25), selected from a worldwide pool of applicants. These highly talented students are granted a one-year scholarship to work on projects they define and develop. Their projects explore, challenge and redefine the boundaries between art and communications—a mission the students carry on in their professional work after leaving Fabrica.

Fabrica seeks to encourage cultural cross-fertilization and a global consciousness in all its fields of activity. It has been responsible for many media campaigns for major organizations, both commercial and non-profit, including the World Health Organization, United Nations, International Council of Nurses, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Witness, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, United Colors of Benetton, CocaCola, Nikon, Fuji, ArteFiera Bologna, Tim Telecomunicazioni, Istituto Luce, Alessi, Porsche, Piaggio, Vespa, Domus magazine, The New Yorker Magazine, Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Edizioni San Paolo, Electa, Mondadori, Mediaset, Fox International, Regione Veneto and World Public Relations Festival.

The exhibit, Fabrica: Les Yeux Ouverts, was initiated by the Centre Pompidou to present projects developed at Fabrica. Alfio Pozzoni and Paolo Landi coordinated the exhibition for Fabrica. Accompanied by a film program and a series of musical performances, the exhibition offered the visitors the opportunity to not just view, but to experience for themselves, Fabrica's work. The participatory nature of the exhibit reflected the designers’ interest in conveying the essence of Fabrica’s mission as a research center dedicated to the development of new styles, new languages, new ideas and new materials for future communications. It should be noted that the exhibit coincided with the fortieth anniversary of Benetton.

Omar Vulpinari, Creative Director of the Visual Communication Department at Fabrica commented on the development of the exhibition, “It was a very difficult collective effort defining the core concept of the exhibition. All seven departments brainstormed together for two months before finding the final direction. Besides the specific contents, we were torn between making it totally retrospective opposed to making it out of specifically conceived new work. Considering the broad audience of the Centre Pompidou, we found the "truth" in the middle.”

4 zones | the exhibit's organization

Fabrica: Les Yeux Ouverts was organized into four zones, the first of which was devoted to Fabrica’s core interest: visual communication. Graphic design, photography and video are all used in projects for Fabrica's partners and were included in the first zone. This section presented two global media campaigns: “Violence” (2003), for the World Health Organization, and “Food for Life” (2003) for the World Food Program.

The second zone explored the global vision which characterizes Fabrica's work. Images shot by photo journalists from all over the world, each concerning a different theme, were grouped together under the title “I See.” This section also presented “Colors Notebook”, a project carried out with Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders). “Colors Notebook” provided people who generally do not have the chance to speak the opportunity to do so. By bringing together written accounts of their lives, people who live in the some of the most remote corners of the planet or in places where freedom of expression is threatened, were given the chance to express themselves.

The third zone presented experimental interactive projects developed by the Fabrica teams to engage viewers' minds as well as their senses. To gain access to the exhibition, visitors descended a stairway, each step triggering a note played on the marimba of Southern Africa. In this way, “Tuned Stairway” offered everyone a chance to make their own music. “Dialogs” was a light and sound installation which required spectator participation. Plunged into darkness, the visitor could only make out what is going on by moving about to find the right viewpoint. Similarly, the installation “We are the Time, We are the Famous” also played on the viewer's mobility as it projected his or her image, still or in motion as the case might be. Conceived as an interactive research tool, the “Stock Exchange of Visions” offered an opportunity to reflect on the future, while “10 x 10” revealed the way in which different media across the world treat the same information, using images taken from the Internet. A short film, “Evidence”, explored children's relationship to television.

The fourth and final zone of the exhibit looked at Fabrica itself. It offered viewers a virtual tour of the Fabrica environment and facilities. Accompanying it were a series of video self-portraits by those involved in creating the exhibit.

Accompanying programs

In coordination with the exhibition, the Centre Pompidou presented a program of films focusing on Fabrica's activities in the arena of film. Since its creation in 1998, Fabrica Cinema has encouraged independent film-making, more especially in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Supporting local initiatives, the department has helped to produce and distribute numerous films, among them “Blackboards”, by the Iranian Samira Makhmalbaf, “No Man’s Land” by the Bosnian director Danis Tanovic, and “Tropical Malady” by Thai film-maker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, all of which have won awards at international festivals.

A program of films made, produced or distributed by Fabrica was shown in the Centre's cinemas, selected by Marco Müller, director of Venice Film Festival, who on October 12 also chaired a panel discussion between some of the film-makers.

In addition, a series of concerts and musical performances, notably the first European preview of Andrea Molino's Winners, a new multimedia opera co-produced by Fabrica and the Brisbane Festival, with the Australian percussion group TaikOz and the Dresden Symphony Orchestra also took place.

Impact

On the impact and success of the exhibit, Omar Vulpinari commented, “The exhibition consisted of relational experiences, social messages and creative inspirations. I hope all visitors, regardless of age, culture and profession were not only entertained but also found something to take home and think about."



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Captions


Fig 1 “Violence” Author: Gabriele Riva (Italy). Part of an international advertising campaign commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), highlighting the problem of violence in its most intimate forms.

Fig 2 “Food for life” Author: James Mollison (UK) Part of an advertising campaign for United Colors of Benetton, in collaboration with the United Nations agency World Food Program.

Fig 3 Colors Notebook, released in April 2006 and sent to people who are not usually given a voice. The personalized Notebooks were returned to Colors to become part of this exhibit.

Fig 4 “Evidence” by Godfrey Reggio is a short film which shows children’s eyes as they watch television.

Fig 5 “We are the time. We are the famous” Authors: Andy Cameron (UK), David McDougall (UK), Oriol Mesia (Spain), Hans Raber (Austria). An interactive installation in which visitors are confronted with real time images of themselves.

Fig 6 “10x10” is an interactive exploration of words and pictures that define our time.

Fig 7 “Dialogs” Authors: Francesco Meneghini (Italy), Ramon De Marco (Switzerland), Pedo Ferreira (Portugal). A multimedia installation analyzing relationships and communication between people.

Fig 8 “Flipbook!” Author: Juan Ospina (Columbia), with contributions from Enrique R. Grullon (Santo Domingo), Maik Bluhm (Germany), Hans Raber (Austria). Every exhibit visitor was invited to express themselves by creating their own animated short story using simple interactive software.

Fig 9 “Fabrica Virtuale” Authors: Pierre Fichefeux (France), Harun Alikadic (Bosnia), Mathieu Guimier (France). This was an opportunity for exhibit visitors to take a virtual trip through Fabrica.

Fig 10 “Stock Exchange of Visions” provided the opportunity to hear interviews of artists, scientists, sociologists and others about their vision of the future.

Figs 11 and 12 “I see” Authors: Olivia Arthur (UK), Adam Huggins (Canada), Ashley Gilbertson (Australia), Leonie Purchas (UK), Lorenzo Vitturi (Italy), Philipp Ebeling (Germany). Presents a portrait of the six major geographic area of the world.

Fig 13 “Tuned Stairway” Authors: Andy Cameron (UK), Hans Raber (Austria), Federico Urdaneta (Colombia), Daniel Hirshmann (South Africa), Carlo Zoratti (Italy). Visitors create their own musical composition as the ascend or descend the exhibit stairs.

Fig 14 “Eyes mobile” Author: Dario Boschiero (Italy), with contributions from Diego Boschiero (Italy), Michele Tego (Italy), Alfio Pozzoni (Italy), Marcello Piccinini (Italy), Marian Grabmayer (Austria), Barbara Kunst (Italy). Provided visitors the technology to see behind the exhibit, providing additional information.

Figs 15 through 23 Photographs of the exhibit taken by Piter Wilson

Figs 1 through 23, Copyright © Fabrica

Figs 24 through 26 Images of Centre Pompidou, © Centre Pompidou, Photos: Philippe Migeat, Georges Méguerditchian




Appreciation is owed to Yoann Gourmel, Contact presse, Direction de la Communication, Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou for assistance and contributions to this article.