Saâdane Afif The Fountain Archives - Grid of 16 elements

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1 All rights reserved. It is not allowed to reproduce this work entirely or partially under any form or by any mean without the artist's recorded permission. FA

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17 About The Fountain Archives by Saâdane Afif Fountain, the most controversial artwork in modern art history, didn t exist for a very long time. Rejected at the Salon des artistes indépendants in 1917, it disappeared the same year, after being shown during a short time at Alfred Stieglitz gallery. In fact, the original artwork has become famous thanks to the photographic reproduction Alfred Stieglitz made before its disappearance. It s this same image that was used to make the replicas* under Marcel Duchamp s supervision, in No one has ever looked at art. Make artworks that are supposed to be directly reproduced into magazines. As far as we know artworks thanks to their reproductions, we should only conceive artworks for reproduction. Remove the intermediaries in art. (John Baldessari, Art conceptuel, une entologie, under the direction of Gauthier Herrmann, Fabrice Reymond and Fabien Vallos, éditions MIX, 2008) * In 1950, it s a urinal that was selected by Sidney Janis to display Fountain in his gallery. In 1953, a urinal was also selected in order to be sold for the benefit of one of Duchamp s friends. In 1963, another urinal was chosen by Ulf Linde for the exhibition at the Stockholm Moderna Museet. These are three ready-mades, not replicas. Finally, only the editions produced in 1964 and of which a copy is the hands of the Centre Pompidou, are replicas made from Alfred Stieglitz photo (with the help of an industrial designer who made a drawing for the ceramist). These are not ready-mades, but sculptures of urinals, replicas of the 1917 urinal. This information comes from the catalogue raisonné of Marcel Duchamp s works, published by Schwarz. This «reminder» formulated by John Baldessari appears to be absolutely pertinent in regards to the posterity of Marcel Duchamp urinal, which, despite its disappearance, has become one of art history most important masterworks. It is not by chance that Saâdane Afif decided in 2008 to make Fountain the object of a very special collection a collection of all the publications in which the famous ready-made has been reproduced. The Fountain Archives consist thus of a multitude of torn pages on which appears the reproduction of Fountain, each framed individually. Because of the repetition of this motive, the complete series becomes a new artwork on its own, of a contemporary view on how art history and myths of art are created. It has been seven years ago since Saâdane Afif started the process of The Fountain Archives. The artist continues to supply his collection during his travels, his research on the internet, thanks to a series of websites that list all the books in the world. A network of experts and collectors have brought over the years a significant contribution by suggesting or sending rare publications, and local or vintage editions. Progressively, the collection will be extended each time with new findings. The artist gladly calls The Fountain Archives a hobby artwork, but it requests however an unfailing attention. Today the archive counts almost 600 entries and strives to attain 1001 in order to be complete. Just like the famous collection of tales, the corpus must be read as a legend gathering one thousand and one histories relating the Fountain work. 17

18 The Fountain Archives - Protocol Research and gather every type of publication containing one or more pages reproducing the picture of Duchamp s artwork: Fountain. The documents are collected in every language but only one publication from the same publishing house is retained if it is translated. For each new entry in the collection, attribute a number (FA. 000) and produce a detailed inventory notification with the following pieces of information: title, author, page number, ISBN number, dimensions of the document, etc. Tear out the pages, scan them and then frame them carefully. If more than one page is found in a publication, the process produces a diptych, triptych, etc. The pages are listed following an alphanumeric code. The same number is attributed to a set of documents, followed by a letter, corresponding to the order in which the pages were pulled out (FA.0001 a,b,c, etc.). Once such specific set of Fountains is framed, it is undividable. The largest polyptych listed so far comprises thirteen letters. The framed pages are redistributed worldwide during exhibitions, through a network of commercial galleries, collectors, institutions and museums. In case of sale: join a signed copy of an inventory notification, which stands for a certificate of authenticity. The publications are stored on the shelves of a bookcase in the studio of the artist. They will form a unique archive around a missing object (materialized by the missing page) when the collection will be finished. Once the project is over, the bookcase and its content will be exhibited. In parallel to the physical archiving process, a website is created to show the scanned pages in high definition ( The aim here is to share this unique database generated on the work of Duchamp. While sticking to the economy of the multiple (simple and repetitive gesture, mass production, low price) in the age of mechanical reproduction this process produces unique artworks. For that purpose, it relies on the book industry and the recurrent appearances of a legendary work of art. Finally, The Fountain Archives raises new questions and begins to generate its own comments. Since 2012 (and the FA item), following an article or an exhibition, it has happened that a publication reproduced Duchamp s original Fountain to present Afif s The Fountain Archives. Those documents are also integrated to the collection but, in order to underline the irony of this historical echo, they are subjected to a special treatment. They are archived times two. This particular section of the archive, which could be entitled section des mise en abyme, counts currently a dozen titles. 18

19 Technical Specifications Framed torn out pages Sizes are variable Grid of 16 elements composed by the artist and mfc-michèle didier: FA FA FA FA FA a, b FA FA FA FA a, b FA a, b FA FA a, b These 16 elements should be displayed in a grid previously drawn on the wall using a B type pencil. Every line should be traced straight on. Every grid cell mesures precisely 50 cm height 40 cm width. Each element should be hung precisely in the centre of each grid cell. Each element is numbered (on the back of each frame). The 16 elements should then be placed in ascending order, from left to right starting from the top. These 16 elements are inseparable but however can be subdivide in 4 grids of 4 elements. Two displays are possible: - 1 grid of 16 elements - 4 grids de 4 elements Production Each one of the 16 elements composing The Fountain Archives is unique. 19