Here's the pitch

The whole story starts with the collaborative project More Fools in Town that I have been doing with Australian artists Jacqui Riva and Geoff Lowe, aka A Constructed World. A lo-fi, high energy project with big aims that was presenting exhibitions and artists from around the world in an appartment in Turin, Italy. After two years of collaboration, Jacqui and Geoff tought that I should get a better understanding of the Australian art scene, which is in fact totally indebted to their own vision of it. To make my opinion 'on the inside'. That's how I ended being invited by Vikki Mc Innes to curate a show at the Victoria College of Arts in Melbourne.

What can you do in a country 30.000 km away from your hometown (Paris)? A country that is so far, you feel you just have preconceived ideas and fantaisies about it. Are sports, hobbies, and rock music really the big thing there? And what about the art? Is craft, like Ricky Swallow's hypperrealist wooden sculptures, the only hit practice?

And what about inviting artists that share the same fantaisies? Daniel Dewar and Gregory Gicquel are obsessed with life-styles, red-neck culture, and popular hobbies. Fishing, surfing, or tuning, crafts and self-taught creativity are their thing. They do not 'quote' these references and activities as such. But they try to create a body of works, mostly sculptures, that embodies their lived experience.

Here we are now. Three Frenchies in Melbourne for a one-month residency and an exhibition to produce from scratch. -Charlotte

Dewar & Gicquel, Aruba 49cc, 2005