Creator:

Groupe Signe (Claude Rosticher, Michel Cresp, Pierre Blanc, Pierre Lequien, Roland Marghieri)

Soun-Gui Kim

Performer:

Soun-Gui Kim

Groupe Signe (Claude Rosticher, Michel Cresp, Pierre Blanc, Pierre Lequien, Roland Marghieri)

Producer:

Soun-Gui Kim

Groupe Signe (Claude Rosticher, Michel Cresp, Pierre Blanc, Pierre Lequien, Roland Marghieri)

Theoretical background:

In Monaco, in July 1974, on the Larvotto beach, and in Chaumont in September, street materials (paper, glue, wire) were made available to the public who then lost at will the passive spectator status in order to build and fly balloons. The ephemeral and randomness are related by this playful element. In Monaco, 300 colour screens were distributed to participants (landscape change) and a rainbow had to be artificially created with a fire hose. The latter part of the intervention could not be made, because of technical problems.

Groupe Signe

Occurence:

Places:

Plage du Larvotto

Starting date:

1974

4 après-midi

Topology:

sea side

Adress:

Monaco

Documents:

Intention / compte-rendu de l'action

Type:

Imprimé

Technique description référence:

GROUPE

Mode d'emploi de construction de mongolfières

Type:

Imprimé

Technique description référence:

Mode d'emploi de construction de mongolfières

Description:

What mattered in this intervention was the notion of workshop: leading people to participate, making other people do.
It was clearly stated under the label "art" to distinguish it from a simple beach animation in the style of a Mickey Mouse Club. It was not a simple moment of artistic awareness and conscientiousness raising but the joint production of an artistic gesture, ephemeral, with no possibility of reclamation or appropriation. All that was designed at this time was bound to disappear.
Leaflets explaining how to manufacture paper balloons were distributed to the public, as well as a specimen. Children were clearly more interested in the funny side of the action but others well perceived the plastic / artistic dimension of this collective work, making the sky a pictorial field.
Along with the realization of balloons, several other participatory interventions were deployed:
 the public had free access to expression boards where they could add a message or a drawing addressing the Pioneer X probe, thus leading the participants to question their representation of humanity in a very synthetic form.
 Coloured gelatins, about the size of large glasses, mounted on a wooden stick, which served as a handle, were left to the public to experience a colourful vision of the landscape.
On the beach, an artificial rainbow was expected, with two firefighters operating fire hoses. For technical reasons this could not be done, but luckily, a real rainbow appeared that day.
Finally, in parallel, a Korean artist, Soun-Gi Kim, called for the manufacture of kites in the same artistic spirit of participation that allowed the making of the balloons.
The intervention was entirely funded by the municipality of Monaco and took place throughout the whole afternoon. [...]

Partial transcript of an interview conducted in 2011 with Michel and Claude Cresp Rosticher, Group members sign.

A history of performance art on the Riviera from 1951 until now

Space / Location II

Intention / compte-rendu de l'action

Mode d'emploi de construction de mongolfières