Engaging Audiences Offline and Online at Monumenta, France

Last Tuesday I  was at the normally closed Grand Palais for a bloggers meeting I helped organise along with indie music reference French blogger Charles Dufresne.

 The meeting gathered a panel of bloggers from different backgrounds but with a shared interest in contemporary art around Marc Sanchez Artistic Director of the CNAP –the National Center for Fine Arts which organisesmajor cultural events for the Ministry of Culture - and Aurélie Lesous, who is in charge of mediation and educational programmes for Monumenta.

  On at the moment is a piece much talked of : Christian Boltanski’s installation entitled « Personnes » for Monumenta, a widely acclaimed yearly artistic confrontation between the 13,500 squ. meters of the Nave of the Grand Palais and a internationally renowned artist creating a piece for the occasion.

 

Monumenta’s main focus is to promote contemporary art beyond its usual fanbase, reaching out to wider audiences to fullfill the gap in understanding that  exists between audiences and contemporary art, changing typical reactions such as  « How should I interpret this ?», or « I could do that myself ! » into a dialogue.

 We were all gathered to discuss the reception of contemporary art amongst audiences and the work Monumenta achieves in this respect and had a very thought-provoking exchange on the conditions required to engage audiences online as well. 

 We first discussed the philosophy of cultural mediation, Aurelie insisted that the first goal of mediation is to propose and not to impose. The interesting thing about initiatives like that is that the Grand Palais is not filled with guards at the moment but with mediation-trained agents, not a familiar sight in a usual museum in France. If the visitor wishses to, he can then engage in a dialogue with mediators about the particulars of the work presented and thus start to work on his own impressions. 

 With that in mind, a discussion about the online translation of  this belief in dialogue started.

 Why not extending these precisous dialogues and personal impressions beyond Monumenta ? Why not having a blog to communicate on this, or more genrally a job done with participation of staff to enhance Monumenta?

 The reason why Monumenta has chosen not to engage in a full online development says Marc Sanchez is because he does not necessarily feel comfortable with talking  about an arts event while organising it. What is the role the staff would endorse ? Could it be perceived as mere advertising ? In this regard,  Marc Sanchez discussed some past experiences, some of them when he was a manager of the Palais de Tokyo which spoke in favour of his doubts, typically some mediators who took part to the dialogue being quite violently bashed for being bound to  be biased and do sheer promotion of the work. The way I personnaly see this issue is about finding your own voice. If staff engages in a conversation about Monumenta and are criticised for that, it can be because they haven’t yet their own space of expression where they would be asolutely legitimate in launching and framing debates and collecting some testimonies. In Monumenta's case, creating a space where the mediation-trained staff can interact with audiences seems more relevant.

 What are your thoughts on the subject ? Are those fears legitimate  and how do you swiftly accompany the change in the way staff and audiences interact ?

You can follow Monumenta on The Monumenta Twitter thread as well as on the dynamic Monumenta Facebook group.

Thanks to the Cnap for receiving us and for being open to discussion, this is much appreciated.

Photo credit : Alexandra Rigaud

 

Comments

[Jill Overacker]

Hello Claire,

I do believe that the fears of Mr. Sanchez are legitimate. No one wants to be accused of merely advertising their own event on someone else's space. However, having a space, as you have recommended, where Monumenta can engage its audiences on a more personal basis has its advantages. A blog would be a space where visitors expect to talk about the upcoming event and the art that will be displayed there. In a blog space it is not about marketing the event but engaging audiences on a deeper level that peeks interest and hopefully spurs action. I'm not sure what your usual audience is but blogs are a great way to reach younger audiences and to establish a way for audience members to converse with the event planners themselves. All around I think that establishing a blog for the event is an excellent idea.

Thanks,
Jill Overacker
PR student at Michigan State University

[Claire Solery]

Hello Jill,

What really struck me during this interview is how the Monumenta project in itself is about openness and dialogue. What supports the very structure of Monumenta is dialogue wiithin the walls of the Grand Palais, something that is definitely validated to me by the way we were recieved and could ask any questions we wanted. However the "oustide of the walls" perspective needs in my view to be fully inetgrated to the communication strategy and more importantly to the general interest mission Monumenta has been assigned which is to bring contemporary art and the people closer together.
As to what are the means, this is yet another very good question.
I was in charge of the Monumenta Twitter thread and was able to be aware of the outreach of this unique event outside and how the word would spread fast through Facebook, Twitter and all social networks which enabled us to make this meeting happen. With this year's experience in mind, and some top French bloggers on the boat, I hope that in the Monumenta will take the wheel for dialogue outside of the wall - and take it to yet another level.

Claire