The Centre Culturel Irlandais, Artist in Residence Programme, Paris.
The CCI courtyard, Rue des Irlandais, Paris.
An overview of my experience and an introduction to the CCI Artist in Residence Programme in Paris. In September 2020, I was awarded the opportunity to spend one month at the CCI, to research and develop my work and indulge in the Parisian way of live. Below is an attempt to encapsulate the time I had by reflecting on aspects of my residency experience. I fitted a lot into one month. See this overview not only as a reflection of my time, you may find some of the info useful should you be considering applying to the residency programme.
The first thing I did… check out the closest Boulangerie, 2 mins away from the CCI.
A TYPICAL DAY
With artisan boulangeries and patisseries serving freshly made baguettes and delicious treats every morning, the first thing on my mind from day one was to get some of this goodness for breakfast. A typical cliché and a national icon, the French baguette, it does just taste better in France. In the local area around the CCI, you are literally 2mins away from a variety of quality establishments – L’Essential Anthony Bosson, 2 Rue Mouffetard, La Boulangerie Moderne 16 Rue des Fossés Saint-Jacques for example, you really can’t go wrong. Every morning I would look forward to sitting out in the CCI courtyard with my chosen goods and sit opposite the studio with a pot of coffee. As an Artist in Residence, you get access to what they call the artist’s kitchen where you can cook your own meals, and commonly this is where you might meet some of the other artists who are also on the residency programme. The weather in September was just perfect with beautiful sun and ambience. I would happily take a slow morning while checking-in with the daily news online before stepping into a work mode. After breakfast, I would then head into the studio. I am very aware that the picture I am creating here portrays the romantic ideal of the artist and their studio. It’s simply unavoidable. It really was that kind of environment. This residency offers you that focused headspace, to indulge in your work, away from the normal distractions and routines and spend a fixed period of time to develop your work. This was my main intention for applying to the CCI in Paris. In Dublin, I juggle a variety of jobs and work-related commitments daily, while also balancing a studio practice. The reason for doing a residency of this kind is to be afforded with the opportunity, time, and space, to step out from those commitments and drill down into the aims and goals you set in place for the residency period. The city of Paris, as a site-specific location, was a feature of the work and research I aimed to develop there. The historic area of the Latin quarter where the CCI is located (the stories of Joyce, Beckett, and Hemingway, and the list goes on) certainly added to the experience. Having access to the private CCI artist’s studio with separate ensuite accommodation, and with the large courtyard adjacent was quite a privileged set-up.
The atelier located adjacent the CCI courtyard. More images of the studio below.
Most afternoons, I would take a break from the studio and get out for a meander around the city and stop by somewhere for a lunch. Something quick and easy like a galette or salad and sit outside a restaurant and watch the world go by for a bit. I did enjoy exploring Paris equally through its food and wines. Afterwards, I would head back into the studio and work there into the eve. To conserve some energy for the eve and into the night at times I would I take a siesta, or alternatively I would go to the Luxembourg gardens or hang out down by the Seine in the evening to soak up a sense of the city. There is a very vibrant night-time casual socializing vibe here and it is part of the experience to be out in the warm night air. You can find yourself easily out into the early morning hours – Paris at midnight. Cue another cliché, but again, a cliché that did not disappoint.
Evening stroll through the Luxembourg Gardens
At night, if I felt like heading out, this would turn into a stroll around the city to find a new experience and location for dinner. On other occasions I would get some items from the nearby local farmers markets and make dinner in the artists kitchen at the CCI to keep things simple and remain at base. Either way, I would typically find myself in the studio working into the early hours. I found this late-night studio time very productive and enjoyable. The spot lit CCI courtyard with the sounds from the Parisian streets at night in the distance attracted this work ethic. Sometimes while being around the studio and courtyard at night, this would turn into meeting and socializing with the other artists. A great place to meet people and invite them into the studio to discuss and share our work and research.
Food, drink, walking, and working - pretty much a typical day. Interesting that it is in this order. But allowing yourself to get familiar with Paris, its culture, architecture, history, food and drink, while also being able to productively work in the studio and getting things actually done there, was such a wonderful environment and head space to be in. Sounds idyllic. Well, it truly was. But this was a balance I knew I had to prepare myself for before arriving in Paris, knowing my natural tendencies to want to stroll and discover the city endlessly, or potentially just hide yourself away in the studio. Which leads me into saying something about my experience of the studio work/ Parisian way of life balance while being Artist in Residence at the CCI.
A treat of oysters with a crisp glass of white at The Oyster Club, 15 Rue de Jouy.
THE STUDIO WORK/ PARISIAN LIFE BALANCE
Ok, hands-up, when abroad in another city I am a Baudelairian flaneur. There is nothing more I love to do than indulge in a city’s restaurants, café culture, places of curiosity, its history, people gazing, get lost meandering the streets from morning into the night and attract random occurrences with people that I meet along the way. Knowing this only too well of myself and prior to leaving Dublin for the CCI residency, I asked myself three questions: What do I want to get out of this experience? How best to use this time? What do I want to achieve realistically by the end of the period? Coming from a demanding schedule in Dublin, it was important to wrap up everything and clear the desk before leaving. I emailed, texted, and called people to let them know I will be off-line, away from work, and I was not contactable unless it was absolutely necessary. I also deleted my work email accounts from all my devices. These small factors really did contribute to ensuring that I could absorb myself into the residency and make every minute count.
Paris is a city I have been to on several occasions. The first time I came here, and the first time I stayed in the CCI, was when on a holiday with my father Sean Beattie as a teenager. The memories I have of that time have always stayed with me. Without going too far down those specifics of memory lane, I remember being brought to those timeless book shops, epic library’s, what felt like every street’s cafés, spending an eternity in the large museums, churches, grave-yards, gardens, and ending the night over a dinner watching people living a life that was so different to how I grew up in the hills of Donegal. My father is a writer, teacher, and historian. He stayed at the CCI many years ago as a student to conduct research, and he enjoyed returning to Paris over the years, and I would be brought along with him for the ride.
I was told to go and have hot chocolate here at Les Deux Margots, 6 Place Saint-Germain des Prés. I’m not a hot chocolate fan, but this stuff was memorable. Requires sitting still for a while afterwards.
Returning to Paris through the CCI Award, I treated this residency as a site-specific project with set goals I aimed to achieve. While I did of course visit the cities sites, museums, etc. such as the Pallas de Tokyo, the Centre Pompidou to see the Christo show, la Fondation Cartier, and the Giacometti’s Reconstructed Studio, and many places of curiosity, this time my focus was on the work I aimed to develop in the CCI studio specific to Paris, the artist Piet Mondrian, Mondrian’s Paris 1920’s studio, and area of Montparnasse. I won’t go into the details of that work and research here at this moment, rather, touch on the mindset I adopted to get work done, while also enjoying the city. First world problems, but I think it may be useful for artists who are looking to apply to the CCI to reflect on this for a bit.
In Dublin, my studio set-up looks quite different now from what it used to be. I have a home-office-studio. Due to the nature of how I now work, my studio has evolved into the location of the film set, the site-specific historical or cultural location, the coffee shop meeting, the body of the camera, the editing suite, and the studio is also a term I use for the mindset I enter into. While I have had numerous physical studios, over the years I have been working in a way where there hasn’t been that essential requirement for the private physical studio space. This was a conscious and deliberate decision I made quite a few years ago, to develop a way of working where I was not tied to the classical artist’s studio to produce work. Rather, I now have a variety of studio practices, ways of being with the studio, that I adopt and apply when developing work for specific projects.
Prior to applying for the CCI residency, and in consideration of the work I aimed to develop there, I knew that in this specific case it was important to be located in Paris for practical research purposes and also for conceptual reasons. I knew that I required a separate space to focus the work, and therefore I requested to have the provided studio space. Equally, it was important to be physically removed from the everyday work-related commitments in Ireland, to maintain a level of concentration without distraction. The work I aimed to develop at the CCI was a long-term project I had been producing and directing for several years. A moving-image choreographed production based on the reconstructed Paris studio of Piet Mondrian. Mondrian’s iconic Paris studio, most commonly known from Paul Delbo’s and Andre Kertezs’s black and white archival photographs, was originally located on 26 Rue du Départ from 1921-1936, roughly a 20min walk away from the CCI. Before beginning the residency, this project was at an early stage of post-production in preparation for my museum solo show at the Hugh Lane Museum in Dublin.
The CCI studio, editing Reconstructing Mondrian, work in progress, supported by The Arts Council of Ireland.
My aim for the CCI residency was to complete a final cut of the video, and to do this in the heart of the city where Mondrian’s original studio was once located, and to keep open the potential for new elements to be introduced into the work during the residency period. To be able to productively work with this material and to produce new content, I shipped over my editing suite and camera equipment with a door-to-door courier service in advance of arriving. When I landed in Paris and arrived at the CCI, the equipment was waiting for me, and I installed it into the CCI studio which basically transformed it into an edit suite. I also kept a space in the studio free to experiment with new studio-based works. Residency planning, preparation, and thinking ahead. Some residency programmes have the facilities in-house for producing work of this nature that require camera’s, computers, software, etc. I knew well in advance that this residency was about the studio, free accommodation, and they also provide you with a stipend. I used this stipend to invest in organizing the tools and materials I required to work effectively. And of course, the stipend gave me a budget to purchase metro cards, museum entrance fees, and food daily. Like most European capital city destinations, Paris is not the cheapest. So, you should plan in-advance for a daily budget. Navigating the city, letting yourself get lost, jumping on a metro and getting off across the opposite side of the Seine, or simply walking your feet off, Paris is a very enjoyable city to explore. Organising your days and weeks between studio time, and city time is a must. There is a diversity to Paris which you can only get a sense of if you travel further afield around the outskirts of the city. Of course having a few French phrases and sentences ready and learned is useful. Everyone does speak English, and I found the Parisian’s extremely accommodating, but putting the effort in to speak the language was appreciated.
What I am outlining here are the elements I considered in advance of what I needed in place to be self-sufficient, and set-up to work and live in Paris for a fixed period of time. With these elements in place from the start, I was straight into a flow, and didn’t lose time scrambling around the city to find compatible wires, cables, and accessories. Being set-up and running from the get-go meant that I transitioned smoothly from Dublin to Paris and was able to embed myself into a workflow and rhythm. Aside from such technical and practical considerations, I also planned to meet people, organize studio-visits, and set-up meetings with individuals and organisations relevant to the work and research. All of this takes time, and to do as much of this as possible before arriving at the residency, was in my case worth the extra effort. To recap, the point of outlining my process of getting organized afforded me the quality and productive time in the studio, and the extra time to enjoy and indulge in the city.
26 Rue du Départ, Montparnasse.
À BIENTÔT…
There where so many highlights, interactions, journeys, and memorable moments I would love to endlessly reflect on here. As part of the programme, there were a series of events which took place on site such as gallery exhibition openings, open-studio events, live poetry readings and performances, and much more in-between. You get to engage with the public and CCI staff collectively through this series of events, and on a one-to-one basis. I’ve done several residencies in my time, and I will conclude to say that the CCI Artist in Residence programme is up there with some of the best residency experiences I’ve had. I did complete that final-cut , developed new work and material, made new networks, contacts, and created new opportunities, conducted studio visits, shot new video and photography, and wore out several pairs of shoes due to all the walking. What you put into your residency experience; you certainly get back. Thank you Nora Hickey M’Sichili, the Director of the CCI, all the staff and the security teams, for providing this unique experience. À bientôt, I hope to see you again very soon.
An open-studio public event organised by the CCI in collaboration with the French Embassy and the National Gallery of Ireland.
The morning routine
The morning coffee brew outside in the courtyard before entering the studio. The accommodation overlooks the courtyard, and the studio is adjacent.
A taste of the cuisine
Looking back over my images, it looks like I focused on the cuisine more so than the actual work. Walking through the city and stopping along the way to get to know Paris through its food and wines. From the simple baguette, to the more elaborate, it was all quality. A small collection of samples from many images.
The Giacometti Institute
Located at 5 Rue Victor Schoelcher, roughly a 20mins walk away from the CCI, which houses a reconstruction of Alberto Giacomett’s studio.
The markets
From Rue Mouffetard, to Marché des Enfants Rouges, to markets off the beaten track, and having a bit of banter with the street traders. This is where having a bit of the language helps.
Palais de Tokyo
Ulla von Brandenburg exhibition Le milieu est bleu at Palais de Tokyo
Shots from the studio
The post-production of Reconstructing Mondrian, with new photographic works and research in progress.
Marking the occasion
When I complete a significant project, I always mark the occasion in someway. In this case, I got a custom crafted ring made by Youry Megal, Parts of Four, 36 Rue Charlot.
The Grand Finale
The Guy Savoy 3-star Michelin Restaurant, Monnaie de Paris, 11 Quai de Conti, and a table for one. A brief show of images from this exquisite meal. Yes, I planned this, and no, I did not spend my stipend on it, I came prepared. I found out that the Guy Savoy where doing a fixed rate seven course lunch with accompanying wines for each course. For a 3-star Michelin, I was quite surprised about the price. It wasn’t cheap, but it did not break the bank account either. I spent 3.5 hours here being carefully guided through each course with narration, drama, and directions from the waiter. It was worth every penny. I went here on my last few days in Paris. A luxury and a good send off.
Meet-ups with friends
A visit from my good friend Vitorrio Santorro, a visual artist based in Paris. Vitorrio and I did a residency together back in 2010/11 at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. I showed Vitorrio all around the city of Dublin, and on this occasion he returned the gesture by bringing me on a full days tour around the city of Paris through the lens of Beckett. The knowledge this guy had of Parisian social and cultural history was astonishing. He showed me some gems throughout the city that day.
Daily diary
I am one of these people who keep journals, diaries, and notebooks. Each day I would write down all my interactions, experiences, thoughts, and development during the residency. Walking away with this as a record and as a memento and being able to reflect on this time is something I find a lot of pleasure in.
Mais bien sûr