For this book, 21 authors and a collective of authors were asked to produce, in the form of autonomous notebooks, new forms of critical commentary in text and image on the 21 themes that make up the categories of action of an art center: Ile-de-France, place, island, color, art history, visitor, reproduction, artist’s book, inventory, vocabulary, context, production, opinion, partner, exhibition, engraving, media plan, administration, figures….

A common corpus, “the first nine years of Cneai”, serves as an alibi for the authors to experiment with new forms of artistic commentary. The contributions can be read booklet by booklet, texts and portfolios are autonomous, linked by the theme of the titles. For the sake of testimony, we return here to the fundamental principles of commentary: 1) comes from to comment, to lie in the 14th century 2) addition, explanation brought to a subject 3) generally malicious interpretation: gossip, gloss…

At a time when meta-thinking and thought-methods produce codified commentary, it was urgent to move onto an artistic surface that privileges individuation at the expense of marketing, and to identify forms of living expression, direct productions that fuse amateur and professional thinking. Artists and poets are here to guide us. Around a hundred artists, authors, graphic designers and researchers have contributed to this book, which is divided into as many sections as there are themes based on the daily life of an art center.

Some of the most advanced authors in each of these practical categories (photography, drawing, authorial text) were invited to contribute: Jean-Baptiste Bruant and Maria Spangaro, Bureau d’études, Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec, Julien Carreyn, Continuous Project, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Bettina Funcke, Liam Gillick, Christophe Kihm, Körner Union, Pierre Leguillon, Jean-Charles Massera, Alexandra Midal, Charles Pennequin, Claude Rutault, Josh Smith, Anne Tronche Each section represents an original text/image production, with the exception of Gilles Deleuze’s text Causes et raisons des îles désertes. A final section devoted to artist biographies brings together contributions from 80 of the 200 artists who have pursued their research at Cneai.

Collectif : Hans-Peter Feldmann Céline Duval Taroop & Glabel Claude Rutault Antoni Muntadas Ben Kinmont Peter Downsbrough Noël Dolla Gérard Collin-Thiébaut Claude Closky Philippe Cazal Ernest T. Glen Baxter François Curlet Pierre Leguillon Paul-Armand Gette Adam Dant Bernadette Genée Raphaël Boccanfuso Pascal Doury Continuous Project Allen Ruppersberg Bettina Funcke Charles Pennequin John Giorno Julien Carreyn Yann Sérandour Laurent Malone Pierre Antoine Marie Denis Elke Krystufek Hendrik Hegray Erik Steinbrecher Alain Le Borgne Jean-Baptiste Bruant Lefevre Jean Claude Laurent Marissal Bruno Serralongue Sylvie Boulanger Édouard Boyer Stéphane Magnin Anne Frémy Esther Hoareau Alexandre Périgot Christophe Fiat Tatiana Trouvé Sébastien Agnetti Sophie Auger Pierre Belouin Madeleine Berkhemer Philippe Bissieres Erwan et Ronan Bouroullec Maria Bruant Andréas Duponstocq M/M (Paris) Céline Vanden-Bossche Christophe Jacquet Serge Comte Mircea Cantor Maria Spangaro Liam Gillick François Morellet Franck Scurti James Lee Byars Marguerite Fatus Josh Smith Fabien Hommet David Jourdan Serge Stephan Frederic Danos Jean Kerbrat Bili Bureau d’études Mathieu Capel Anne-James Chaton Gaelle Chotard Cinq.cinq designers Hervé Coqueret Gilles Deleuze Gilles Drouault Bert Duponstocq Andréas Fohr Pierre Giquel Yo-Yo Gonthier Jérôme Grand Etienne Hervy Judith Ickowicz Jamie Cameron Christophe Kihm Union Körner Ricardo Lanzarini Ange Leccia Franck Leibovici Letaris Caroline Maestrali Jean-Charles Massera Alexandra Midal Christophe Mielle Mól Krysztof Vera Molnar Joseph Mouton Jean-Pierre Nouet Vincent Romagny Anne Tronche David West Pascal Yonet