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IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO SPEAK ABOUT PARIS WITHOUT MENTIONING ART. WHILE THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY AND NOSTALGIA CAN SOMETIMES BE PARALYSING FOR THE ARTS – ALL THE MORE SO IN A CITY BEST-KNOWN FOR ITS HISTORICAL MUSEUMS AND HOMOGENOUS 19TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE – THE 11TH ARRONDISSEMENT IS HOME TO AN INDEPENDENT SPACE THAT LOOKS TO SET ITS OWN RULES AND BREAK WITH THE DOMINANT GALLERY MODEL.
Forward thinking and multidisciplinary, with a focus on collaboration, this independent production and exhibition space is a must-visit for fans of more radical art. The gallery has been housed in several locations over the past ten years, but it has finally moved to a permanent space on la Rue Moret, formerly home to the Paris-Cergy National Art School.
Treize was co-founded by a group of artists, curators and producers, who look to experiment with alternative, long-term ways of producing and programming artist's projects. “Every member of Treize is free to take on any project without consultation,” they explain, “as long as it is consistent with our programming and they encourage artistic exchange and discussion with the entire group.”
Treize lets every medium have its moment in the spotlight, from performances and concerts to installations and readings; they similarly feature contemporary artists alongside more historical and archive-based exhibitions, including an on-going project to restore and screen unseen films by the late French author Guillaume Dustan. The antithesis of more elitist art-world spaces, they truly put artists first. This is perhaps best demonstrated by the gallery’s project “YES TO ALL”, in which the founders invited every artist who wanted to participate in the show to drop off their work at the gallery on a particular day. Treize has also expanded to include a publishing house for books, records and artist’s editions, and plays host to a series of parties, including “Queer is not a label”, a night celebrating LGBTQ and DIY culture. In short, Treize is an inclusive space that operates through a continuous series of experiments to destabilize and question methods in every one of the contexts it explores.
Images of the exhibition SOLO by Bastien Cosson, 2019