Médiation Culturelle
My research into the mediators working conditions revealed that the FRAC, like many other cultural institutions in France, employed mediators by way of a third-party corporate contract.
In response to this externalization of the working conditions of the staff whose job is to mediate between art and public, I proposed to displace the front desk and the mediators from within the gallery foyer to the courtyard outside. This displacement was intended to make the externalized status of the mediators transparent.
This proposal led to internal conflict within the institution at several levels, and was resisted by the exhibition coordinator, the technical staff, and one of the three mediators with such intensity that on the day of the opening it was decided to reverse the displacement. I ultimately exhibited a letter and statement in a vitrine outside the gallery, in the place where the mediators were to have been positioned.
