In 1948 the Musée de l’Évêché in Limoges organised, under the technical supervision of Marie-Madeleine-S. Gauthier, a remarkable exhibition of champlevé enamels from the Limousin dating from the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. Two hundred medieval narrative works from all over France were gathered together for what was a unique exhibition at the time. Raoul Hausmann, seemingly close to the Gauthier family, took a series of photographs of the works on show at this event of national importance. A collection of 28 photographic prints is today housed as part of the Raoul Hausmann collection in the Haute-Vienne contemporary art museum. These works have recently been restored. This is an opportunity to discover a new aspect of the work of this unique artist, founder member of the Berlin Dada movement, pioneer of visual poetry, who settled in Limoges after the second world war.

Wolfgang Prinz (*1969, Leutkirch / Germany) and Michel Gholam (*1963, Beirut / Lebanon) have been working together since 2001. They live and work in Berlin. As visual artists they have developed a multidisciplinary practice including live performances, videos, photographs and drawings.

This new group exhibition takes its name from an enigmatic phrase used by the American biologist Scott Gilbert who was highlighting the symbiotic relationship between man and his environment. As lichen is the result of symbiosis between mushrooms and seaweed, Scott Gilbert encourages us to rethink our relationship with the non-human, whether it be animal or vegetable, in order to maintain and above all to imagine new ways of coexistence. The artists gathered together for this exhibition therefore allow us to freely imagine new ways of connecting with living matter and to formulate a new theory of evolution incorporating human and non-human ecology, history, and the effects of technology. The 13 artists thus undertake new experiments with composting where waste matter become cellular organisms (Moffat Takadiwa), or where the works seem to be the result of the digestive process (Diego Banchi) or of germination (Yannick Langlois). Guided by the principles of recycling, transformation and piecing together, these artists take us on a journey where we discover new hybrid compositions that are sometimes frightening but always stimulating. “We are all Lichens” invites us to envisage a relationship to the world where “science-fiction, speculative fantasy, and scientific fact” coincide, to use the illuminating words of Donna Haraway in her book “Staying with the Trouble” (2016). This exhibition will show several new works from the Agnes Rein bequest (2019) as well as various new acquisitions such as the large installation by the Catalan artist Daniel Steegmann Mangrané and the piece created especially for this exhibition by the Swiss artist Batia Suter. This exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of the artists and the galleries Marcelle Alix (Paris), Semiose (Paris) and Jocelyn Wolff (Romainville).