Outsider Imagination in Dijon with Allain Vasseur
Art and social issues are intimately linked. Far from trendy fairs and merchandization, art activists are promoting inventive, sensitive and lively art for a wide range of audiences. Artistes Actuels went to meet Allain Vasseur, president of the association “Itinéraires singuliers”. With its origins in psychiatry and art therapy, the association promotes art and culture in social, medico-social and mainstream environments.
L'Hostellerie, an inventive, sensitive and lively art center
At the center of Dijon’s La Chartreuse hospital, in the former hostelry of the Carthusian monks, the “Itinéraires singuliers” association is a place for people to meet and talk, a space for outsider art between the norm and exclusion.
From the psychiatric world
A nurse, specialized educator and art therapist, Allain Vasseur ran “L’Espace des Expressions”, an outpatient art therapy center in Dijon, where psychiatric inpatients and outpatients came on medical prescription to take part in expressive activities (plastic arts, theater, dance, music). The center welcomed up to 250 people a week.
Mediations were limited to people hospitalized in psychiatric wards. Allain Vasseur wanted to open up the activities to other audiences: in 1999, he created the association Itinéraires Singuliers in order to open up these practices to the city and to people in great precariousness, to move away from the therapeutic framework and also to enable people with an original and sensitive artistic practice to exhibit.
Combating exclusion and mixing audiences
The association develops its multi-disciplinary actions with its partners [ the La Chartreuse hospital in Dijon, the City of Dijon, the Burgundy-Franche-Comté Regional Council, the Côte-d’Or Departmental Council, the DRAC and the ARS ] in order to change the way politicians and professionals look at the value of artistic projects that include people with disabilities.
Recognized as a “Pôle Ressources Arts-Culture-Santé-Handicaps” in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, the association organizes an annual event in the form of a Biennial in even-numbered years, and a multi-disciplinary festival in odd-numbered years, to which medical and health structures, schools and cultural, social and solidarity associations are invited.
It supports Culture-Health projects in collaboration with the DRAC and ARS. It manages the Centre d’Art Singulier at the La Chartreuse Hospital in Dijon, with exhibitions, concerts and readings.
From January 2025, as part of the “Itinéraire Bis” project, it will be offering new artist residencies and activities for socially excluded groups.
"Peaux d'âmes", a body-to-body agreement between two artists
The “Peaux d’âmes” exhibition, from 2/10/24 to 2/02/25, brings together sculptor Elise Geofrion and painter Maria Manuela. Elise’s inventive sculptures, combining mineral, vegetable and organic elements, are an invitation to travel, poetry and dreams.
Maria Manuela’s large-scale canvases, painted in collaboration with her imaginary friend Bobi, plunge us into the warmth of warm, familiar yet extraordinary landscapes.
Read also : Elise Geoffrion, living nature artist
The art center, which reaches a large audience, is run by volunteers all year round, Wednesday to Sunday, 2pm to 5.30pm. It benefits from its proximity to the city center and, in the heart of the hospital, to Flemish artist Claus Sluter’s masterpiece, Moses’ Well.
Coming up in February 2025, the “Reliance” exhibition will join two artists on the subject of major social and human upheavals: the Shoah (as part of the celebrations marking 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps) with works by Rosemerie Koczy, and human migrations with works by Micheline Jacques. If you’re ever in Burgundy, a stopover in Dijon is a must!
The editorial team
The thrill of artistic discoveries
