FR24JB CAE - DIVERSITY - LAAC artistic activity

The students visit the LAAC museum divided into two groups of mixed countries. The LAAC, Place of Art and Contemporary Action, is a museum in Dunkirk that works for the meeting of the public and art according to a program exhibitions and events designed for all. It was born thanks to the donation to the city of an exceptional set of works by artists of the twentieth century, at the initiative of an engineer, Gilbert Delaine, president and founder of the association "L'Art contemporain", supported by 60 corporate sponsors in the years 1970-1980. Today, the LAAC presents two major temporary exhibitions, four graphic arts exhibitions, along with a selection of more than two hundred works from the collection, ‘Les Incontournables’, and the sculpture garden.

A mediator takes students to different rooms of the museum to discover three works of art celebrating diversity : 

During 30 minutes the students discover the works, exchange with the mediator who then explains them in English.

After discovering these three works, they are invited to take part in a 30-minute workshop. First, they are asked to draw an element that represents the culture of their country for them (this could be an object, a building, a food, a value that represents the country in which they live... ). Once the drawing has been completed, it is cut out and pasted onto a large fresco of the group's drawings. The fresco brings together the symbols of the different countries, as Hernandez did in his painting of the influences and symbols of the countries he travelled through. Each student is then paired up with their correspondent and asked to come up with a slogan in English for the fresco. The slogan should be inspired by what diversity and cultural exchange mean to them. They are asked to think in pairs, exchanging ideas to define the slogan, in the manner of the artist Ben.

Students can talk to a cultural mediator about contemporary works of art and consider the value of the diversity celebrated in art. They are invited to create a collective work by reproducing the concept of 2 of the artists presented to them by drawing an object symbolising their country and writing a slogan.