AGATHE SIMON
The Conti Project
2013-present
Transdisciplinary project: performances, films, installation of 120 archives, radio play, sound installations, texts, and photographs
Photograph of a collective performance at the Paris’ Poetry House by Fred Petit
© Agathe Simon
The Conti Project is a tribute to the famous French-Argentine novelist and explorer Gabriela Conti (1974-2010) – who does not exist. Gabriela Conti is the invention of artist Agathe Simon, who verified the socio-historical verisimilitude of her character with numerous experts.
Since 2013, Agathe Simon has developped the existence of Gabriela Conti across various media (performance, text, installation, video, sound, podcast, etc.) and territories: from a scientific base in Antarctica to a polar sailing vessel in the Arctic, from the Paris’ Poetry House to a live TV broadcast in Algeria, from a Swedish concert hall to a Parisian town hall, from an Italian museum to a a podcast from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University.
Gabriela Conti
Gabriela Conti is a key figure in early 21st-century literature. Of French-Argentinian national, she was awarded the Premio Literario Buenos Aires in 2000 and the Grand Prix de Littérature Contemporaine in 2001. She is the author of The Beauty of Exile (1998-2001), The Truths 2000-01), The Nights of San Telmo (2003), The Sixth Continent (2007), The Still Collection (2009), and Life published posthumously in 2020).
Her family history is one punctuated by exile. In 1943, her mother’s parents fled Nazi France and settled in Buenos Aires. In 1978, Gabriela was sent to Paris to escape from Argentinian dictatorship, after her mother was kidnapped.
Besides her novels, Gabriela Conti is well known for her adventures throughout the world, notably in Central African Republic, Peru and Papua New Guinea. In 2009, she was a member of ‘2048 Expedition’, in Antarctica. On February the 7th, 2010, two days before her tragic death, she became the first woman from Argentine nationality to reach South Pole.
The Conti project includes :
- Solo and collective performances paying tribute to Gabriela Conti: round tables, lectures, official tributes in Paris, Stockholm, Algiers, and the Concordia base in Antarctica,
- The Conti Archives:an installation of 120 objects, photographs and genuine documents, including a polar suit and an archive film shot in Central Africa
- Texts by Gabriela Conti, notably The Truths and Life,
- A documentary (HD, stereo, 52mn), directed in Antarctica by Cecilia Conti, Gabriela’s sister.
- A sound installation composed of sounds recorded in Antarctica.
- a sound installation created in the Arctic
- a podcast of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University
- online micro-fictions, like the blog by Cecilia Conti, the novelist’s sister.
The Conti Project has been developed in partnership with the French Institutes of Argentina, Algeria, Sweden, and Finland, the Paris’ Poetry House, French cultural radio ‘France Culture’, the ‘Cité Internationale des Arts’, the ‘Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris’, the Concordia base (Antarctica), the University of Paris, the University of Aix-Marseille, CY Cergy Paris University, the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Festival of Contemporary Art Nocturne Halifax (Canada), the Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Audiorama & Modern Dance Theater (Sweden), the Visby International Centre for Composers (Sweden), the polar sailing boat Atka (Arctic), the Town Hall of the 10th arrondissement of Paris, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Udine (Italy), the CDG gallery in Rabat (Morocco), the University of Science and Technology of Oran (Algeria), the French Institute of Constantine (Algeria), the ‘Médiathèque Musicale de Paris’ (France), the Tourism and Travel Library, the Hélène Berr Library, and the Alfred Musset Library, the Aarni, Huuto and Kanneltalo Galleries (Finland), the Spazioersetti Gallery (Italy).
Special thanks: Djamel Mékarnia, Andrea Juan, Victor Boyarsky, Jean-Yves Langlais, François Bernard.