Mistreated, modified, the human body is often considered an object of fantasy by a society that tends to either worhip or reject it.
A body coveted, but one that is also as an object of contemplation around which artists can construct and deconstruct, searching for answers in fields as diverse as psychoanalysis, architecture, fashion, or music.
This relationship with the human body has continued to evolve within contemporary art, from the Russian Futurists up to the contemporary plasticiens (Gilles Barbier, Charles Ray) and performers (Paul McCarthy, Xavier Leroy), and involving such historic figures of body-art as Gina Pane or Michel Journiac.

Based on a proposal from Colombian curator Marí­a Inés Rodrí­guez, the exhibition From Representation to Action offers Le Plateau and Mains d’ouvres a look at contemporary artists from Colombia, Mexico, and Europe - artists for whose work the human body remains an essentiel element. Yet the exhibition does not attempt to define the body’s ’place’ in our world , but rather it brings together a number of works by contemporary artists from different backgrounds (Europe and Latin America) and from different generations (70’s, 90’s), who question the existing structures of our everyday life (politics, economics), and who offer up new ways to ’reinvent the body’. The result of a collaboration between the contemporary arts center Ex Teresa Arte Actual in Mexico and the Sante Fé Gallery in Bogota, this exhibition was presented in several international spaces, each time in a different version that served to enrich what followed.

This exhibition gives visitors the chance to confront the visions of different artists: Johanna Calle (drawings and photogrammes), Wilson Dí­az (installation), Fabrice Gygi (found objects), and Elke Krystufek (installation).

A collection of works that will find its echo in the sonic pieces (radio archives, speeches, sounds, etc.) of Manuel Jaramillo, historian and spouse of Andrea Echeverri, legendary singer of the Colombian rock group Los Aterciopelados.

Jade Lindgaard will assemble a selection of teen magazines in an attempt to respond to the inevitable question: How do we relate to our own bodies?, drawing on the contextual differences between Latin America and Europe.

This event was developed in collaboration with Mains d’ouvres and completed by the exhibition of Pilar Echezarreta, the residence of Wilson Diaz, the project of Andrea Crews and the cycle of conferences at Saint-Ouen. At the occasion of Séquence No 2, Le Plateau will extend this theme by inviting, for example, Laure Bonicel, who will engage in other types of corporeal experiments between dance and performance.