Revue n°4 - Festina Lente (Make haste slowly) | La Criée centre d'art contemporain

As the succession of crises - ecological, geopolitical, societal, etc. - seems to accelerate ever further, for many of us it is no longer possible to remain passive in the face of the impending collapse. It is no longer possible to simply observe, note, and tremble. The acceleration of crises is also accompanied by an acceleration of societal and individual rhythms, to which we must constantly adapt and submit. In this context, many artists, thinkers, and writers are reflecting on forms of adaptation, alternatives, and resistance. The Criée contemporary art center is accompanying this movement through the artistic cycle Festina Lente (Hurry Slowly) , which unfolds in exhibitions, events, and residencies, as well as in the pages of this journal. After refusing to despair of the present, no matter how difficult it may be to live, by seeking ways to endure it, and after exploring the depth and complexity of our connections to the past, the Festina Lente journal proposes to (re)think, in this 4th and final issue, what the word utopia still means today, through different possible futures in which artists project themselves and us. This can be seen in:

-- the soils of a garden in Massachusetts (Peter Hutchinson), a Breton forest (Léa Muller), or a hill on the Mille Vaches plateau (Le Féral),
-- the creation of common spaces where food, both earthly and artistic, is produced, always with a political dimension (L'école des Mutants, Le Ravitaillement, Till Roeskens, and Anaïs Roesch),
-- the imaginary and powerful spaces of poetry (Olivier Leroi, Laura Vazquez) or science fiction (Jonas Staal),

the artists, thinkers, and authors gathered in these pages share the same horizon of a terrestrial community connected to the soil, the living, and the passing of time, as well as the desire for a good life, here, now, and for tomorrow.

The Graphic Project

The design of the journal is conceived as a nod to the works of Aldus Manutius, a 15th-century Italian humanist printer, who marked his books with the adage Festina Lente in the form of a dolphin (Festina) wrapping itself around an anchor (Lente). This final issue, like an echo to the proposed utopias, becomes a space for experimentation, moving and uncertain. The grid that structured the previous publications is called into question: the lines erode, the punctuation bursts forth, and voids emerge, becoming surfaces for projection.