Since its foundation in 1992, the Brussels collective Agency has constituted a growing list of controversies, called the ‘list of things’, around the split between the classifications of nature and culture. The ongoing additions of controversies on this list are mostly derived from the research of juridical litigations regarding intellectual property (copyrights, patents, trade marks, etc…). For the exhibition Imaginary Accord, Agency made a selection of its list based on the question: “How can processes and systems become included within artistic practices?”
On 18 April, as part of its contribution to the IMA’s Imaginary Accord exhibition, Agency is convening an ‘assembly’ – a gathering of ‘concerned’ individuals – in order to discuss thing 000768 (Passion-Cinéma).
Thing 000768 (Passion-Cinéma) concerns a conflict between Henri Langlois’ heirs and Cinémathèque française around the permanent exhibition Musée du Cinema Henri Langlois, when it was moved from Palais de Chaillot to Rue de Bercy in Paris. During the court case, Langlois c. Cinémathèque Française on October 2, 1997, the Cour d’Appel in Paris had to decide if the objects arranged by Henri Langlois inside the permanent exhibition of the museum could be lifted as a whole to the status of a work of art and be protected by moral rights.
The art historian Amelia Barikin, film scholar John Edmond, curator Michele Helmrich, artist Courtney Pedersen, and intellectual law expert Brad Sherman are invited by Agency in order to create resonances around the invoked case.
