A researcher at Birmingham City University, School of Art (2002-2018), Françoise Dupré lead a series of collaborative-participatory projects through which she developed her socially engaged practice, working in a wide range of contexts including health, post-war and migration. Self-initiated or commissioned, these projects are here introduced and archived.
Dupré’s collaborative and participatory practice began with her involvement with Feminist Art projects in Britain in the 80s and 90s. Her practice is underpinned by a strong belief in art as a transformative and empowering force for change. A conviction that also grew from her experience, when as a young artist she worked on local community art projects, principally in South London where she lived.
DORA PROJECT, 2015-2016
Directed by Françoise Dupré, in collaboration with artist Rebecca Snow, DORA PROJECT centered around WW2 London and V2 victims. They were Londoners and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp prisoners who assembled the V2s in Germany. The cross-generational archiving and participatory project addressed, through art, the contemporary relevance of the history of World War Two and early rocket engineering.
For more details, visit project website: doraproject
The published project poster is available here: dora-project poster.pdf
art making in the social
Between 2003 and 2016, Françoise Dupré successfully developed a collaborative-participatory model of art making in the social. She collaborated with artists and worked mostly with women groups, using textile for its plasticity and sociability, its cultural specificity and transnationalism.
Dupré’ socially engaged practice and strategic use of textile are discussed in her 2014 published chapter From Brixton to Mostar, social practice through textiles – in Cultural Threads edited by Jessica Hemming.
The techniques used by the artist for the making of participatory-collaborative art works are associated with everyday making activities such as knitting, sewing and weaving. They were often known by participants, across communities and cultures or learned and reconfigured. Spool knitting used by the artist in her individual work (as discussed in spirals) became one of the main techniques.
An early text Making Stuff, commissioned in 2008, by the UK based organisation https://axisweb.org/ ,is here available as Making Stuff pdf. The text reflects on the nature of the creative process and the condition and location of art production within the context of her collaborative-participatory and community-based art practice at the time.
Fujaan 2005. Collaborative French knitting project realised for Crafts Council (England) with designer Rakhia Ismail and the London-based Somali Women’s Group Back To Basics for Knit 2 Together Concepts in Knitting 2005 touring exhibition. A second project Farshaxanaka Dumarka (women artists), 2011 was commissioned by the Women’s Library as part of the artist solo exhibition autres mers (other seas) in London.
OUVRAGE [uvra:ž], 2009
OUVRAGE [uvra:ž], 2009. A collaborative- participatory project, led by Françoise Dupré and realised during her residency at the French Cultural Center in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Installation at the Cejvan Cehaja Hamam, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Wool, wire, tapes, plastic (bags, bottle and tubing), woven and printed carrier bags , bamboo canes. 3m60 H x 2m50 W x 0m50 D .
The installation toured to Banja Luka at the Pavillon Petar Kocic and Tuzla at the Lokot gallery in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was also exhibited at Casa, University of Art and Design, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (2010); Birmingham School of Art, UK; Women’s Library, London, UK (2011).
For more details, check the published project booklet, available here: ouvrage.pdf
exotic mk, 2009
exotic mk, 2009. Collaborative-participatory project commissioned by Milton Keynes Gallery’s Offsite Education Programme, England.
French (spool) knitting, crochet, Lycra fabric, wool, metallic yarn, wire, plastic bottle tops, pins, cake boards, dowels, PVC mirrors, sequins, flat elastic, woven polythene, felt.
3m H x 2m60 W x 1m40 D.
For more details, check the published project booklet, available here: exotic mk.pdf
PROJECT B, 2007-2008
Photo © Françoise Dupré
PROJECT B was a Birmingham-based trans-national collaborative public art community project referencing the functionality of ornament and its transformative quality on architectural space.
A collaboration between artists Françoise Dupré and Myfanwy Johns with architect Sabina Fazlic and participants from the Bosnian Cultural Centre-Midlands (BCCM), UK.
avlija 2007. Installation for Architecture Week and New Generation Arts Festival, Birmingham, UK. Mesh banner, digital printing, hand stitching, crochet, stretch fabric. 3m40 volume.
sebilj 2007-2008. Exhibition for Digital Utopia?, New Generation Arts Festival, Birmingham, UK. Mixed media research and development works for a public art work sebilj. Included two half-section architectural models. Laser cut and etched design on acrylic and maple ply veneer panels. 1m20 x 1m40.
For more details, check the published project booklets, available here: project-b-avlija.pdf and project-b-sibilj.pdf
Project B is also discussed in Making Stuff pdf.
joie de faire (the making of stuff), 2006-2007
Feto-Maternal Medicine Department collection.
Photo © FXP Photography, London
joie de faire (the making of stuff) Alexandra Reinhardt Memorial Award 2006-07
Artist residency at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, Feto-Maternal Medicine Department. The award was managed by paintings in hospitals.
Three artworks, made with the participation of hospital visitors, patients and staff, were commissioned for Radcliffe Hospital’s collection and Paintings in Hospitals loan collection.
For more details, check the published project booklet, available here: joie de faire.pdf
de fil en aiguille… snáth nasc, 2003-2004
de fil en aiguille… snáth nasc, (thread to needle)
Residency at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland, 2003-04. IMMA’s Artists’ Work Programme.
First collaborative-participatory project using spool knitting. Realised with individual participants and community groups from Dublin and Kilkenny. The final installation was exhibited at IMMA and Kilkenny County Council Gallery in 2004.
For more details, check the 2005 published text written by the artist for CONTEXTS, arts and practice in Ireland. Available here: de fil en aiguille.pdf
Work in progress, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Photo © Claire Bracken
Françoise Dupré 