The Bureau of Common Form

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the galerie art & essai, the reactivation of the Cabinet de lectures has been entrusted to philosopher and curator Chiara Vecchiarelli, who has chosen to invite artist Anna Scalfi Eghenter. In dialogue with the gallery’s archives, housed in the documentation center of Frac Bretagne, Anna Scalfi Eghenter imagines a gathering of gestures that have shaped its history. From these, free icons emerge—symbols without identity. They are condensed gestures of those who were photographed not at the project’s end, but as it unfolded. Scattered across space—echoing the gallery’s nomadic shift since 2024—and carried by varied media, these gestures, now symbols, gesture toward the language of the logo without becoming one. They open a path to a relational, non-commercial platform designed to welcome diverse forms of participation. Any associative structure, old or new, may join through its own quests and ways of engagement, while contributing to the shaping of a map in becoming—one that traces and unveils this common good, shared yet beyond appropriation.

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Anna Scalfi Eghenter

Anna Scalfi Eghenter, born in Trento in 1965, is an Italian artist whose education combines visual arts, theater, university studies in sociology, and a doctorate in management studies.
In her multifaceted artistic practice—encompassing performances, actions, installations, participatory projects, and research—she explores institutional mechanisms, social norms, power structures, and questions of gender by confronting them with subjective and collective experiences. Her approach engages a critical reading of reality and a continual contextualization of artistic practice within society.
 Her recent exhibitions include the Berlin Biennale (2025), The Museum Game (retrospective, Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum 2024, Innsbruck), and The Fluo Swan (solo exhibition, ar/ge kunst, Bolzano 2024).

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Chiara Vecchiarelli

Chiara Vecchiarelli holds a doctorate in philosophy from the École normale supérieure de Paris – PSL and in visual culture from the University of Venice. She teaches philosophy of art, aesthetics, and general philosophy at the University Panthéon-Sorbonne and Sorbonne University, in Paris. She has also taught philosophy and aesthetics at the École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay, at the University Sorbonne Nouvelle, and at the University Rennes 2, as well as criticism and the history of contemporary art at other institutions. A writer and curator of numerous exhibitions, she has been a researcher for the documenta in Kassel, is a member of PhilOfr at ENS Paris, and sits on the editorial board of the journal Oboe – Journal on Biennials and Other Exhibitions.

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The art & essai gallery

First envisioned in 1983 by artist and scholar Gilbert Dupuis, the art & essai gallery at Rennes 2 University was inaugurated in 1985 in the lobby of the campus library at Villejean. A space for exhibitions, research, and training in contemporary art professions, it has occupied a 300 m² venue beneath the library since 1993, where it has hosted more than 150 solo and group exhibitions—ranging from emerging Breton artists to internationally recognized figures. 

In March 2024, due to energy renovation works on the building that houses it, the gallery entered a five-year “outside the walls” phase. Now co-directed by Émeline Jaret and Yann Sérandour, it explores the places and moments where art can emerge within the university.