Pierre Bal-Blanc is an independent curator and director of CAC Brétigny (Contemporary Art Centre of Brétigny, greater Paris). Since 2003, echoing the societal thought of Charles Fourier, he has run the "Phalanstère Project," a series of site-specific proposals aiming at critical rethinking of the logic behind accumulation of art works. His exhibition sequences La monnaie vivante/Living Currency (CAC Brétigny/Micadanses, 2005–06; Stuk Leuven, 2007; Tate Modern London, 2008; MoMA Warsaw and Berlin Biennale, 2010) and Draft Score for an Exhibition (Le Plateau Paris, Artissima Torino, Secession Vienna, 2011; Index Stockholm, 2012; catalog Draft Score for an Exhibition, NERO Publisher Rome, 2014) negotiate the current and historical analysis of the body and the strategies related to performance in visual arts. The three chapters of Reversibility (Frieze Art Fair, 2008; CAC Brétigny, 2010; Peep Hole Milan, 2012; catalog Reversibility, Mousse Publishing, 2012) reflect on the consequences of the art object's materiality upon the configuration of the cultural domain's protagonists, as well as on the role and shape of the cultural institution today. The Death of the Audience (Secession, Vienna, 2010; catalog Ver Sacrum/The Death of the Audience, Verlag Niggli AG Sulgen/Zurich, 2011) reveals the processes of emancipation and alienation taking place in the interstice between the figures of the artist and the spectator. He is currently preparing Soleil politique, an exhibition for Museion in Bolzano, Italy that will continue his exploration of the forms and responsibilities of museums, their daily activities, and their relationship with the city. In January 2014, he contributed the foreword to the Center's "Questions of Practice" investigation into restaging and reconstruction.
