The term “mondailles” refers to a rural tradition. Villagers would gather to crack nuts in a moment of sharing where knowledge, stories, and gestures were exchanged. This collective ritual is the starting point for an artistic and theoretical experiment. By shifting this gesture, Deborah Bron and Camille Sevez offer a space for exchange where discussion opens up to question the place of art in the development and renewal of rural areas, and how they shape the practices of young artists engaged in these fields. On April 3, the public was invited to participate in the mondailles and leave a testimony that remains visible throughout the exhibition.
Camille Sevez and Deborah Bron
Camille Sevez and Deborah Bron are a duo of artist-mediators who hold master's degrees in visual arts from HEAD-Geneva. Through their shared commitment and attention to the territories they traverse, they have developed an artistic practice closely linked to the life of the places they inhabit as artists. Coming from rural and peri-urban areas of the Rhône-Alpes region, they draw on their life experiences to question the imaginations, desires, and social realities of people living outside cities. Since 2020, they have been developing an action research project entitled Réactiver les lieux (Reactivating Places), which they have carried out in several areas and which led to an exhibition at the FRAC Centre–Val de Loire in 2025.