gabriel rené franjou

“l’odeur de la lavande ne me quitte pas des yeux” is a web-based performance reading commissioned by @centrepompidou for festival Extra!, written and read by @grf.yard with live visuals by @dddll19 . We performed it at the museum in September 2024. Thanks to @jeanmaxcolard , @unkpleasures and Christine Bolron for your trust. What an honor to read at @centrepompidou . Lavender is an AI and it's getting out of control. Three characters are caught in its web: a man driving out to meet the people who kidnapped his wife, a twenty-year old with severe brainrot from too much screentime, and the memory of a veteran's once-in-a-lifetime meetcute. As a war rages somewhere, they drift through various interlocking times and spaces haunted by Lavender, who is just doing what it was designed for, what it does best: marking targets for the kill. we’ll be playing it at @maisondelapoesiedebordeaux in april 2025 – more on that soon. PS: for this trailer, we’re using a bitcrushed edit of “Fragments of a Lily” by Puce Mary. Thanks to @nicolasdau for taking those vids on the day of the performance :-)

I write. J’écris. Sometimes what I write is published, in print or online. De temps en temps ce que j’écris est publié à droite à gauche, en ligne ou sur papier. And cuz it’s too long for this platform, details in the comments, in order of apparition (not chronological at all). Comme c’est trop long pour cette plateforme, le détail est dans les commentaires, par ordre d’apparition (et pas du tout chronologique). I’m so grateful to be doing this. I wanna keep doing it. So thanks to everyone involved, always. J’adore faire ça. Je vais continuer. Merci à toustes, toujours. :- ) xoxo

3-meters-tall scroll of consciousness poem for @haroldlechien 's painting exhibition at @kbkbxl , during @artbrussels ' off program. the (self-styled) brainrot alliance strikes again. something evil lurks in the corner of these shiny surfaces. congrats on the show buddy 🐜🐜🐜

with a poetic text by Gabriel René Franjou @grf.yard written to accompany the pieces thank you 🕯️✨ Les mort.e.s ont des abeilles now available at @ccinq_space 1&4 pictures @hignes.s

it's been 5 years since (𝘙𝘐𝘎𝘏𝘛 𝘐𝘕) 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘍𝘌𝘌𝘓𝘚 closed. Time flies. More than 40 participants across a gallery show, a web show, talks, readings, screenings, workshops... It was a lot. It's kinda crazy to think how much has changed about cyberspace, digital culture, and culture at large, since then ; but we feel like we did a decent job at capturing a fragment of what it felt like back then, in 2020, between two COVID lockdowns. We want to thank everyone who participated, made possible and took interest in the proposition. The archives are available on the website, of course. And like they say in the diagram...remember the good ! ̄\_(ツ)_/¯ yours, Gabriel, Laurie & Martin xoxo

les petites histoires sont quatre courtes fictions contemporaines. – L’effondrement du pont de Sam Bouffandeau – The Gallery de S. M. Drogo – Exit de Juli Le Nahelec – « Que faire de Sandy Stone ? » de Mia Trabalon les petites histoires se lancent à Bruxelles chez Par Chemins le 8 novembre, à Marseille chez @zoeme_galerieeditionlibrairie le 22 novembre et à Paris chez @after.8.books le 5 décembre. les livres seront bientôt disponibles en librairies.

“This one’s been a long time coming. So my mother’s family is from Chicago. Last December, I learned that they had moved there from Mississippi after the Emancipation. Maybe that’s why Delta blues holds such immense power over me. I feel it in my bones. Or maybe it’s just good music. I love the blues. I love the internet (I do). I love plagiarism. Appropriation is no joke though. “a song from the cotton field” is a four-part poem tapping into the ecstasy of influence. As per John Akomfrah, it considers the blues a “black secret technology” – specifically a time-travel technology, kinda like how the internet can be. And so we travel across the Atlantic, through the Crossroads, to the voice-activated smart home, moving information along the way. Nearly all of it is second-hand, or third-hand, or worse. It’s a plea for pirates, hackers, copycats. It’s a plea for the public domain. It’s for the thrill – you wouldn’t steal a car, but you would steal an idea, wouldn’t you? But what if the stuff you’re stealing came from making a deal with the devil? Could you do that? Anyway, a few days after performing for NSD’s release party, I went to see Ryan Coogler’s Sinners at the movies. It was incredible. In that story as well, the blues is a time-travel technology. I guess there’s something in the air.“ @grf.yard on their text for not so diffi 7, ‘a song from the cotton field’, that was accompanied by an amazing performance during our launch - thank you so much, Gabriel 💒 now Alexa, buy the magazine so i can read it in full! 🎸📖🗣️

three poems for palestine in the may issue of L'enroule. @lenroulefrombxl is your free & local publication for concerts and political actions - pick it up in Brussels at trusty locations like Cinema Nova, Brasserie Verschueren, l'Athénée, Librairie Météores, etc. thanks @jean.cardin and @romanekaaa for taking in these cursed pieces. free palestine. ya already know. xoxo

I wrote and translated these texts on fluo paper for two of @ccinq_space 's last exhibitions of 2024. The first, on pink paper, was for Sascha Mikloweit and Irakli Kiziria (@1_rakli )’s september exhibition and performance, a installment of Sascha’s « transpositional geologies » series, this one around Shinkolobwe mine in DRC. The second, on orange paper, was for a group show with the works of Asia Zieleńska, Maria Paris Borda (@moldymary ), Rokko Miyoshi (@rokkomiyoshi ), and Valérie Mannaerts. Thanks a lot to these artists for the exchanges we had, and for allowing me to twist their words and merge them with my own and those of Virginia Woolf (whose novel The Waves is a guiding principle in @ccinq_space 's curational approach). Thanks of course to @patrick_carpentier , the boss, and to @robin_faymonville for allowing me to slip into his shoes for a bit. xoxo

here are some stills from GLASS SKIN, @haroldlechien 's beautiful video and installation produced at @lefresnoy . He came up with a story, and I wrote it. Always a pleasure to work together 🌹 Different characters, both physical and digital, explore their own vulnerability. They confront the porous relationship between their skin, their on-screens representations, the way they perceive themselves and they way they are perceived. The installation is on view at @lefresnoy , and the film is showing at @fracgrandlarge , both until january 5. After that - we'll see. xoxo Cast 🔗 @insguf @lelegillet @armanddroz @denis.dedieu @antoinette_dansembourg @linchunting__ Assistant director 🔗 Zoë Seuret Dop 🔗 & colorist 🔗 @liora.berliner Assistant camera 🔗 @axelguigon.dop Grip - gaffer 🔗 @garciahodor Sound Design 🔗 @jazzlambauxx 3D animations 🔗 @duanra303 Sybil Montet @earthkeeper___ Make-up artists 🔗 @195cc @dovaobert Manon Dequenne Sound mixer 🔗 @_allpass Film set photographer 🔗 @aureliendebss Choreographer 🔗 @mat_delval Catering 🔗 @va.sofia @decatfrancois Produced by @lefresnoy Production manager Bruno Morat Artistic support @machamakeieff

stills from A BOX IS A BOX IS A BOX, a video installation for which I wrote the text, made with my buddies @haroldlechien and @frizbeeceramics it was produced by and first shown at @espace.triphase in 2022, and we had the huge honor of installing it for @transmediale 2024, "you're doing amazing sweetie", at @silent.green in Berlin. Thanks to @greenjade___ for the invitation :- )) I felt like sharing just some stills of the movie - but check out @haroldlechien profile or website for pics of the whole installation, both in Brussels and Berlin. A lil blurb from the transmediale website: What’s in a box? Deadstock, unsold inventory, status, desire, or a quick fix? In a landscape of constant clicking, direct links to purchase, and spending upon spending, unboxing videos turn ordinary items into brief narratives. Turned into a quiet spectacle, the ritualistic act guided by cameras taps into common desires for novelty and the unknown, and a never-ending loop of consumption. Born from a collaboration between Harold Lechien, Frizbee Ceramics, and Gabriel René Franjou, A BOX IS A BOX IS A BOX is a video installation where the artists document their unboxing of two pallets of unwanted goods. Propelling the content format to its extreme, their hellish unboxing video is an excess of sensory experiences, brimming with continuous acts of opening, the accumulation of stuff, and the ever-tightening loops of instant euphoria and disgust. Useless items, briefly manipulated, are swiftly discarded. Filling the space, they offer a reflection on the unsatisfying nature of desire. thanks to @espace.triphase , @wal.bru.international and @transmediale , and to everyone involved in the film: @paulingrenade @margot.lecomte @abeljallais @loudsmt @colin_du_84 @lutecelockness @antoinette_dansembourg @sylvain__________ @nicolas.zanoni @jeanfonsny @victorine_a_z @zoe__vdb @alice.pandolfo @wilfried.raw @armanddroz xoxo

i love @aredotna