“A basket scored, an object placed on the floor.” This is the principle guiding the “Tripple Dribble” project Borderie has been carrying out since 2015 when she first began working with members of the University of Quebec-Montreal’s men’s and women’s basketball teams. For six months the athletes and the artist explored possible forms of communication between basketball and the visual arts by using pieces to modify, disrupt, destabilize and constrain their accustomed plays. In 2018, she transferred her investigations to the Val-de-Marne department, particularly Ivry and Vitry where she worked with the teams of the École de la rue and of the Union Sportive d’Ivry. Using the same principle developed in Montréal, she and fellow artist Cécile Bouffard designed sculptures based on the shooting zone or the identity of each player. Borderie’s ties with the Crédac were solidified in 2022 when she had a residency at two Val-de-Marne high schools. She had students combine the rules of soccer and basketball to invent a new, more inclusive and egalitarian game. For this show at the Crédac, Borderie worked with the artist Simon Zaborski to create a third part of the “Tripple Dribble” project, structured around several on-site and extramural games. Located in the Crédac’s third exhibition room is a new series of sculptures conceived with the USI and the Entente Sportive de Vitry team members over the course of 2023, with sessions devoted to research, experiments and training. The sculptures are made of light, flexible and resistant materials such as tent bows and fabrics whose spatial arrangement corresponds to basketball play diagrams. They are meant to alter players’ moves by making them see things literally from a different perspective. Moves such as blocking, checking, slowing down the game, changing direction, obstructing, reflecting, diffracting, turning left, turning right, going high, etc., will be reproduced by these sculptures when they are activated for two match/performances in June, one in front of the Ivry city hall and the other in the gardens of the MAC VAL from 21 July through 22 September. Visitors can also share this experience at the Crédac exhibition, where they, like the players, are constrained to see and act in unexpected ways.
at Le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine
until July 13, 2024
