Centre d'art contemporain d'Ivry - le Crédac

The Centre d'art contemporain d'Ivry - le Crédac is a place of exhibitions, production and experimentation devoted to contemporary artistic creation. Our missions are to support French and foreign artists in their projects and to allow a sensitive meeting between the public and the works. Le Crédac thus offers activities and tools that encourage listening and dialogue. Events open to all audiences are organized for each exhibition. Throughout the year, Crédac hosts exhibitions devoted to one or more emerging or confirmed artists, French or foreign, testifying to the diversity of current practices: painting, photography, video, sound, graphics, sculpture, installation, performance ...

The Centre d'art contemporain d'Ivry - le Crédac was created in 1987. It was established until 2011 in the foundations of the now famous Jeanne Hachette center, built by the architect Jean Renaudie during the reconstruction of the city center of Ivry in the early 1970s. Crédac was previously entirely underground, installed in three unused, spacious and original cinemas with their sloping floors. Le Crédac is moving from an "underground" situation to a place of light. In September 2011, the Centre d'art contemporain d'Ivry - le Crédac set up on the 3rd floor of the "American" building of the Manufacture des Oeillets, the flagship of Ivry's industrial heritage. This brick and steel building, built in 1913 on the American model of the Daylight Factory, with clear and modern forms evocative of the Chicago school and the Bauhaus, is one of the first examples of functionalism in France. Its fully glazed facades establish a continuum between the city and the exhibition space. There are many artists today for whom the historical or plastic force of the exhibition site, the memory of a territory, are decisive. The works then act as open questions that probe the resonance of the place and relaunch its enigma.

The Manufacture is thus, in a way, returned to its initial activity as a production workshop: creation, ripening and production workshops for artists (100 m2); workshops of artistic practices, experimentation and documentation in free consultation for different audiences (85 m2); moments of discussion and reflection during workshops, meetings and debates. But an art center is not just a space defined in square meters. It is also, for creators, a place of intellectual, critical and technical companionship. It is a program which questions our society and which offers the public, constantly curious, to be ready to sharpen their critical sense. It is a cultural project supported by tutelage and elected officials, supported by a professional team recognized for its desire to clear the ground and give artists the opportunity to expose their critical and sensitive positioning.