In 1875, the company Christofle had its factory built in Saint-Denis. Until the company’s departure in 2007, this industrial site, home to 1,500 workers and now recognized as an official historical monument of France, was witness to the development of the country’s decorative arts and tableware market. Quartus acquired the site in 2016, having worked with the architects Reichen&Robert to develop an ambitious restoration project. Before work was scheduled to begin, Quartus entrusted Manifesto with the artistic and strategic management of a temporary occupation project from autumn 2018 to summer 2019.

To meet the needs of venues for artistic creation in Greater Paris and to further develop artistic and cultural experimentation on site, Manifesto created a pop-up residency for artists, designers, artisans and inventors. The call for applications, launched alongside La Belle Friche, was particularly successful. Alongside the 80 chosen artists the site welcomed Re-Store, Geekopolis and Soukmachines, bringing this veritable hive of activity to life. Working with Manifesto, the visual artist Hugo Avigo won the FoRTE grant, awarded by the Region to young talent from Ile-de-France; the panel of judges included Florence Berthout, Magda Danysz, Eva Jospin, Jean de Loisy and Jennifer Flay.

Manifesto also coordinated several events and workshop openings with the aim of encouraging encounters between residents, the art world and local stakeholders. An evening event was held to mark the opening of L’Orfèvrerie, during which the artist and beekeeper Olivier Darné and the Michelin-starred chef Julien Dumas combined their skills to offer guests an unusual experience: a “Wax Dinner”, a performance dinner using beeswax. To mark the season’s close, a 24-hour exhibition brought together the work of some sixty artists in a hall spanning 1,600 square meters. Several hundred visitors attended this exhibition, created as a dialogue between the worlds of art and archaeology, echoing the project developed with F93, involving secondary school students from Seine-Saint-Denis and archaeologists.