15th CIPA International Conference: "The arts under constraints"

Far from being an obstacle to creativity, constraint appears to be a genuine catalyst for innovation and critical reflection in the arts and literature. When artists set themselves rules or limits, they often find themselves exploring uncharted territory, generating works that might not otherwise have seen the light of day. As Rosalind Krauss has suggested, addressing this paradox by analyzing how constraints influence the production and reception of work amounts to questioning Romantic notions of "originality" by emphasizing that artists necessarily navigate between innovation and repetition, restrictions and freedom.

In the contemporary era, constraints continue to be a prominent and multifaceted topic in artistic practice and theory. In literature, they can include formal rules such as rhyme, meter or specific narrative devices. In the visual arts or music, it can take the form of limitations on materials or techniques, or even works built from already existing ones (ready-made, found art, sampling, erasure, etc.).

For many, the OuLiPo group -- along with its later avatars (OuBaPo, OuCiPo...) -- embodies this systematic exploration of constraint. The approach developed by this collective, based as it is on extra-aesthetic (including mathematical and computer) models, shows that such modelings and confrontations can open up new perspectives on some of the most fundamental issues surrounding literary creation. The interdisciplinary nature of this approach deploys itself along two principal lines. The first brings literary production closer to non-literary models; the second implements a process of "literaturization", a term that designates "the process of transforming into a literary structure a structure borrowed from another discipline" (Marcel Bénabou).

CIPA's 15th international colloquium aims to go beyond the literary corpus and look at other fields of artistic expression, such as music and the visual arts. More generally, it intends to consider constraint as a "cluster concept" (Jan Baetens and Bernardo Schiavetta) rather than as a fixed notion. Since constraint must remain integrated into a "cluster of graduated criteria", this implies a certain flexibility, not only in its definition, but also in the analysis of its modes of expression within artistic production. Lastly, beyond and beneath aesthetic considerations, constraint can also be analyzed through the prism of cultural and social norms. By imposing limits on their practice, artists interrogate these norms, creating dialogues with the public or funding institutions, questioning or, on the contrary, submitting to the latter's expectations (censorship, self-censorship, art market, authorial stance, etc.).

Paper proposals (250-300 words) should be sent by May 30, 2025 to the following addresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Please include a brief biography (100 words) and the author's contact details.

Papers may be presented in French or English. They should last 30 minutes and will be followed by a time for discussion.