In 2018, artconnexion inaugurated a new cycle of art history lectures, meetings with artists and performances in unusual locations. Entitled THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION, these events aimed to explore and highlight a new dialogue between audiences and artworks. This year-long series of events, which took place from February to December, took place in various venues, at artconnexion and in the Lille metropolitan area.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION, curated by Marie Pleintel, was interested in the new links established in certain areas of current creative practice, between artist, work and public. Renewing the foundations of the equation, in which the artist traditionally found himself in the capacity of producer deemed to deliver an object destined for the presumed passive contemplation of spectators, these more recent operating modes of creation draw the new contours of an art deeply rooted in the concept of community. The works focused on during these different moments need the other, others, to exist. These are performances that celebrate gathering, works that are only activated by human presence, moments of creative practice shared between artists and other participants. These artistic practices, which can be grouped under the names of ‘socially-engaged art’, ‘community-based art’ or ‘participatory art’ and ‘practicable art’ were explored through the experience of works, encounters with artists and historical perspectives.