Art & Language

Mel Ramsden
Born in 1944 in Ilkeston, UK, he lives in Middleton Cheney, UK.

Michael Baldwin
Born in 1945 in Chipping Norton (UK), he lives in Middleton Cheney (UK).

The structure of the English collective Art & Language has changed more than once since it was founded in 1968, but it has remained a stout pillar of Conceptual Art, in its purest forms of expression, seeing artistic praxis above all as a "conversation" with the public. Typical of this approach is the famous Index (1972), made up of theoretical writings produced by the group and presented in binders, complete with an index which spectators are invited to consult, so as to put the work together in the form of an active reading.

Since the late 1970s, Art & Language has returned to a visual approach to art and representation, but without its pictures, sculptures and installations straying away from rigorous critical criteria. By infringing the rigorous order that lies at the hub of their past works, the latest pieces produced by the Mel Ramsden and Michael Baldwin twosome - here devised for one of the rooms at Les Abattoirs in Toulouse - have been designed as chaotictype scenes, dodging any kind of control.