Francesca ZappiaLes Flâneuses: Copies, appropriations, citations dans la collection du Centre national des arts plastiques

An investigation into the contested notions of copying, appropriation and citation within the plethora of the Centre national des arts plastiques’ collection, showing how reproductions of works of art can be considered as objects of specific cultural value and viewed in the same way as the originals.

Les Flâneuses follows independent curator Francesca Zappia’s exploration of the Centre national des arts plastiques’ extensive collection, focusing on the contested notions of copying, appropriation and citation. Using bodies of work from the 19th century to the present day, she shows us how reproductions of works of art can be considered as objects with a specific cultural value and viewed in the same way as the originals.
The book is constructed in a spatial manner. Guided by an interview between Francesca Zappia and Juliette Pollet, curator at the Cnap, the reader travels through an imaginary and willingly anachronistic museum. The rooms devoted to Antiquities, the Renaissance, the modern period and more contemporary periods bring together more than 300 works and weave new links between them. In the course of the chapters, the reader can meet the artists Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Aurélien Mole and Matthew Darbyshire who, each in their own way, expose research that meets the author’s.