Robert Filliou & Joachim Pfeufer – Le (ou La) Poïpoïdrome à Espace-Temps Réel n°5, 1963-1975

Le (ou La) Poïpoïdrome à Espace-Temps Réel n°5 (“The Poïpoïdrome in Real Space-Time No. 5”) is the fifth “real space-time” version of the Poïpoïdrome, conceived by Robert Filliou and Joachim Pfeufer in 1963 as a centre of “Permanent Creation”. Pfeufer realised it for the second Lyon Biennale in 1993, after Filliou’s death in 1987. The name Poïpoïdrome derives from a European account of a greeting among the Dogon, a people of central Mali. Its removal from its cultural context constitutes an act of appropriation. The artists used the term as a model of open-ended exchange, embodied in an inhabitable structure. Filliou understood creation as a process embedded in everyday life, while his “poetical economy” located value in curiosity and the circulation of knowledge rather than productivity or commercial worth. The workbenches and accumulated materials were intended for use, providing tools and prompts for making and exchange. Their traces of earlier participation preserve the Poïpoïdrome’s character as a structure capable of generating further ideas and relations.

At the core of Robert Filliou’s practice are ideas of language, play and exchange. Trained in economics and associated with Fluxus, he conceived art as a continuous, collective activity embedded in everyday life. His work challenges conventional notions of authorship, value and production, favouring openness, humour and participation. Through gestures that blur the boundaries between art and non-art, Filliou redefined creation as an ongoing process of thinking, making and sharing, an approach that continues to shape the understanding of art as a space of exchange.

Joachim Pfeufer introduced himself as follows: “Joachim, animal painter accredited by nature since 1935. Born in Boston. Citizen of the Fifth Republic. Star hunter.” An architect, artist and teacher, his practice encompassed, among other things, urban planning and painting, which he approached through mathematics, physics, optics, cognitive psychology, the physiology of perception and philology.