A simultaneous phenomenon in the 90’s in various places in Europe, an alternative appears in the artistic distribution and production. Thus, with two artists and a gallery assistant, we started the association Starter in 1996 in Nice that pilots the project of LA STATION. The specificity of this association, originally in a former gas station, is to have spaces of exhibition open to the public side by side with production studios.
This project was born out of the conjunction of two factors: find work spaces for young artists in Nice that would enable them to avoid isolation and financial difficulties, but also offer an alternative to the modus operandi of the usual exhibitions by opening a new and complementary territory to those of the existing museums, art centers or galleries. LA STATION appears like the missing link, a platform between all these entities.
Cédric Teisseire, Vice-President and founding member of La Station
The main objective of La Station is to support and spread the contemporary cultural and artistic life in Nice by any means and under any forms it takes. Show what is made here and attract to Nice, from France and Europe, some very contemporary practices of art. Its purpose is also to help the artists and take part in the development and the promotion and dissemination of their activities.
La Station wishes to be a place living with culture where the artists invest a space and time of exhibition in the best possible conditions. It allows the exploration of a field of experiment likely to open up their research in real and professional conditions of exhibition or production.
La Station moved, geographically and in its postulates, along with the realities of the places that housed it and the artists that made it. These multiple transformations enabled it to preserve a certain capacity of movement and adaptation that built the identity of the association. La Station became over time a link between artists, institutions, galleries and the public, and it has enriched the local cultural panorama.
Exhibitions, debate evenings, performances are offered to the public, as well as some more particular moments: readings, listening sessions, concerts, video projections…
Since 1996, La Station succeeded in acquiring a national and European audience including Germany, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Italy, Switzerland… whose artistic scenes pay a specific attention to its activities.