Pablo Helguera & Dannielle Tegeder

Hunter East Harlem Gallery launches The Incoherents Salon, a mise-en-scène produced by the artists Pablo Helguera and Dannielle Tegeder inspired by the protomodern French artistic movement, Les Arts Incohérents.

Founded by publisher and writer Jules Lévy in Paris in 1882, The Incoherents were a collective made up of artists and writers who organized humorous exhibitions as a satirical response to the aesthetic and political circumstances of the time. In the midst of our current restless political moment, Helguera and Tegeder’s theatrical mise-en-scène offers a tribute to a group of artists that used satire as a weapon to push against the status quo and embodied a critical spirit that would later become a common denominator of the avant-garde.

With this history in mind, Helguera and Tegeder consider Hunter East Harlem Gallery, where socially-minded art projects are on display, as a site for a revistitation of the experimentation and elements of Les Arts Incohérents. From March 13 to June 3, 2017, Helguera, Tegeder, and Hunter East Harlem Gallery invite artists, community members, and creatives into the gallery to present time-based projects that embrace The Incoherents' commitment to social engagement and community-oriented exhibition-making.