Workshops « Artworks for Solidarity »

Friday, Apris 18, from 10:00AM to 1:00PM

Musée National Picasso-Paris

Tuesday, July 10, from 12:00PM to 4:30PM Palais Tokyo

New program supported by Rubis Mécénat

Thanks For Nothing is renewing its “Workshops Around the Artwork” program in 2025, in collaboration with Rubis Mécénat.

Since 2019, Thanks for Nothing has been organizing co-creation workshops for audiences who are traditionally excluded from cultural spaces, already bringing together over 500 participants through collaborative art projects.

These workshops, conducted in collaboration with internationally renowned artists, engage young people of all ages as well as beneficiaries of various partner organizations, including refugees, survivors of domestic violence, and socially isolated elderly individuals.

These activities aim to combat social isolation among older adults and strengthen intergenerational connections by offering them an active role and greater visibility in society. Through these actions, Thanks for Nothing advocates for an inclusive cultural approach that promotes dignity and shared experiences for all.

Program 

Workshop 1 with Fanny Allié

Musée national Picasso-Paris
Friday, April 18, from 10:00AM to 1:00PM

Participants :

• 10 homeless individuals supported by the Association La Pointe

• 7 beneficiaries of the FALRET Foundation

• 10 beneficiaries of the association La Puissance du Lien

• 20 children from the leisure center of Marseille Primary School (10th arrondissement, Paris)

A total of over 50 participants and their caregivers

Fanny Allié proposes a workshop centered around the human figure using found and recycled textile materials. Participants will create and display a collection of characters inspired by what they love and/or how they perceive themselves. As the characters are created, they will be pinned to a backdrop, allowing the installation to develop organically. Participants will be immersed in a variety of fabrics from which they can choose based on their personal sense of texture and composition. They will also be invited to bring their own materials (torn clothing, used towels, small trinkets, etc.) and incorporate them into their creations, thus giving life to personal figures that carry a part of themselves.

About the Artist

Fanny Allié is a French artist based in Brooklyn.
Her socially engaged work combines sculpture, textiles, installation, and light, exploring themes of memory, presence, and marginalized bodies in urban space.

A graduate of the ENSP in Arles, she has exhibited at Princeton University, Saint-Eustache Church in Paris, and the Bronx Museum.

She has been awarded numerous artist residencies (Yaddo, MacDowell, NYFA), and currently works at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York.

In 2024–2025, Fanny Allié will be exhibiting in Paris, New York, and Milan.

Workshop 2 with Benjamin Loyauté

Friday, July 10, from 12:00PM to 4:30PM
Palais de Tokyo

Participants:
• Beneficiaries of the Fondation FALRET
• 20 children from the recreation center of Marseille Primary School (10th arrondissement, Paris)

Titled “The Necessary Useless”, the workshop invites participants to explore absurdity as a tool for care and self-expression. Through collective writing exercises and the reinvention of labels for imaginary bottles, participants are encouraged to reflect on notions of normality, vulnerability, and value.

By embracing the unpredictable, the useless, and the nonsensical, this creative space becomes a haven for mental and emotional freedom—where everyone can express thoughts and feelings without judgment. A poetic and playful way to use art as a catalyst for social connection and well-being.

Thanks for Nothing is organizing this co-creation workshop at the Palais de Tokyo, in partnership with the Fondation Falret and the recreation center of Marseille Primary School (Paris 10th).

The workshop brings together children and adults experiencing psychological vulnerability for an intergenerational and inclusive creative moment.

About the Artist

Benjamin Loyauté is a French artist and writer born in 1979, living and working between Brussels, Paris, Cusco, and Madagascar.

His work combines sculpture, film, installation, and performance to explore perception, collective narratives, and the value of the common good.

Inspired by social sciences, geopolitics, and phenomenology, he develops a critical and transdisciplinary practice.

He has exhibited at MUDAM & Casino (Luxembourg), the Musée National de l’Histoire de l’Immigration (Paris), MoMA (New York), Power Station of Art (Shanghai), MAMC+ (Saint-Étienne), Kanal Pompidou (Brussels), and Somerset House (London), among others.

Benjamin Loyauté’s projects question modes of transmission and contemporary mechanisms of appropriation.