In 2018, Siegwerk, the German specialist in industrial inks for package printing, was the site of an art residency at its location in Haute-Savoie. The artist Joséphine Kaeppelin spent the year working there, a project proposed by our contemporary art center, La Villa du Parc in Annemasse, and made possible with the generous support of the Ministry of Culture /DRAC Auvergne Rhône-Alpes.

The artist, who calls herself a “provider of intellectual and graphic design services,” chose to do an “audit” of Siegwerk Haute-Savoie, meeting with all of the employees from the different business sectors in which this local industry is active. Kaeppelin’s work involved two phases, an initial one called the investigation phase that ran from February to June; and a second during which the artist wrote up a report based on the words and impressions she gleaned from her time spent in the factory.

A graduate of HEAR in Strasbourg, the French artist, who lives and works in Brussels, centers her approach on feeling and perception in the working world. As an “artist-consultant,” Kaeppelin carries out investigations in businesses. Unlike a classic audit though, her probing has no objective or goal to meet. She does assume for herself something of a rule for how to act in the milieu, i.e., she interferes with the work routine to summon a distancing that enables us to thing about ourselves and the (socio-professional) structure which we are a part of.

While her output has mainly taken shape in the professional milieu of art, Kaeppelin worked this time at an industrial site, Siegwerk, the industrial inks manufacturer that employs nearly 270 people in Annemasse. The decision to do an “audit” as her residency project resonated especially with “Insight,” a social investigation recently carried out at the Groupe Siegwerk level.

The artist’s main activity during her investigation was to find a way to address the rank-and-file workers, then she pursued a dialogue with them, which continued right up to the moment she drafted her report. That is, she took a vote. In late June, a large number of employees voted. Of the three proposals, they chose the “wall report,” the result of discussions between the artist-consultant and the employees, and a token of a particular experience. The report will be officially unveiled 13 December at the Siegwerk location. Called “Il s’est passé quelque chose” (Something Happened), Kaeppelin’s painted report is found in the firm’s different facilities, along various hallways and other passage points.

This project is part of the extramural artists-in-residence program of La Villa du Parc contemporary art center and the “Art and Working Worlds” program of the French Ministry of Culture/Drac Auvergne Rhône-Alpes.

For the 2019 show ” On y marche avec l’oreille ” (L’appel du terrain) , the artist exhibited a series of slides and art pieces produced as part of her work as a service provider. A catalogue featuring all of the stages of the Audit Siegwerk was published in conjunction with Joséphine Kaepplin’s exhibition.