André Robillard at the Collection de l'Art Brut for the Museum Night
During the 2013 edition of Nuit des Musées, the Collection de l’Art Brut pays tribute to André Robillard (1931) through a presentation of his works, film screenings, and a musical meeting.
In 1964, André Robillard gathered reclaimed items picked up from bins and created his first gun. Jean Dubuffet discovered him through psychiatrist Paul Renard and acquired the piece for his Art Brut collection. This marked the beginning of a rich creative journey: for 50 years, André Robillard has built weapons, aircraft, Sputniks, and animals. He also draws and plays the accordion, harmonica, and the “cartouche bucket,” an instrument he invented.
With André Robillard present, an exceptional meeting with an author whose works are part of the museum’s historic collection.
15:30 – Blickfeld & Signage – Exhibition Visit
Visit to the permanent exhibition guided by a tour guide and a French Sign Language interpreter.
Conducted within the Accès-Cible project in partnership with Pro Infirmis Vaud.
14:15 / 16:15 / 18:15 : Sacred “Bullet”! – Children's Workshops (8‑12 years) / duration 1h45
Guns, submachine guns, rifles – for 50 years André Robillard has built firearms. Made from reclaimed objects such as canned food boxes, wood scraps, plastic, and tape, they are completely harmless. The workshop invites participants to create an object inspired by the works of this Art Brut creator shown in the museum.
20:45‑21:30 : Musical Encounter with André Robillard
Alain Moreau, director of the Villefranche theatre, will converse with André Robillard (1931). It will be an opportunity to learn more about the life and oeuvre of this self‑taught French creator whose Art Brut collection notably owns the first gun, acquired by Jean Dubuffet in 1965. The discussion will be punctuated by musical interludes, as André Robillard also sings while accompanied by his many accordions and a drum of eclectic objects, such as plastic drums or watering cans, from which he produces sounds.
15:00‑20:30 Continuous projections / 22:00‑02:00 Continuous projections
19:30 Film presentations by the directors
*** Visites à André Robillard– film by Claude and Clovis Prévost (2007, 12 min.)
Villeneuve d’Ascq, Musée d’art moderne Lille Métropole.
Claude and Clovis Prévost filmed André Robillard in his studio‑apartment in Fleury‑les‑Aubrais between May 2006 and May 2007. André Robillard plays the harmonica, sings while accompanied by his accordion or a plastic bucket he taps with an empty shot gun cartridge slid onto the finger. He shows some of his guns made from recovered materials, comments on his work, draws a few sketches, and even creates a “Thing by an artist,” that is, a gun!
*** À coup de fusils !– film by Henri‑François Imbert (1993, 25 min.)
In 1964, André Robillard began making guns from scavenged materials—dozens of them! Doctor Renard sent one of them to Jean Dubuffet for the Art Brut collection he was building since 1945. André Robillard thus became, “with a beat of guns,” a major creator of Art Brut. In this film, he shows us his creations and his working method. He tells us his incredible story, and then we accompany him to Cologne to see his exhibition. There, André Robillard forgets the camera, which films the intertwining of art and life.