arir - Cécile Briand

L'ARIR (t.n. the ACMA, By Appointment Creative Meeting Agency) was made to induce encounters.

But it's not a dating app ! It's just a way to promote encounters for the sake of encounters, to find new ways to meet people.

It's for those who enjoy meeting new people, for those who like brief encounters or for people who appreciate surprises.

This ARIR page is meant to gather all the past or Creative Meetings to come.

The first examples are my own but I hope they will soon be joined by others.
To publish them on this site, I need a horizontal rectangular picture
and six-point presentation, just like hereafter.

What's more to say : It was my dream ad I wished to see published in Libération, the newspaper. I needed to create an ad for a project Among Others (Entre Autres) made in collaboration with Emily Mast. Emily wanted to organize a meeting during a demonstration on place de la République, and I wanted to meet the man of my life. Therefore a thousand copies of this ad were printed on the thousand leaflets handed out, for many of them, in Parisian public places in October 2004. Chances for it to be read were quite likely to happen.

I went to La Cigale three times, for three months, hoping someone would show up at the door of the concert venue. I found a note about it in one of my notebooks. I wrote that I was afraid someone would think I was a prostitute since I was wearing a fake-fur coat (on the collar and on the end of each sleeves). Actually, some men stared at me in a strange way. I didn't stay for a long time each time (half and hour, still). People are no fun: nobody showed up.

What's more to say : In the last pages of my guide Quirky Paris- 36 serious walks that will make you laugh (Lonely Planet, 2009), I invited people to meet at the zero point on Notre-Dame square. Except in July while I was on holiday, I went to the meeting point, each month for a year. In November I met Martine there, Benoit's young aunt. I don't remember where we went at all. But it was nice, for sure. I didn't take any notes. The following month, in December, I met a man working at the Emerainville town hall. I phoned him to learn more about the street names of his city that were beautifully chosen by children. He answered me very nicely. The streets are named “l'allée des Cadeaux” (the gifts alley), rue des Maîtresses-Gentilles (the Kind Teachers street), allée du Rond-Perdu (alley of the lost circle), du Méchant Loup (of the bad wolf)... (I also have a street map and a greetings card that I'm really fond of – of the cities of Rue (t.n. street) and Voeu (t.n. wish, greetings). Again this time, I don't remember where we went.
The other months, no one showed up.

M #-1

Title : Meeting one, two or three people for a drink

Place : La Brasserie des Buttes Chaumont (Paris, 19^th)

Date : Thursday, November 24^th,2022 at 7:30 PM (given on November 14^th, 2022)

Imagined by : C.B

Proposal : Let's meet. I have 3 letters I would like to send, that is why I am writing this letter-invitation to 3 strangers. […] Here are 3 questions to ask on the evening we meet. Then, there will be 6, 9 or 12 questions depending on the number of people present, 2 or 3 or 4, on Thursday, November 24^th at 7:30PM. I wrote 9 different questions (and also 3 for me). Then we won't not have anything to tell to one another. We will be able to start the conversation immediately. You will recognize me: I will have bangs, light brown hair tied in a high bun and I will be wearing a colorful pullover. It should be enough.

What's more to say : in a leaflet about cultural events in the 19^th arrondissement, I read that an association was organizing a letter-exchange at Brasserie des Buttes Chaumont, a café I knew well. One could write a letter to strangers and take a letter in exchange. Maybe there wouldn't even be an exchange. I was really fond of this idea. I went there for it. Unfortunately, there wasn't any letter in the letter box, behind the counter. I went back there. Still no letter. The third time there it was. In my hands there was Sandra's well-written letter. So well-written that I didn't have anything to tell, to answer.

I had a night off, for me, outside from home. I brought pen and paper to write. I thought about what I would like to find in a letter written and left by a stranger: an invitation to meet! I wrote three similar letters. I invited the reader to meet next Thursday. And to facilitate the meeting, I wrote three questions to ask the other or others that would dare come. Different questions we could successively ask one after the other.

Next Thursday, I arrived before the time of the meeting. I asked about the letters I left to the nice waitress, she reassured me by telling me, the week prior the meeting, that she would remind her colleague about them. But she forgot. And the letters were still there. What a disappointment... I took back the expired letters. I kept the questions for another time. I'm sure one could try again to meet this way, there or somewhere else.

What's more to say ? This meeting is the very first one of l'ARIR. I start with this meeting in my neighborhood, Place des Fêtes, since words mean something ( t.n. fêtes meaning celebration or party), and on Friday, 13^th so as to remember the date. The ad was only published on my neighborhood “le Village Jourdain” Facebook page which gathers 30,000 members.

I had so many things on my mind the days before that Friday, 13^th: I just moved, there were still many boxes to unpack, there were shelves to build and our landlord wouldn't answer: the kitchen sink was leaking (the water from the dishwasher sprung outside the drain pipe) as well as the washbasin in the bathroom.

I also had to finish my Christmas presents, and ten books to lay out. So that I didn't have time to think about this meeting beforehand, I didn't have the time to feel the relentlessness I felt before the previous meetings.

It was quite cold. The moon shone beautifully. I was ten minutes early when I chose to stand up on one of the low walls of the labyrinth-fountain of Place des Fêtes.

A couple, that had put bags on benches, were glancing at me while talking. I wondered if they were waiting... before coming to see me. A woman who was coming out the metro station shouted “Ariel?”. I answered “Yes” because I thought she said “Arir?”. She shook her head while she was walking towards me.

The couple left. And Virginie arrived.

She tripped on one of the low-walls (just like I did once on the polished granite). We immediately started talking. About what I was doing for a living. What she was doing. She previously worked for the museum where I currently work. For four years now she's been doing massages, to heal (as well as to help people relax). I actually had greasy hair because I just finished a Swedish massage (to tone and relax).

No one else came. I offered Virginie to go eat fries and have a drink near Danube square, nearby. I really like this square that takes me outside Paris, near a roundabout full of flowers and close to the formerly worker-houses of the Mouzaïa neighborhood.

That evening was lovely. The fries were good. I thanked Virginie for coming despite the cold weather and the unknown nature of this meeting, and for launching with me the first meeting of l'ARIR.

R# to define later

Title : Taking part to the BSA, By Shared Affinities meetings

Place : La Galerie des Iconocclastes (Paris, 2^nd)

Date : to define later, probably a weekend in October 2025

Imagined by : C.B.

Proposal : When you arrive in Casanova street, you will receive a ticket to the BSA meetings from Cécile Briand. You will get to choose between 5 conversation cues: Art/ culture, News/politics, Travels, What I did today and Weather forecast. The BSA meetings will take place on Fridays and Saturdays between 9:00 PM and 9:21PM under the colored boards of the conversation themes chosen. The pairs will be gathered thanks to the closest coupon numbers (still thinking on how to do it).

What's more to say : In March 2024, I phoned Jean-Yves Loriot, curator at the smallest museum in France, the Alphonse Allais Museum, in Honfleur. I wanted to make sure it would be open during the Pentecost weekend. I wanted to go there with my family. Mister Loriot told me to meet him at 3:00 PM on the day I wanted. He was curious. He wanted to know why I wanted to visit the museum (a guide of the artists' houses I guess) and what I did for a living (I gave him my website's address). Soon he called me back to tell me that he really enjoyed the Sentence-drawer and all my projects, actually. It was very Allaisien. He almost immediately offered me to exhibit my work on a shelf of the Smallest Museum in France. Of course, I accepted the invitation. He shortlisted Ma vie cylindrique for the Alphonse Allais book prize. I imagined the By Shared Affinities meetings for an event to come, in October 2025.

Alphonse Allais was a Honfleur-born journalist/ humorist/ writer. He was also the creator and user of the Absurd genre.