Benjamin Sabatier's new solo exhibition at Galerie Bertrand Grimont has all the features of a Manifesto. In the gallery space, Benjamin Sabatier deploys a set of recent works (sculptures, objects, drawings, documents, etc.) revealing a relationship to creation that covers at the same time a social, economic and political theory, which the artist defines under the term "self-construction". The title of the exhibition Access to tools, a nod to the famous Whole Earth Catalog published in 1968 by Stewart Brand, whose first page is displayed at the entrance of the gallery, condenses the issues. A true bible of the counterculture, this book is a visual DIY in which practical advice is mixed with visions of the future. Brand's intention was to provide 'access tools' and education for readers to find their own inspiration, form their own environment and share their experiences. The term tools (which owes a lot to Ivan Illich) perfectly combines the pragmatic spirit that founds the work of Benjamin Sabatier. A follower of Do It Yourself, he makes experience the hub of knowledge by putting practical action and concept on an equal footing. Sabatier's work thus goes beyond the simple practice of "DIY" to become a form of theory in action, where gestures, lifestyles and actions "construct" thought. By doing this he makes visible the idea that learning is doing and that everyone is endowed with a constructive and inventive capacity. Today, the need to create, the need for independence, the need to establish an autonomous and personal know-how, push individuals to invent solutions to achieve as many things as possible for themselves. Our "ready-made", "ready-made" civilization is also that of DIY, of the self-builder, of the worker "wig", of the amateur mechanic, of the inventor and of the creator ... is like the “ordinary man” described by Michel de Certeau in Invention of the Daily, that Benjamin Sabatier “tinkers” with and in the dominant economy. Whether he sharpens pencils for 35 hours, creates the production structure of IBK kit works, takes hold of the labor and activist history of the city of Besançon, reassesses the utopias of the Modern Movement or deploys a sculptural work marked by an aesthetic of the construction site, Benjamin Sabatier repeatedly questions the concept of work, which functions as a standard in an approach seeking above all to place art in a broader socio-economic context. His artistic vocabulary is made up of raw and accessible materials brick, concrete, DIY utensils, cardboard, tape, etc. - that he manipulates within the framework of legible manufacturing processes, eliminating any reference to the heroic gesture of the sculptor in favor of a certain literalness in which the functioning of the work is revealed at first glance. This “dazzling”, which nonetheless remains polysemic, thus makes its reproduction easy and possible by everyone. Between political and formal questions, re-readings of constructivist principles and the theses of Walter Benjamin, the work of Benjamin Sabatier, by inviting the viewer to become himself a producer, is therefore considered in the light of alternative and emancipatory theories of Do it Yourself. - Photos A. Mole