Jean-Philippe Lemée / Gilles Mahé NCDGQAD IN JAPANESE

Have you heard about NCDGQAD (Nous Cherchons Des Gens Qui Aiment Dessiner) ? This famous school of art by postal service has existed between 1994 and 1997. NCDGQAD was based in Rennes (France) and has had 1500 students from all over the world, especially Japan (our sponsor, APC Paris, involved in fashion, has many stores there). The idea was to send recipes (each month) to "our" students in order to let them make contemporary drawings. Each drawing was then reproduced (after being gently critized and graded by us... it was a "school" after all) next the other contributions on a monthly poster. Sometimes, our "students drawings were exhibited in different places, before we would send them back to their creators. We did 30 posters - plus 3 collectors - in three years, and many exhibits, even in Paris at the French Open. Since our enterprize was going on very well, we had to create jobs... but we were awful managers : the more money we had through the students or sponsors, the more money we would spend (today, I still do not understand this phenomenon). This is why we decided to quit : the world of the artist is not the manager's one !