Anne-James Chaton has developed a multipolar body of work, based on a close study of the textual materials which make up the everyday life of contemporary society.

This 'poor' literature, known as 'ephemera', comprising a multitude of documents printed out by innumerable machines - bank slips, shopping receipts, promotional flyers, customer loyalty cards, business cards, bus, train and metro tickets, etc. – is the source of Anne-James’ quests into sound, poetry and visual art, which he develops through solo projects and in collaboration with artists from diverse fields.

Inspired by the compositions and techniques drawn from the history of literature, music and art, these elements take on the form of sound-poetry musical scores (Evénements 99), performance booklets
(Napoli Napoli with the director Benoît Bradel), text-paintings (Autoportraits, Portraits), songs (In The Event with the group The Ex, Valade Martial with the group Innocent X), art installations (Papier Peint, Family Mart et Compagnie) and objects (Intérieurs). Working on these forms leads Anne-James to explore diverse media and their forms, transposing books (Evénements 99) to CDs (Le Journaliste with
the guitarist Andy Moor, Unitxt with the German artist Carsten Nicolaï – aka Alva Noto), page layout to poster design (Portrait, Un Monde Merveilleux), printed text to the exhibition of original documents (Papier Peint, how i’m becoming a japanese boy, FamilyMart et Compagnie), and the laying flat of original documents to their reconstruction in space as art installations. In 2010, he presented a new performance, called Black Monodie, with the French performer Philippe Menard. This performance was created for the 64e festival d’Avigon.

This continuous focus on ‘low intensity literature’ has accompanied Anne-James during his trips abroad for numerous performances on the literary, rock and électronic music “scenes”. Other languages have also helped enrich this research, introducing new resonances and written forms to his artistic projects ; written, voiced and visual.

This polyglot dimension to his work has led him to collaborate with foreign artists like the Dutch rock group The Ex, the English guitarist Andy Moor, the Greek composer Yannis Kyriakides and the German electronic musician Carsten Nicolaï – aka Alva Noto.

In 2005 Anne-James Chaton received the grant ‘Encouragement’ from the Centre National du Livre in Paris and in 2006 he won the support of the ‘Mission Stendhal’ from the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (the French Foreign Ministry) for his literary project on the city of Naples (Italy). In 2008 he was awarded an artistic residency at the Villa Kujoyamo in Kyoto, Japan, by the French Ministry of Foreign and Cultural Affaires. Since 2009 Anne-James Chaton has been a Board Member of the poetry commission at the Centre National du Livre (National Center for Books).
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