The association abcd (art brut connaissance & diffusion), governed by the French Law of 1901, is dedicated to promoting Art Brut to a wide audience in all its forms, both in France and abroad, by organizing events, exhibitions, and activities related to its core mission, as well as publishing books and editorial materials and producing films.

Started in the mid-1970s, the Decharme Collection brings together works by nearly 400 artists from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. This body of work extends the collections and research of pioneering psychiatrists such as Hans Prinzhorn, and of artists and writers such as André Breton — research that Jean Dubuffet theorized in 1945 under the concept of Art Brut.

The approach of Bruno Decharme is part of a broader project, that of the collector and filmmaker, but also that of the founder of abcd, which opened his collection to the public in 1999.
abcd is a research center and laboratory led by Barbara Safarova, which develops its reflections on outsider art based on the Decharme Collection.. Its activities remain rooted in contemporary concerns through publications, exhibitions and film production.

The abcd association also has an international vocation through its field research, exhibitions presented abroad, and its Prague branch—abcd Prague, founded in 2003.

From 2004 to 2013, abcd operated an exhibition space in Montreuil: abcd, la galerie.

In 2011, abcd enriched its editorial line by partnering with the Collège International de Philosophie to create a seminar devoted to Art Brut, led by Barbara Safarova, which ran over six years.

In 2024 and 2025, Barbara Safraova led a seminar on Art Brut at the École du Louvre.

In 2021, Bruno Decharme donated 1,000 works to the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou, enabling the museum to establish a long-missing Art Brut department.

Over the course of its thirty years of existence, abcd has succeeded in bringing together around its founding team — Manuel Anceau, Jean-Louis Lanoux, and Béatrice Steiner — researchers from a wide range of backgrounds.

Barbara Safarova / President of abcd, Paris
Terezie Zemankova / President of abcd, Prague