Write-up

Work : Write-up

Installation on which human relations are reduced to a mere mercantile exchange. Invoices, receipts, fabric ribbons

Location :

Work displayed at the Louis Vuitton Cultural Centre for the exhibition ‘Elsewhere ‘ curated by Paul Ardenne, Paris, February to May 2011.

Originally intended as a two-year relational trip around the world based on the principle of concatenation, I came to a  very bitter conclusion on my return. Aggravated by the world crisis, the inequalities and disparities in the standards of living, my interactions with the local population were reduced to mere mercantile exchanges.
Records of expenses, invoices, small change, receits were exhibited as if they were the supporting documentation to a balance sheet.

Reference text :

Paul Ardenne, Curator of the exhibition :

SOMEWHERE ELSE
« Elsewhere » provides, for many artists today, a favoured creative context. They set off, travelling
back and forth, either producing or installing their works of art outside the places in which they
are traditionally made (the studio) or displayed (the gallery). This 14th exhibition at the Espace
culturel Louis Vuitton tracks the extraordinary expeditions of 15 such artists. Their approach can
be traced back in history to Paul Gauguin, who – as the archetypal travelling artist – naturally has
his place in the exhibition, as well as, more recently, to Bas Jan Ader or Giovanni Anselmo, both
of whom use physical removal as a source of artistic inspiration. With tragic consequences in the
case of Ader: in 1975, the Dutch artist – no stranger to risk – vanished somewhere in the Atlantic,
which he had decided to cross in a flimsy and quite inadequate craft « in search of the miraculous ».
Characterized by movement, this relocation of artistic endeavour differs from the in situ practices that
emerged half a century ago, notably land art. The « expeditionist » artist does not start by implanting his
creative output at a fixed geographical point. For him, it is more important to move around, to roam, and
his work takes shape through nomadic practice or cultural wandering, so typical of existence in this era of
globalization. Travel signifies the encounter with new spaces, with other humans, and the opportunity to
reconsider one’s own values. One can then represent one’s world from another standpoint, from a different,
renewed perspective, revitalized by the principle of migration. The confrontation with the « other » space
thus becomes all-important. It is as if authentic art can only come into being « somewhere else ».
The exhibition Somewhere Else presents the work of artists whose approaches are extremely diverse. The nature
of the expedition on which each artist embarks may vary significantly. Some travel to hostile environments at
the ends of the earth in order to found utopian villages or to find the material for an original flag; others aim
to amuse themselves in the mountains or to go hiking underground like moles. Others still plan to construct,
amid the vast, lonely expanse of an Asian steppe, a bridge like a sculpture or a jewel. Some expect their expedition
to inform them about the state of the world, while others see it as a trial or yet an adventure.
Last but not least, there is the ultimate form of territorial occupation: a voyage into the
virtual worlds – the infinite dimensions – generated by digital civilization. The one
constant, however, as Dominique Baqué writes in Histoires d’ailleurs (Regard, 2006), is that
« these journeys – impressive as they may be – are not only of a geographical nature: they
also evidence an authentic dialogic of thought with itself, a constant questioning of what
is given and accepted ».

Article from Richard Leydier in ART PRESS n°377, april 2011 :

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