A characteristic of children is that they feel curiosity for anything. From a very innocent perspective they dare to question values that for us are unquestionable. Children are capable of seeing things we would never see. It seems that when we grow-up we become strong and our minds close. We become dictators of our imagination and we grasp an identity that is very limited.
The light, mysterious forms scattered across the main wall, in the entrance to “encore un jour banane pour le poisson rêve” exhibition, are the result of the “exercises in microvandalism” I conducted with a group of ten-year-old children. During a specially organised workshop, I asked them to tag in record time photographs of the sculptures that inhabit the forecourt of the Palais de Tokyo.
Blown up and reproduced on the wall, these drawings appear alone, conserving only the spontaneous gestures of the children’s hands. It is only by using a downloadable application /graffiti yoga/ , for smartphones or tablets, that it is possible to discover the source sculptures. They then appear covered with graffiti.
The idea of vandalising the classical sculptures outside the Palais de Tokyo was just a pretext for something even more disturbing. I like the idea of collecting the naïve, intuitive drawings of child-tagger-vandals so as to link them structurally with the classical beauty of Greco-Roman art. In a way, these sketched lines, when out of context, are opposed to the harmony of classical sculptures. These two poles then touch, while only a technological set-up allows us to experience this dichotomy.
Wallpainting + / graffiti yoga / app
3D aspect: Felix Artagaveytia
So many thanks to “Maison des Jeunes de Saint-Médard”, Palais de Tokyo team and everyone that helped on that´s happend. Photo credits: Aurélien Mole (photo 02), Hugo Vitrani (photo 06), Pauline Alexandrine (video 05) and Yoann Gourmel (photos 03-04)
“Entre l´amour et la peur” can be seen on « Encore un jour banane pour le poisson-rêve » exhibition at Palais de Tokyo from 22.06 to 09.09.2018