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ne les oublions pas

Intervention carried out on 13 May 2011 on the Pont des Arts in Paris, France


This intervention, carried out without authorization, consisted in hanging a 320 x 400 cm printed banner on the Pont des Arts in Paris, facing the Seine, representing the faces of Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst, accompanied by the message in capital letters "NE LES OUBLIONS PAS". The banner was based on a first piece I made in acrylic paint on a 180 x 210 cm canvas (which was later exhibited in a window display at the Galerie Hors-Champs in Paris in 2013 as part of a group show). The printing of the banner was subcontracted to a professional workshop.


"Ne les oublions pas" is an intervention through which I wished to question the societal phenomenon of hypermediatization, notably put forward in the work of Gilles Lipovetsky on hypermodernity, by exploring its most trivial dimension: the mobilization for two victims in the service of a just cause which, despite its over-mediatization, cannot legitimately give rise to criticism. Here, the general public, despite its powerlessness to influence the situation, can only suffer the hammering of the message conveyed by the media pressure.

This offensive establishes an ironic parallel between the phenomenon of over-mediatisation that the two French hostages, Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier, benefited from in 2010-2011, due to their status as journalists with France Télévision, and the omnipresence of two personalities, Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst, to whom the contemporary art world is often reduced in the eyes of the general public. It is impossible to avoid them. This partial and biased media coverage only serves to reinforce the stereotype of contemporary art and its lack of understanding in the eyes of the general public.

The message "Let's not forget them" and the formal presentation of this banner directly echoes the types of support used at the time by the groups supporting these two hostages. The installation on the site was done on the 500th day of detention of the two journalists held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The banner was attached to the top of the bridge's railings and then unfurled in the air above the Seine, facing the various riverboats that sail by.


This intervention was the subject of:

- An online petition to support the two artists involved in the intervention;

- The production, with the help of a mobile phone, of photos and a video for documentation purposes.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ltm905_Bj0)

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