Intervention carried out on 21 and 24 October 2015 in front of the Grand-Palais in Paris (France) at the time of the International Contemporary Art Fair (21-25.10.2015).
Third and last part of a series of interventions around the value of Work, "Arbeit Macht Frei/03" took place in front of the Grand-Palais in Paris in two occurrences, on Wednesday 21st October 2015 and Saturday 24th October 2015. These two moments were chosen as key moments of the International Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC) held in the building, the first corresponding to the opening to VIPs, and the second to the day of the mass reception of the general public.
The arrangement consisted of a parade of fourteen international artists (French, Luxembourg, German, Chinese, Spanish and Argentinean), each wearing two interconnected wooden panels in the manner of a sandwich man, on which one of their works was displayed. The parade followed a defined route of back and forth in front of the Grand-Palais, at a walking pace, allowing passers-by to watch the intervention and the artists to present a preview of their work.
"Arbeit Macht Frei" is a series of interventions developed around the idea of work, the value of work in a time of crisis and in our performance society, with a focus on the value of the artist's work, its visibility, on what he has to do to exist through the eyes of others. Is the artist's work the only guarantee of his freedom or is it a lure in the face of the diktat of the art market. The title "Arbeit Macht Frei" refers directly to this ambivalence Art/Labour/Market/Freedom, the expression extolling the virtues of reintegration through work, adopted by the Nazis when they came to power in 1933 and affixed at the entrance to concentration camps, then taken up by other totalitarian regimes, having finally become the very archetype of cynicism applied to individual freedom.
The major fairs and certain hypermediatised international events in the art world, which confirm and reinforce the laws of the market, tend to present to the public a vision of Art limited by the constraints and mercantile imperatives of this type of exercise. The galleries present tend to select for the fairs only those works that correspond to what is expected from the greatest number, applying a form of self-censorship to itself. Hence the impression of déjà vu that one can get when one regularly visits the various fairs, with a concentration of the market around a limited number of artists, and works tending towards homogeneity and the widest acceptability. The artist and his work fade away in favour of the "work-product" that one comes to see and consume as the latest fashionable trends. Through their hypermediatisation, international art fairs nowadays convey to the general public the image that Art-which-is-worthy-of-interest boils down to what they present, ultimately resulting in a self-reinforcement of the market around a limited number of artists. These few international events define in today's society the normative framework of what is expected as in Paris the Salon once dictated the acceptable standards and agreed expectations of the Art of the time.
Other participating artists :
- Xavier Blondeau (France): http://xbphotographe.com/
- Stéphane Bouelle (France): http://www.bouelle.com/
- Miguel Angel Concepción (Spain): http://miguelangelconcepcion.blogspot.com.es/
- Gilbert Coqalane (France): http://certifiecoqalane.net/
- Alexandre Delecroix (France): http://delecroixalexandre.wix.com/alexandre-delecroix
- Cornelia Eichhorn (Germany): http://corneliaeichhorn.com/
- Julien Garnier (France): http://www.juliengarnier.fr/
- Rocío Lopez Zarandieta (Spain): http://rociolopezzarandieta.blogspot.com.es/
- Olivier Poizac (France): http://www.poizac.com/
- Raom & Loba, (Argentine-France) : http://www.raometloba.com/
- Romuald & PJ (France): http://romualdetpj.weebly.com/
- Laurent Santi (France): http://jedetruismamaison.com
- Jing Wang (China): http://www.jingwang-art.com/
This intervention has been the subject of :
• A group exhibition entitled "AMF/03" which was held from 26 January to 28 February 2016 at the Galerie Hors-Champs in Paris
• The production of photos and videos for documentation purposes
