The living deads
by mardinoir
This work has not been commented by curators.
Title
The living deads
Headline
Put your hands up !
Concept author(s)
Arzhel PRIOUL
Concept author year(s) of birth
1981
Concept author(s) contribution
I live and worked with the windows open
Concept author(s) Country
France
Friendly Competition
Radical intimacies: dialogue in our times (2014)
Competition category
Visual communication practice
Competition subcategory
static
Competition field
nonacademic
Competition subfield
artist
Subfield description
Arzhel Prioul (Mardi Noir) usually decontextualizes Art by taking it out galleries or studios, to give it back to the city and its inhabitants. Here, he re-contextualizes his urban art by having it into the gallery. Sliding in Mardi Noir’s work is all about contradictions: the anachronistic presence of things already went off, unusable pictures of ordinary objects, things that constitute itself the space in the space. Mardi Noir fills up deserted places with murals of furniture or with inhabitants coming from the past. Those men and anachronistic objects on the walls become themselves the spatial framing of the setting. There are like frozen in an impossible boundary, both containers and contents. Tapestry is the object halfway between furniture and property that also opens a virtual space of illustrations and patterns. The re-appropriation practice of pictographs, peculiar to Mardi Noir seems to take part in the defacement of the public or market worlds. The logo, meant to associate the individual with brands and values, becomes the artist’s work. He gets hold of it, takes their owners’ place to give them back to everybody, like a Robin Hood of the picture. He turns them into a real liveable decor instead of the pseudo advertising or institutional designs that bother more the citizen than makes the city more attractive. Pictographs initially never fit in spaces; they are pasted up and virtualize life. Then twisting them is finally including them in a true context in which everyone can be what they are and not the consumer or the bound subject they should be. Text wrote by R.Edelman.
Check out the Radical intimacies: dialogue in our times 2014 outlines of Memefest Friendly competition.
Description of idea
Describe your idea and concept of your work in relation to the festival outlines:
These last days, i was walking through a no man's land in the suburban when i discover some abandoned tombs near rubbles and dirt piles. I remember a guy tell me about this strange situation, some month ago. I took photos like usually. Back at home and in front of my computer, i saw the open call and discover the rules and the deadline! these tombs i saw was radical and intime. how to interact was the beginning of this reflexion...
What kind of communication approach do you use?
After discovering interesting places, i like to go back and put my artwork and i try to make senses with my posters. For this project, i put some hands in the rubble, near the tombs. The black and white copies refer to the ghosts… It's not the first time i use these patterns… LA MAISON GANTÉE in 2008 (a play with la maison hantée, the haunted house and gant who means glove) GHOST SHIP in 2012 were interventions where i put some hands on an abandoned house and on an old vehicle. I decorated a piano too …
What are in your opinion concrete benefits to the society because of your communication?
It's a reflexion about our society and the place we give for our deaths. The Cemetery is too small and we put the old tombs in a wasteland. This action reminds me the war, the cities under the bombs, terrific situations that we saw every days in the newspapers… . Of course, the rubbles refer to the earthquakes… Here, the scene takes place in France, not in a poor country where there is civil war or natural disasters with lot of dying people.
However, the rubbles give us to see the intimate radically: the private life is exhibited in the public space and under cameras!
What did you personally learn from creating your submitted work?
At first, it's always difficult to explain his work, but it's harder in english. So, this is a good exercise!
About The submitted work, i haven't time to really appreciate it these last three days since i discovered this place. I tried to make some pictures of the hands in the context and when i saw these, i am afraid to read the names on the tombs… For sure, i imagine people who was under.
Why is your work, GOOD communication WORK?
This work could be seen as macabre or humoristic. I like to play with the ironic situation. The living deads are there only some hands of papers. It's a special effect like in the movies. The confusion is illustrated by the black and white copies that is a virtual treatment for a real space.
Where and how do you intent do implement your work?
The hands is a pattern that could be implanted in different places to create strange situations. It's always a play with the support.
Did your intervention had an effect on other Media. If yes, describe the effect? (Has other media reported on it- how? Were you able to change other media with your work- how?)
No it's the first time i submit this kind intervention with the hands on tombs. An exclusivity for the memefest!