It is probably about the discovery of freedom. The never-ending attempt to re-invent myself... It will be my contribution to the art of flirting with the nature and the complexities of desire and sex. Something without solutions.

 

Ladder 3 chapters

This video was presented as an introduction to the Ladder installation. The tittle of this video is borrowed from a record edited in 1969 by the French Family Planning.

1969 : Recording of a round-table discussion between doctors, teachers and parents on " the problems that sexual education poses our children ".

1996 : I sample the introduction of this discussion and use it as a sound track for the video that I call " Parents, you owe… ". The images mixed in this video come from public domain (books on sex education, cartoons, advertisements, films) and sequences filmed with the children I met during my residence at Artecole (in presence of their teacher, parents and with their permission). After the exhibition opening, a school inspector made a report on the video. The Council deemed the video prohibited and forbid its being shown again, This mesure was taken without any concertation or discussion.

1999, I conceal the eyes of the children presented in the film to preserve their anonymity. Wishing to put this video back into original context, video surveillance extracts of the Ladder installation are presented at the end of the film.

With thanks to the children, their parents, their teacher, the Minister for Culture and the exhibition curators at ArtEcole and Station Mir.

Reactivation of the installation Ladder for a photo shoot with three young female models. Jalouse, magazine de mode. N?7 février 1999.

With thanks to: the three young girls, their agencies, Jalouse magazine, Michel Mallard, Laurent Kariv.

Reactivation of the Ladder installation at the Saqi & Kufa Gallery. Arts Centre. Video shot at the exhibition opening.

This film is related to the Pulsion Partielle installation presented in 1997 at the Frac Basse-Normandie. This one was created following a caress to Victor Noir (1848-1870) at the Père la Chaise cemetery, Paris.

The second part of the film was shot during the winter 2002 in the Nunhead cemetery in London. It ends with the edification of a little temporary monument in hommage to the Beau Brummell.

This film was shot with my parents in Lepetit Cabinet Maker’s workshop(1997). It is followed by the CCTV recording of the audience during the Courant d’Art exhibition at the Institut Ellie de Brignac, Deauville(1997). The last part was shot during the CLOM-Cyberpink exhibition at Les Abattoirs, Musée d’art moderne de Toulouse(2001).

The Fakir and his carpet (120 phalli + 1) 3 chapters

Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux 1999 "Ceci n'est pas une bite" L'acte pour l'Art. Ed.Al Dante 2004.

Genitalia as a mirror of the soul Liu Yung-Hao, 1999

Partiel Object – I made a mould of my penis and made a bed of it: I sit like a fakir on this proliferation of my ego. This practice gives me sexual organ which is disproportionately long and (inordinately) , yet soft and unwieldy. What am I going to become? I am blind and deaf, cut off from other people in this new body. My senses are changed, my sensitivity increased. “I can’t see what I am doing but I feel it”. Desperately, I search for contact with someone else / the other by taking advantage of this excrescence.

Filmed during the exhibition “24 hours in the life of the Fakir” at La Chambre, Paris 9th arrondisement. A proposal by Cyril Ahmed.

This animated film presents some reflections and acts of the fakir which came into bud one Japanese springtime. Intrigued, he was keen to discover the charms of the fertility rituals which return each year to mark the coming of the spring and the rising of the sap. In a geographical context where the menace of a violent death resulting from natural disaster is constantly present, the fakir likes thinking of these ritual erections as affirmations of "Still alive, still can ".

A performance filmed in its entirety during the exhibition Des Rives & Made in Taïwan, Whashang Art District, Taipei.

like thinking about learning a new language, as practicing transvestism. It goes through a necessity of experience, a desire of being the other one. Reversing your pre-established thought, grammatical forms, concepts and feeling free to be changed.

Invited to expose myself in Japan, but without any knowledge of the language, I resort to English in order to express myself. The shifting of meanings between languages suits me: I think of myself as artist-exhibitionist. What to exhibit and what to reveal? A desire for exoticism, of difference and for new experiences transport me towards this geographic and cultural otherness. I project myself into the Sento.(1) To be liberated, finding yourself naked in a public space. Or, not entirely, as their remains a last rampart behind which the object of desire is conceals itself : hairiness, pubic hair (2) Modest exhibitionist in the Sento, I conceal myself behind excessive tufts of hair before unveiling myself.

This film retraces the progression of my exhibitionism: from fantasising about the situation to the act. The film starts with a series of drawings and photographs before finishing with the filmed trace of this collective exhibition.

(1) Japanese communal bath house, which people visit regularly, even daily. You can wash there, soak, relax, meet and chat with your neighbours. The women’s and men’s baths are usually separate.

(2) Allegedly sparse on Oriental skin and prominent on that of Westerners, it is a subject of debates, of fantasies. During adolescence, it is universally, the affirmation of virility and a card to play in the power struggle. This sign of an age, of a sexual im- or maturity, is noticeable. Often a taboo, also know for being blacked-out in Japanese magazines and manga cartoons. What is the reason for this white square? Is it because it is the only part of the non-hirsute body, such as mine, that covered by this hair, that it finds itself an object of desire?

Film created following a residency in Japan in 1999.
camera Sento Izumi Ohyama
Project supported by WHARF, Contemporary Art Centre, Normandy and NIPAF (Nippon International Performance Art Festival). Assistance and advice: AFAA and the French Institute, Kansai.

Selection of two footages of the Exotism performance qui s’est tenue dans le cadre de l’exposition " Fictionary " Triangle France & 3015.

Modus operandi: this film is the trace of an action which took place in Montreal in May 2001. (Studio 303).

A film presenting my route from the hotel to the gallery where the public are waiting for me to discover my work. Elegantly dressed, with a steady step, I cross the city of Montreal , bearing a silver platter, on which sumptuous chocolates are placed. Once arriving at the gallery, I share these delicacies with the audience, I project this Montrealean journey backwards, finishing with the preparation of the delicacy.

The Ceiling of Art series is part of a process started in 2002 (Rome). It is now composed of 27 paintings realised in different contexts such as a de-consecrated convent, a gallery exhibition space and a garden of nettles. This film begins with a visit to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican and continues under the ceilings of the Taidehalli Museum, Kunsthalle Helsinki, for the exhibition “Là-bas” (2003).