This exhibition (that I produce at the Galerie Christian Depardieu for my return to Nice), at the moment that my work enters the Patrimoine National, is a veritable cry of love for and faith in the destiny of this city, of which new generations must henceforth take charge, quickly, if they want to save it – like Pierre Restany said, my friend and accomplice with which I performed many actions in Nice, the most memorable of which took place at the Hostel Westminster in 1996: “With sociological art, the aesthetic function moves towards the ethical and critical function.” For those who know me, my critical approach is never sad, nor demanding, nor bitter, but rather distanced, in a registry where humor always attempts to be present. This is why, I offer the beautiful city of Nice, that I love so much, as an antidote to its nostalgia of the past that, surely, it still misses, a cross path with fourteen stations. A cross path, it’s like an itinerary that runs from station to stations to exorcise an evil to great to bear. The modernity of this cross path is that it includes fourteen stages which are as much mosaic works as a search engine will collect on the internet, before delivering them to us as a composite blend of images. Each work contains a square of 63 thumbnails and a keyword which contributed to uniting this aggregate of image into a final result. The images that are all there, to give a sense of citizenship, and to give us the occasion to proclaim, which whoever wants to join in: Nice, I love you, me neither, waiting for better days.
Showing of an exhibition/action in Fred Forest’s presence, artist of sociological art – aesthetic of communication – direct democracy.
Here are the names of the 14 stations:
I Villa Arson
II Construction Sites
III Tramway
IV Jazz
V Military Band
VI South Station
VII Grand Stadium
VIII Place Masséna
IX Plane Trees
X Insecurity
XI Garibaldi
XII MAMAC
XIII Violation fines
XIV Prisons