Air de Paris
Frieze London 2016

The series of "Characters to be reactivated" appear as living sculptures, moving or standing (not
talking, the only sounds are produced by objects they manipulate, as electronic games, clocks, toys)
in exhibitions, during the inauguration. At this time, photos are shot, and one is then selected by the
artist and in the space in place of the living character (unique prints 90 x 60 or 90 x 120 cm). These
prints function as representations but also as tools, as they are the certificates and also instruction
forms for the further reactivations of the characters.
Someone buying the photo is also buying the right to reactivate the character. A form placed on
the back of the frame has to be regularly filled with new informations on the further reactivations
(dates, places, titles of manifestations). The costumes and props aren't given together with the cibachromes,
so the private owner for instance will have to participate with his own decisions and keep
the nearest possible of what is seen on the photos.
Similar to the historical tableaux vivants, French artist Pierre Joseph (born in 1965) enacts little
narrative scenarios with living persons, especially the death of well-known mythological figures and
popular literary characters. Fairy tale figures and Easy Rider heroes, toreros and cowboys – they all
belong to the inventory of our collective consciousness, and in Joseph’s tableaux, they often die a
most human or even pitiful death. The era of media innocence has just passed away and its heroes
and heroines have disappeared. Their former, mythically transfigured existence was frozen in the
moment of its end, when human existence is mercilessly confronted with all its banalty. With this
work, Joseph has created a very ;impressive and unequivocal image of death.
Live and Let Die
Udo Kittelmann
June 4 - 20, 1998, Apexart