BEFORE THE FINAL RESULTS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, A PARTICIPATIVE PERFORMANCE BY FRED FOREST FOR THE CLOSING OF "VIDEO VINTAGE" AT THE POMPIDOU CENTER, SUNDAY MAY 6 AT 3PM. TITLE: To get trussed up from head to toe with the help of a half inch black and white Sony magnetic strip (material certified by a bailiff as dating in fact from the seventies). The public will be invited to free the artist of his cumbersome bondage as soon as his trussing up will be completed. For the closing of the historical exhibition VIDEO VINTAGE, Fred Forest decided, out of his own free will, to re-appropriate the institutional space from which he was abusively excluded, in this very place, by creating a performance. In a symbolic manner, he demonstrates out of his own free will that public spaces reserved for artists rightfully belong to them, without them having to wait for them to be put at their disposal by a somewhat fledgling, partisan and venal museum administration that is at the exclusive service of the market's approved products. He invites all artists to act likewise in order to make sure their legitimate rights to a free and independent creative process are respected under the control and authority of the next President of the Republic of all the citizens of the France, who will be elected at the end of this very evening. A creative process that would no longer depend on the goodwill of cultural administration, nor on the market's arbitrary laws. The Pompidou Center being finally forced to reveal to the citizen the value of its acquisitions. If the power of imagination truly belongs to the artists and if their will is to escape a debilitating enslavement, all they have to do is to act in consultation with one another to occupy spaces that in fact belong to them. The communication technology and social networks that are now at their disposal give them the means for public cooperation. They must take control of their own destiny once more and neglect by no means a rendez-vous with history that they should not miss under any pretext. To get trussed up...to better rid oneself later on of the bondage that hinders him and binds him to the institution, such is the meaning of the message delivered by the artist in this performance. Technical assistance and videos: Jean-Guillaume Le Roux, artist, who will be accompanied by his digital character Albator 21.
Fred Forest: http://webnetmuseum.org
Albator 21: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Albator-21/318099501588562