“Nobody is the author or producer of his own life story … somebody began it and is its subject in the twofold sense, namely, its actor and sufferer … but nobody is the author”
Hannah Arendt
For any artistic work that may cause controversy, it is most necessary to clarify the concepts and intentions of which it is the fruit of. Lets avoid misunderstandings or lack of understanding. The goal is not to question morality or to judge the individual, but to understand and to make this understanding intelligible for as all. To ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated. To give everyone the means to stand up and say “no.” It is important to keep this in mind when viewing the videos and photos that have been brought together. Remember that when the wrong circumstances occur, one is capable of the worst.
This site, collection of a reiteration of a performance and reflections, has a critical and interrogative function, questioning today’s society and the people who compose it. It aims at making react, to create individual and civic-minded awareness.
The performance involves personal responsibility – from the decision making process to the responsibility it carries – and the consequences we must accept if only we are capable of understanding them. It offers the possibility to say “no, I do not agree.” But it also gives the opportunity to reflect on our weakness within a group, under the gaze of the others, and the easiness with which we can lose our independence, free will, or ability to decide for ourselves, by ourselves within a collective consciousness.
History, not only through the 20th century, has on many occasions, brought this to light.
This performance also reveals the latent violence that exists in each of us – under the accumulated pressure and the responsibility carried by the individual- without trying to understand where it comes from and how easy it is to seize every opportunity to break free from it.
Is it research? Yes, on both artistic and sociological grounds. The research becomes a performance a constant work in progress. Each performance, each text, each collaboration brings its own contribution.
Is it a call to action? Yes. An invitation to common reflection? It is.
This work stands as the heir of artistic approaches developed during the late 70s and early 80s such as the “Collective of sociological art” (Hervé Fischer, Fred Forest, Jean-Paul Thénot), the “Untel” group (Jean-Paul Albinet, Philippe Cazal, Alain Snyers) but also feeds from philosophical, sociological, ethnological, anthropological and psychological research (Hannah Arendt, Elias Canetti, Stanley Milgram and others).
This project would have been aborted From the “Beaux-arts”, it has been criticized and rejected. The violence of the opposition it faces, underlines itself, the importance of this work. This rejection is nothing less than the reflection of a narrow minded Upper-Middle class trying to keep out of reach of the disgraceful stinking vile masses, just like a fort under siege,digging deeper and deeper moats’.. These overzealous Trojans, Paul Nizan, referred to them 80 years ago as “The Guard Dogs”. Today the situation has not improved, one could say, it has unfortunately grown worse.
Only the systematic interest of people from various social backgrounds and ages, their commitment, their trust and support has enabled the survival of a ripple just waiting to grow.
“Facing the evident disaster, there are those who take offense and those who take action, those who scream out and those who fight back. The Invisible Committee takes the side of those who organize.”
Invisible Committee, 2007.
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