The painting by Gustave Courbet as well as a photograph by the Austrian artist VALIE EXPORT were notably vandalized this Monday, May 6 in the “Lacan” exhibition presented at the Center Pompidou. A work by Annette Messager would also have been taken down. Performer Deborah De Robertis claims “action”.
“MeToo.» Written in red paint, the feminist slogan was tagged on the windows protecting The origin of the world loaned by the Musée d’Orsay on the occasion of the “Lacan” exhibition, as revealed by our colleagues at Lorraine Republican. According to our information, Aktionhose: Genitalpanik (1969-2001), the iconic work of VALIE EXPORT, a feminist actionist who depicts herself wearing a leather jacket and weapon in hand, naked sex, has also been degraded, as has a work by Louise Bourgeois and Rosemarie Trockel. Another work, a small embroidery bearing the inscription “I think so I suck», from the series My collection of proverbs by Annette Messager and dating from the 70s, would also have been taken down.
The action was claimed by the performer Deborah De Robertis, with the complicity of several people. Yet invited in the exhibition, “something she said she was very proud of» according to the curators of the exhibition Bernard Marcadé and Marie-Laure Bernadac who do not hide their “disappointment», De Robertis alerted the press on April 14 with this message: “I am preparing a performance very soon, to denounce abuses in the art world, which until now has remained silent. I’m writing to you because I’m trying to find a trusted medium to express myself. I am known, in particular for having exposed my penis under the origin of the world by Courbet in 2014 […]. My performances pointed out the abuse of sexual power in the art world before #MeToo, without directly accusing, but today I want to speak out.
In the exhibition, the video documenting the performance she performed in Orsay in 2014, is presented not far from the painting by Gustave Courbet, an extremely famous painting now owned by the Musée d’Orsay after having remained hidden from view for a long time in Lacan’s country house. “Object of gaze for voyeurs, painting has become an object that looks at us» had analyzed in Release the curators of the exhibition. In the catalog published by Flammarion, the image documenting De Robertis’ performance is also published, opposite, precisely the work of VALIE EXPORT which was vandalized.
Diverting the codes of the happenings of environmental activists, the gesture here turns out to be doubly short: what should we think of an artist who attacks the works of other artists with whom she is exhibited? What’s more when two of these works are signed by women artists renowned for their feminist positioning throughout their career?
Update at 8:35 p.m. with the number of vandalized works and the photo of the action.
