Shepard Fairey (Obey) outraged to see his Marianne taken over by Jordan Bardella

This detail will not have escaped art lovers: in the background of several videos published on social networks by Jordan Bardellathe president of the RN currently in the spotlight as the legislative elections approach, stands a work by the American street artist and screen printer Shepard Fairey (born in 1970). Also currently presented at the Petit Palais in the “We Are Here” exhibition, this poster represents a Marianne stylized in the colors of the tricolor flag, accompanied by the motto of the French Republic “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”. Produced just after the attacks of November 13, 2015, it was a way for the artist, also known under the pseudonym Obey, to express his support for the victims, for France and its democratic values…

This presence did not fail to question observers. Certainly, the symbols of France, including the tricolour flag, and support for the victims of Islamist attacks are favored themes of the far right. But commentators have not failed to challenge this party’s real respect for democratic values which make up the motto written on the poster. And above all, to emphasize that the artist Shepard Fairey is a symbol very far from the spirit of the RN…

Known for diverting the codes of political propaganda posters for positive purposes for create an “awakening of consciousness”the artist owes his fame to his poster Hope (“Hope”), broadcast in the middle of the 2008 American presidential campaign. It represented the candidate Barack Obama: a Democrat, the son of a Kenyan immigrant, who established himself as the first black president in the history of the United States. United !

A copy was offered to Emmanuel Macron

“A politician who uses this image, but who does not carry a policy that defends these values, does not deserve to be able to use it. »

Shepard Fairey

Another disturbing element, Obey had offered a copy of this same work to Emmanuel Macron upon her arrival at the Élysée, so much so that she appeared in the background of several televised speeches by the president. By also placing it behind him when he films himself in his office, Bardella therefore seems to indicate that he is ready to take Macron’s place. Just to emphasize that the RN would not be incompatible with the official exercise of power and the defense of our motto…

This use of Obey’s work earned him accusations of misappropriation and reappropriation. “A politician who uses this image, but who does not carry a policy that defends these values, does not deserve to be able to use it,” reacted Shepard Fairey, questioned on this subject at France Inter on Friday June 21. The artist, to whom a monographic exhibition is currently devoted at the Itinerrance gallery in Paris, explains, however, thathe cannot prevent the RN from using his Marianne. “I made this image, I made it free for everyone,” he recalls. “What I hope is that when people see the ridiculous contradiction of someone who advocates hatred and division and tries to associate himself with that image, they will say to themselves that he cannot be taken seriously. »

Support for “people who oppose injustice”

The poster in question was created by Obey the very night of his arrival in France in November 2015. Came to hang his sphere Earth Crisis under the Eiffel Tower, he had landed in a country shaken by the Bataclan attacks. Designed to express her “solidarity with Parisians and all humanity”, this Marianne is a variation of one of his previous works, Peace Girl, associated with the slogan “Make Art Not War”. In June 2016, the artist produced one monumental fresco in the 13^e arrondissement from Paris. After an act of vandalism (the motto had been scratched out and red tears added), Obey restored it and added a little blue tear on Marianne’s cheek, in support of “people who oppose injustices”. The only problem with the laudable concepts brandished by Fairey: like any slogan, they can be interpreted in their own way and taken up by all political sides…