“The Origin of the World” tagged; artist Deborah de Robertis explains

Nothing is going well at the Center Pompidou-Metz! Monday May 6 at 1:50 p.m. The origin of the world by Gustave Courbet (1866) and four other works were tagged there by several people within the exhibition “Lacan – When art meets psychoanalysis”open from December 31, 2023 and until May 27, 2024.

THE words “MeToo” were written in big red letters on the famous and sulphurous painting by Courbet representing a female genitalia, as well as on feminist works by Louise Bourgeois, Rosemarie Trockel, Valie Export and Deborah de Robertis. Before leaving the premises, the group also stolen an embroidery by the artist Annette Messagerfrom his “My collection of proverbs” series dating from the 1970s – a piece of white fabric decorated with a scarlet phrase in thread letters: “I think therefore I suck”.

“Acts of vandalism”, condemns the museum

Loaned by the Musée d’Orsay for this exhibition, Courbet’s painting was fortunately protected by glass. “Several people presented themselves as visitors,” explains the Center Pompidou-Metz in a press release published Monday on its website and on social networks. “Some of these people created a diversion with the mediation and security personnel, allowing other members of the group to tag the metoo mention on several works. All works are currently under review. An investigation is open.”

“With all the respect we have for feminist movements, we are shocked to see the works of artists, particularly feminist artists, at the heart of the struggles of art history being vandalized.”

Chiara Parisi

“With all the respect we have for feminist movements, we are shocked to see the works of artists vandalized, especially feminist artists, at the heart of the struggles of art history. We condemn acts of vandalism against works of art preserved and presented in museums, also targeting teams on the ground,” declared Chiara Parisi, director of the Center Pompidou-Metz.

“To activists who think that art is not powerful enough to carry a message on its own, we must say it again: a work is not a sign which we could color with the message of the day”, https://twitter.com/datirachida/status/1787516861497630815. The LR mayor of Metz, François Grosdidier, for his part castigated a “ criminal act against a major work of our heritage.”

An action claimed by the artist and performer Deborah de Robertis

On May 6 around 11:30 p.m., the action was claimed on social networks by the Luxembourg feminist artist and performer Deborah de Robertis, author of one of the vandalized works. This is a photograph, Mirror of Origin (2014), presented a stone’s throw from Courbet’s work: Deborah de Robertis y appears showing off his naked penis in front of the famous painting, as part of a performance on May 29, 2014 at the Musée d’Orsay. In the background, accompanied byHail Mary by Franz Schubert, the artist repeated the words “I am the origin, I am all women […] “.

Deborah de Robertis sent to AFP a video showing two women tagging Courbet’s painting and another work, before shouting “Me Too”, spray paint in hand, then being taken away by security agents. On social networks, the 40-year-old artist claimed responsibility for her gesture, which she presents as a performance called “We do not separate the woman from the artist”.

” I am the exclusive organizer of this performance and wait to be summoned by the police who know who my lawyer (Marie Dosé) is. I am in possession of the work of Annette Messager, which I reappropriated and which is mine from now on. The works were neither vandalized nor damaged since the paint erases in one second and without damage. she said on May 6 around 11:30 p.m. on Instagram then this Tuesday, May 7 in the morning, around 9 a.m., in a post on the social network X (formerly Twitter). “Chiara Parisi and the curators of the exhibition Bernard Marcadé and Marie-Laure Bernadac say they are shocked and condemn my performance. And does that shock you? And you condemn that? ”, she added by accompanying these words with a videowhich presents it as the “teaser of the film” that she “made around fifteen years ago”…

Lying in a room and visibly drunk, a man resembling Bernard Marcadé is filmed by Deborah de Robertis, who undresses during the video. The man asks the young woman for oral sex, says he is not bothered by the camera, then appears to be slightly worried about what the artist might do with the video later. Has ribald remarks, the young woman responds with a smile. A subtitle appears: “I’m uncomfortable.” On the wall, there is the embroidery of Annette Messager stolen in Metz…

“The violence of my gestures and my words is only a reflection of the violence of the powerful men of the art world.”

Deborah de Robertis

“The violence of my gestures and my words is only a reflection of the violence of powerful men in the art world,” explained Deborah de Robertis on January 11 in an Instagram post, where she specified that after a controversy concerning the presence of his work in the Metz exhibition, she had obtained from curator Bernard Marcadé, following a telephone conversation, that photography is included in the course. “I confronted him about his relationship to my work, which he has known since I was 26,” she explains. On April 14, she announced to the press that she was preparing a “performance” which would take place “very soon, to denounce abuses in the art world”.

Reactions of support and condemnation

Comments followed on social networks, some castigating the artist’s method, others applauding it. “Thank you, I feel less alone”, “Bravo”, “Total support”, we can read. “This does not serve the cause of the MeToo movement”, “You have wronged this man by blackmailing”, “To attack an intelligent exhibition in this way is deplorable”, “We do not separate the artist of his criminal responsibility”, “Your place is in prison”, judge on the contrary other Internet users.

Born in 1984, the Luxembourger, who studied performance and video at the Brussels School of Graphic Research, had already been fined 2,000 euros for being naked in 2018 in front of the cave sanctuary of Lourdes, and had several times problems with the law for similar factsnotably in 2016, when she lay naked in front of theOlympia of Manet (which earned her 48 hours of police custody, including a night in a psychiatric ward, then a call to the law), and in 2017, when she had showed his penis in front of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre – action which led to a trial and an acquittal.

While police investigations continue this Tuesday, May 7, the day of the weekly closing, the Center Pompidou-Metz indicated that it plans to reopen to the public this Wednesday, May 8.