Alain Declercq, born in Moulins, France in 1969, researches forms of oppression by the State, most notably by its security services, through his artistic practice. His investigations and occasional clashes with spy agencies have led him to understand the fictional character of many security operations; rather appropriately, then, he himself has been considered a serious threat several times and dealt with correspondingly.
The three works shown in Fight History show how the committed, politically conscious artist nowadays can easily be stamped as a threat to national security; in this the situation for the French artist is not fundamentally different than that of many Arab artists – (although if Declercq was an Arab artist he would undoubtedly enjoy much less freedom to deal with these topics).
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B52, Photograph, 2003. Image courtesy of the artist and Gallery Loevenbruck, who have kindly agreed to loan this work for the purpose of the exhibition.
Re-enactment of a performance by Chris Burden in 1973, in which the American artist fired a pistol at an airliner crossing above Los Angeles. To take this picture, intended as an unequivocal protest against the 2003 invasion of Iraq and a true gesture of the ‘artiste engagé’, Alain Declercq travelled to a field outside a US airbase in the UK, from where the B52 bombers took off to bomb Iraq. The photo was not published by any media, artistic or otherwise, until the war was over.
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Mike, video, 28’15”’, 2005
This video narrates the fishy trajectory of ‘Mike’, an actor of the shadow world – on the side of the West or not, this remains unclear – as he travels from Cairo to the USA shortly before 9/11. The action is accompanied by a voice-over, sometimes in a reflective mood, by ‘Mike’ himself. The artist claims he simply received this video from a mysterious man he met, and who wanted him to use his artist’s status to publish these videos.
This work of fiction was sufficiently compelling to earn the artist a visit by the French security services, who came with a warrant to search his studio and sift through his artwork. As much of Declercq’s work revolves around the shadow world, intelligence and counter-intelligence, the initial attitude of the police was squarely hostile; after a more thorough investigation in which the artist frequently had to defend his work, all charges were dropped.
Reconstitution de Perquisition, selection from 120 prints, 2005
This work reconstructs the investigation the police effectuated in Declercq’s studio, during more than five hours on 24 June 2005. There were 15 policemen at once, creating considerable confusion. The artist observed the police carefully, noting which documents attracted their attention and from what angle they would observe and record it. This artwork thus reconstructs the police’s worldview, getting under its skin, in the way an intelligent creature observes the lumbering of a heavy but dumb animal to be able to predict its movements and stay one step ahead of it.
Since most of the documents served as a preparation of the movie ‘Mike’, the search also served as a reconstruction of how the movie was made, adding yet another layer to the movie’s realness. So the security services, by treating a fictional document as real, unwittingly increase its veracity. The artist, initially the victim of a police search, managed to bend the situation to his advantage.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
