Premier vernissage: Looters will be shot

Braved the rain yesterday to see what a French vernissage (exhibition opening) is all about, at le Galerie de Marine. 

Unfortunately for me and my non-waterproof boots, it was a storm worthy of warning. Since I was set on forging forward, I embraced what awaited---wet feet, and photographed Place Massena and the beautiful  Opéra de Nice

Finalement, je suis arrivée à un Quai des États-Unis déserté et le vernissage de gagnants, Thomas Teurlai et Ugo Schiavi, du Prix jeune création Ville de Nice, Fondation Bernar Venet, Looters will be shot.

 

At first I was at a lost for what I was seeing---a dimly lit interior populated by bare shelves and rolls of undecipherable graffiti, accompanied by a lingering odeur of aerosols. 

  

After skimming through the artist statements of the Villa Arson grads, it became apparent that, that was exactly what they were---peeled and looted fragments of graffiti, something the artists describe as a project straddling the lines between of vandalism, archeology, pillage and autopsy. 

I haven't made it through all the french in the statements, so I don't have any profound insights on the exhibit's conception. What I do know is that I enjoy the irony of looting the medium of the message. 

The act of literally peeling street art off the walls, of stealing, attributes worth, which thereby assigns value to street art, something that is otherwise invincible to ownership and commercialization. The significance of the exhibition is perhaps thus an examination of the construction of commodity, and criminality. Just throwin' that out there!

My only regret of the evening is having left my umbrella at the door upon entry and having had someone lift it. I mean, I do enjoy the irony of the show, but losing your umbrella at a show entitled Looters will be shot was a little much.