My own Art ! 1st exhibit in July 2013 in Brussel !

avec une douceur de plus en plus caressante et empoisonnée

my first exhibit ! 

My dear friends


This time, i wanted to do a "lighter" post to this blog. For a very long time i was waiting, and promised to many personn that one day i will write something about my own Art.

First of all i really don't see myself as an Artist, i mean in the "french way". You might not know, but there in this wonderful country where everybody is happy and no strikes ever happen (yes i am ironic ! another french trait) , there is a huge difference with "artist" and "musician" .
It goes to the point to , if you go to a bookstore and want to buy a book about music, you don t go to the fine Art part, but you go somewhere after the tourist guide and before the manga...

Anyway, i really do not see me as a painter or anything. I draw so ridiculousely bad, that years ago when i was trying to draw hands to my students to make them understand hand motions and moves, they were laughing as .... they did much better drawing than me ( 6 or 7 yo !) . So .... i guess you start to see my wonderful level.

So ... it was a huge surprise that , after my Budapest recital some years ago, i received in my hotel room a call from an artist i really enjoyed its Art : Benjamin Spark.
I was happy to talk to him, and honored of course , and ... i was surprised to know that he was folowing me for years , not for my music , but for my "art" ?

As i expressed my surprise and say that , well ... i am a musician ! Benjamin saying that he folowed my happening : The Satie with painters, the Nuclé-Art , and also as he said , the way i was doing my Satie - Vexations concerts (with no break & no sleep) was THE proof that i was doing "Corporal Art' in my very own way.

As the talk continued , he also said that he just opened an "avant garde" Pop-Art Galery in Brussels and that he was extremely interested to offer me a whole month to do anything i would like.

www.donotopen.org

I agreed as i like the challenges, but .... as the time was running ... i was really wondering why i could do ?


After many stupid ideas, i remembered one things that i used to do and I was really good at it.

Long time ago, more than 10 years ago (for some of you, it might not sounds "so long", but i am not yet 40! So it is still more than 1/4 of my life) , i used to do some ambient music , i released tons of tapes. As some knows , at this time i was really into Scriabin a lot and also his Gesamtkunstwerk visions.
So to make a total Art by myself, i wanted the audiance to being able to make this experiment "in a small scale".
So how to bring the other senses ? My solution was quite crazy : Music was of course the Sonic sense, and to be able to take care of Smell, Touch, and Vision, i drenched the tape covers in blood.
I did many experiments with the paper and soon i discovered that the 150 gramm/cm² was the best possible : i could drench it totally and after i could dry it with a hair dryer .
To make it more interesting, i was also doing some dripping on it and some Pollock abstract lines.

I really made thousand of it, and ... in the underground scene i used to have quite a success with it, since everything solded out in matters of week (i still remember one tape where the 200 units sold in 4 days !).
But ... soon i also discovered that people were not interested in the Gesamtkunstwerk project, but simply wanted to have the "cult ultra limited drenched in blood release".
As you might start to know me, when i discovered that, i simply totally stopped to do it, and agreed to release cds.


So. I got the "complete idea" of this exhibit when i finally could visit the galery :

I wanted to redesign the galery shape into a perfect square and , as i saw during the Dada Exhibit in Beaubourg Museum a white room , i wanted to make a Meditation blood room.


To give you the impression you were with us on the exhibit , i will give you as much material as i had.

First of all a special video i made after the vernissage and concert, i did a video with a very special music to go with it.
I added a QR code on the window of the exhibit, so visitor could scan it, and have the music play while they would meditate on the cube, as their mind and enegry would flow away and join the cube void ....

Also the Premiere was going along with the very first concert of my S.A.I. Ensemble !

So this is the video, after it , you will have a very lot of pictures ! 

for the slow reader

Now the picutres 

the gallery looked like that at the begining 

we started to bring the necessary things 

blood is already there : 14 liters !!! 

the ladder is here only to make the galery look like a square  

Here the making of the structure

And the blood arrived ! Yes 14 liters

the window galery with the preview of my exhibit 

i will paint with that ! The water is only for myself

i am starting to prepare the square 

as you can see the first step is to put every covers in blood to make sure that every 

bit of it is flooded on blood

after it look like that 

you can see myself doing the first version of it 

making sure that every bit is done 

Benjamin Spark watching my process

Of course you need to dry it 

As you can see, a white thing became all "red"

after the first one, it starts to be messy , but ... i think about it and put plastic all around ! 

You can also see from here the foundation of the "square structure" 

all the wood

After drining everything .... 

yes it stinks !!!! and a lot !!!!!!!!

first part of the square is on the wall ! 

You can see that the blood is becoming denser

Of course , part 2 is to put more blood on it ! it looked too "light" ! 

i must confess that .... i don t look very sharp ! 

but result is great !!!

making a second wall 

nice result ! 

little dirtier 

and blood looks deeper and deeper 

still nicer result 

and now .... it really looks like blood !

the top is already there 

adding a 4th time blood on all walls 

start to look great !!!! 

some more pictures 

Here you can also have a view on the floor 

Adding the very last touch ! 

Random blood with violence 

the blood cube from the outside ! 

yes something that nobody saw as the door was always close ! 

Blood is really everywhere !!! 

Now it is drying 

it does not look very "sane"

i did not put the picture in the good way, the bottom is actually the top ! 

the cube from the outside 

And ... the top 

details of the drops 

Preparation of the first SAI Ensemble 

i had to put that on the floor , to be just sure that there would be no problem with all the cables

The score stand 

and here all the electronics 

People start to gather 

Now public is there and critics as well 

the concert started , it was also a concert with dear Marianne aka LSK

for it i borowed her my bass, as she had no more 

she had to gave it back to me as she took it for some other concerts , but ... 

she never came back .... and yes, she is really missing .... 

Concert from the oustide

don t worry , we put very loud speakers and .... it was really loud ! 

The SAI Ensemble 

By night , the exhibit 

It looks like that from the outside

The "concept" explanation paper

Myself into the cube ©Marianne Sejourné

and by night 

later of course, i will do an article of the S.A.I. Ensemble before i am doing a website !

I really hope you enjoyed it !