LE
CAS DU LOUVRE [The Case of the Louvre] is the title of the new work by artist
Alex Ceball, a bizarre performance at the Louvre Museum [Paris, France] and
secretly brought to life during the month of April 2013, which would conclude
with the closing down of the museum and massive repercussions on the global
media. On this occasion, once again, the artist is armed with the new
information technologies, the transgression of urban space and the use of the
media to lead the recovery of the classical forms, the attacks to the citizen
group behaviors and a sheer mockery towards technology users through an ironic
and violent performance, which had only one purpose: shutting down the Louvre.
The
artist delves into a crude and direct investigation related to the ‘establishment`
of contemporary art, which includes the symbolic demystification of the
fundamental classical works, the concept of cultural tourism as merchandize,
and the amorality of art as a spectacle. Also, it rescues the uses and reaches
of the contemporary technologies as a form of power investment and the
maneuvers of the sensationalist technocrat editorial lines by the hands of the
global media to fabricate information.
In
this manner, during the three months previous to the action, a two-phase compound
creative process was created. The first consists of the recompilation of exact
information in situ in relation to the Louvre Museum, which integrated security
cameras, entrance routes, number of security guards, big and small transit
halls, cleaning staff, escalators and elevators, real flow of daily tourists
[adults by themselves, children and groups] external paths of the museum
[streets, avenues, subway and bridges] and timing of routes, entrances and
exits. Everything, in a detailed written and photographic documentation would
later be destroyed once the action was concluded.
The
second phase of the process consisted in the creation and flows of information
from secret technological systems to convene and monitor the participants of
the performance in real time. In this phase, the artist utilizes the
denominated Darknet. Popularly, it is known as a collection of networks used to
share information and distributed digital contents, preserving anonymity of the
identities of those exchanging information, and maintains its anonymity from
its origin to its final destination. It is composed by overlapping networks,
which utilize non-standard ports and protocols over the subjacent network;
operating apart from the public network, ciphered in algorithms for means of
impeding the interpretation or deciphering its content. Through this system,
the artist convened people interested in participating in the action, which would
consist in entering separately, at the same time and the same day to the halls
of the museum with the largest flow of visitors and tourists and steal whatever
they could in the most discreet and secret possible manner. In total, 152
people responded to the call and 148 participated.
The
day of the action [convened for April 6th, 2013] the participants entered
disguised as tourists, with their phones on, from the following points of
access; rue de Rivoll, Porte des Lios, Passage Richelleu, and Cour Carrée. Each
participant was monitored in real time via GPS and aerial view. The task was to
remove the tourists’ personal objects at the Napoleon Hall, Rez-de-Chaussée,
first and seconds floors, change all their clothes, leave the museum and get
rid of all the objects, as to cause a massive amount of complaints to the
security of the museum and conversely, the untenable situation of the guild.
Once the 148 performers entered the Louvre, the artist cut off all
communications and along with a communications expert, all systems of
convocation and monitoring were deleted off of the Darknet. The purpose was to
avoid any kind of spying or investigation on the case; therefore, arrests of
any of the participants and its creator would prove futile. All information in
the systems was destroyed and the same was done with all written and
photographic documentation.
On
Wednesday April 10th, 2013, the Louvre Museum’s website welcomed users with a
message that read: “Important. Due to exceptional circumstances, the museum is
currently closed. We apologize to our visitors and we will keep you informed of
the opening date.” A day later, the news was published by some of the most
important news media in the world, adducing the closing to a security guards
strike, who were protesting the large amount of pick-pocketers and that the
situation was becoming dangerous and hostile. Meanwhile, the museum’s
administration asked for police reinforcements to increase security. On that
day, while the media reported the news (April 11th 2013) the museum opened its
doors once again, with a couple dozen police officers, as informed by the news
agency Europa Press. The news was picked
up by news casts all over the world, such as: EL PAIS, El Mundo, Radio
Televisión Española RTVE, Diario ABC, The Guardian, The New York Times, TIME,
BBC, The Telegraph, CNN, Washington Times, The Times, Le Figaro, Le Monde, Le
Parisien, Liberation, Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris Match, among others.
With this performance, the artist uses the Louvre Museum as raw material for the realization of his work. He arms himself with an old problem at the museum institutions, so as to assure the completion of his artistic work on a large scale, where the concept of performance is used as another tool for the achievement of one of the objectives of the work. This objective is to give history’s and humanity’s major works of art a little rest from the constant stares from a million tourists and perpetuated only by someone with the affection enough for art and its history to protect it, even if for a day, from the slow and gradual physical, philosophical, and interpretative degradation.
Similarly,
the artist attacks and modifies the behavior of hundreds of thousands of people
by disturbing a previously created itinerary, mobilizing them towards other
surroundings. To achieve this, the artist uses a group of performers, as if
something out of story of an army protector of the works of art. The
performers, infected by the utmost secrecy, as if invisible, and gathered unto
a parallel world of social media which has now become, reality 2.0, and the
other one which lives within, used by all those dedicated to illegal activities
or dissidents, or international espionage. The artist opens, with this
performance, a window of questions such as how is it that in today’s contemporary
world, one can exercise a change in power, an inversion of roles, which is what
has occurred in our recent history with the fall of dictators in the Middle
East or the social uprisings brought by a deep economic crisis against the
banks and our political representatives.
In conclusion, the artist brings to life one of his largest works to date by intentionally destroying all possible proof. Jumps out to total world repercussion through the media manipulation of information to fabricate a piece of news that, as he already knew, would surely be published by its sensationalist character, and then steps out only to disappear in between the media speculation. He also sets the reality of the media as a manifesto and one of its strongest reasons to lose its credibility, which has conversely lead to the current crisis and increased by the Internet as the biggest danger.
THE
CASE OF THE LOUVRE, in a cinematographical sense, shines the light on the
intelligence of the author’s work, characterized by being a portrait of the
next culture, throbbing, changing, adapting to the moment and diversifying in
form and context. The artist adapts himself as a subject and creator, in
constant change as the driver of the work, entended to reflect and understand
our society and its changes, once again, in the most ordinary way.
English press about LE CAS DU LOUVRE_
THE NEW YORK TIMES:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/strike-over-pickpockets-shuts-the-louvre/
THE GUARDIAN:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/10/louvre-closed-pickpockets
THE TELEGRAPH:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9984879/Louvre-closes-over-pickpockets.html
BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22098102
DAILY MAIL:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2306966/Louvre-forced-close-workers-walk-job-protest-pickpockets-gallery.html
TIME:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/10/louvre-museum-closes-as-staff-protests-epidemic-of-pickpocketing/
CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/11/travel/louvre-closed-pickpocket
THE HUFFINGTON POST:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/10/louvre-workers-walk-off-job-over-pickpocket-problem-at-museum_n_3052392.html
NY DAILY NEWS:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/louvre-closed-staff-protest-pickpocket-threat-article-1.1313649
THE INDEPENDENT:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pickpockets-cause-strike-at-the-louvre-8567718.html
_
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©THE ALEX CEBALL STUDIO_WORLDWIDE_
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