18 May 2011

Action Directe at D+T PROJECT, Brussels

ACTION DIRECTE
Oleg Kulik, Gianni Motti, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Alterazioni Video

Often, the notion of 'engaged art' is given too many meanings .. and provides less information on the nature of engagement rather than on a position or a often consensual discourse. The second half of the 20th century saw the beginning of new radical creative styles, privileging actions over words. Whether by performances, built contexts, infiltration methods or bypassing censorship, many artists focused on the direct and frontal involvement, as a way of positioning arts within the political play. Borrowing its title from the concept of revolutionary unionist, carried by Emile Pouget, Action Directe aims at displaying works from artists for whom the creation doesn't need any intermediary, nor spokesmen or representatives, in order to invest reality and compete against politics, and with fists if it is needed...
Each work presented at Action Directe is a testimony of radicalism: Gianni Motti's frauds, Oleg Kulik's performances or the QR codes by Alterazioni Video. But being compressed between rhetoric and powerlessness, they are not however, fully influencing the way things go.