Art preformance: Julien Creuzet – mon corps carcasse / se casse, casse, casse

A masterful blend of images and movement, this video sets the Auditorium abuzz with a dynamic, hypnotic medley of Afro-pop rhythms. The video entitled Mon corps carcasse (…) is a collision of chopped and screwed sounds with overlays of archive images, 3D animated objects, and symbols. A loaded and insightful vocabulary emerges. It is a dense narrative that springs directly from a critical reflection on the soil pollution caused by the mass use of the pesticide chlordecone. Extremely toxic and carcinogenic, it was widely used from 1972 to 1993 in Martinique and Guadeloupe by major French and American industrial companies to grow bananas, while it was strictly forbidden in mainland France during that same period. The scandal resulted in an environmental disaster that contaminated rivers, plants, animals, and land while also causing severe health problems for local populations. The video superimposes the French flag, banana trees pulsating rhythmically in a tropical forest, waves of gold coins, blood cells, organs and pills, and pixelated bodies dancing as seen through a blood-red filter. The images alternate between sequences with a video- game aesthetic and video clips from the 1990s, their succession defying any linear narrative classification. It is a work that is as poetic as it is factual, revealing an inseparable link between the colonial poisoning of both bodies and territories.

Julien Creuzet is a French-Caribbean artist, born in 1986, who lives and works in Montreuil.  A visual artist and poet, he actively intertwines these two practices via amalgams of sculpture, installation and textual intervention that frequently address his own diasporic experience. Inspired by the poetic and philosophical reflections of Aimé Césaire and Édouard Glissant on creolization and migration, Creuzet’s work focuses on the troubled intersection of the history of Martinique and the events of European modernity. Julien represents France at the 60th Biennale de Venezia in 2024 & has currently a solo show at the Magasin CNAC in Grenoble (FR). Julien Creuzet’s work has been exhibited at LUMA, Arles & Zurich (FR & CH); Camden Art Center, London (UK); Centre Pompidou, Paris (FR); Palais De Tokyo, Paris (FR); CAN Centre d’Art Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel (CH); Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris, (FR); Bétonsalon, Paris, (FR) and more. He has participated in numerous institutional group exhibitions as the Performa Biennal 2023 (US) ; 35th São Paulo Bienal (BR); 12th Liverpool Biennial (UK); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (US); Musée Tinguely, Basel, (CH); National Gallery of Prague, (CZ); Wesleyan University Center for the Arts, Middletown, (US); Manifesta 13, Marseilles, (FR); Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (FR); Kampala Biennale (UG); Gwangju Biennale (KR). His work is part of prestigious collections as the Centre Pompidou (FR); CNAP (FR); MMK Museum (DE); Fondation Villa Datris (FR); Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette (FR); Fonds d’art Contemporain, Paris (FR); FRAC (Bourgogne, Champagne-Ardenne, Grand Large, Ile-de-France, Méca, Pays de la Loire, (FR); Carré d’Art-Musée d’art contemporain (FR); Kadist Foundation (US) among others.  Creuzet is the recipient of the 2022 Etants Donnés Prize, the 2021 BMW Art Journey Award, the 2019 Camden Arts Centre Emerging Artist Prize at Frieze and nominated in 2021 for the Marcel Duchamp Prize.

IT:

In un sapiente connubio di immagini e movimento, questo video fa vibrare l’Auditorium attraverso un dinamico e ipotonico medley di ritmi Afro-pop. Il video dal titolo “Mon corps carcasse (…)” è una collisione di suoni spezzettati e manipolati, sovrapposti a immagini d’archivio, oggetti animati in 3D e simboli. Ne emerge un vocabolario penetrante, carico di narrazioni dense che scaturiscono direttamente da una riflessione critica sull’inquinamento del suolo causato dall’uso massiccio del pesticida noto come clordecone. Estremamente tossico e cancerogeno, il clordecone è stato ampiamente utilizzato dal 1972 al 1993 in Martinica e Guadalupa da importanti industrie francesi e americane nella coltivazione di banane, nonostante durante lo stesso periodo il suo impiego fosse severamente vietato nella Francia continentale. Lo scandalo ha causato una catastrofe ambientale che ha contaminato fiumi, piante, animali e terreni, causando gravi problemi di salute alle popolazioni locali. Il video mescola e sovrappone la bandiera francese, alberi di banane che pulsano ritmicamente nella foresta tropicale, onde di monete d’oro, globuli rossi, organi e pillole, corpi pixelati che danzano osservati attraverso un filtro rosso sangue. Le immagini si alternano tra sequenze con un’estetica che richiama i videogiochi e i videoclip degli anni ‘90, mentre il loro susseguirsi sfida qualsiasi classificazione narrativa lineare. È un lavoro tanto poetico quanto oggettivo, che rivela un legame inscindibile tra l’avvelenamento coloniale sia dei corpi che dei territori.