Delphine Richer
ORIGIN OF THE PROJECT
Insight was created shortly after the weekend of April 27-28, 2019, which was marked by at least two important events:
In France, on April 27, the Yellow Vest movement led a new action called "Act 24" which mobilized 60,132 demonstrators according to the organizers (22,600 according to the Ministry of the Interior). The next day, Sunday April 28, in Hong Kong, the Civil Human Right Front organized a new demonstration against the proposed extradition bill. The march brought together 130,000 demonstrators according to the organizers (22,800 according to the police).
Invited in Macau as artist in residence a few weeks later, Delphine Richer's travel's route lead her from one point to the other: from Paris to Hong Kong. From there, she took a bus to reach the special zone of Macau in an hour, where everything was very calm. Delphine took in the interesting context of the situation to create an artwork that would design a landscape of current world events, creating a sensitive portrait of international concerns as experienced by participants.
The artwork records a subjective testimony of contemporary history, at once sociological, personal, political in an installation with a strong poetic dimension.
Faced with the power that emerged from the exhibition, the artist decided to continue the project, which is still ongoing today.
PRINCIPLE OF THE ARTWORK
Delphine Richer launches a call and collects slogans from her own contacts who, in turn, spread the call in a way that extends the project from person to person.
The installation is presented in an enclosed space whose windows, obscured, do not allow visual exchange with the outside. The room has a door that visitors has to operate to enter. Delphine choose this configuration in order to set up an ambivalent narrative where the space becomes both a place of departure (where the slogans, ready to be use, are stored awaiting action) and a place of retention (where slogans are stored following their confiscation).
The audience is allowed to handle the objects.
This work can be exhibited at several scales: we can present only the elements of the current year or the entire long-term work, which presents greater depth and complexity thanks to the elements from successive years, identifiable by a color code.
If you are interested in this project, you are warmly invited to take part by answering and spreading the artist's call for participation:
Dear friends, artists, colleagues,
To take part in my long term art project initiated in 2019, I warmly invite you to answer this question:
IF YOU WOULD/COULD HOLD A SIGN IN A DEMONSTRATION TODAY,
WHAT WOULD YOU WRITE ON IT?
To participate:
1) Send your answer (slogan, drawing or photo of your sign) in the language of the country you are living in.
2) Indicate the country (and your nationality if different).
3) Add your slogan's English translation if you can (and an explanation if you think it is necessary to understand the meaning or context of your message).
Send your participation by email to:
People from sensitive countries, don't be scared: the slogans are all ANONYMOUS in the final art installation.
You can discover the origines of the project and know more about the artwork on the dedicated page: https://www.delphinericher.fr/insight-project
The concept of the call for participation is to be spread from person to person. You are warmly invited to share this message with your worldwide contacts. Each one can send one slogan per year.
Thank you for reading, for your participation and for your support.
Delphine Richer