IDOLES

The Cité Miroir will be one of the BIP2014 beacons, hosting an exhibition that will question the image of power and authority as they show and demonstrate their strength and rallying force.

Between democracy and dictatorship, religious fervor and veneration for marketing, the masses and elected officials at all levels, echoes appear and interrogate various aspects of devotion, revealing the idolatrous power of a living being that has become an image, or of an image that has come to life, capable of capturing the multitude for better or for worse before thousands of watchful eyes.

Empty seats ready to welcome hundreds of shareholders of large multinationals, rows of uniforms facing a speech by Barack Obama, Syria’s cult of personality, dehumanising May 1st celebrations in North Korea, fanaticism and bewitchment in a religious community, totalitarian advertisement symbols, the fall of regimes and television media coverage of history, war dramatization: these diverse perspectives echo each other and distort and reverberate meaning and forms.

These powerful images, which reveal disturbing similarities, regardless of the “camp” to which they belong, express the fascination caused by the aestheticization of power, its staging and its decadence better than words ever could.

The IDOLES exhibition will include the world première of Robert Boyd’s (US) triptych video installation The Man Who Fell to Earth, a poignant and forceful montage on the fall of regimes and men.