The art initiative launched by Nicolas, Gregory and Gilles Leroy – who came to be known as the Leroy Brothers – has been in operation since 1997 and is more similar to a 21st century family business than a visual art group. They surf the technological and economic waves of the postmodern world and enthusiastically advocate the democratization of contemporary visual art on the 2.0 waters of the web. These Belgian brothers are constantly on the move between their two studios (in the South of France and Shanghai), as well as the venues of their exhibitions and, especially, “must see” art events. They think that today creativity is far from sufficient in becoming a successful artist; organization, a businesslike approach, and participation in social life are just as important. “You have to be present everywhere,” they say. And since they are three, this is relatively easy to achieve for the Leroy Brothers.
Their
artworks are perhaps best regarded as farces, which pillory the
characteristic features of the art world, and which make use of the
novel possibilities offered by globalization – such as the flow of
information, easy travel and transport, cheap remote labour, online
communication – both in terms of concept and the details of
implementation. To them, art is the aestheticization of
conceptualism, and is interesting more in its functionality. Thus,
they reflect on – and seek to further develop – exiting things,
systems and technologies. It is no surprise that they also define
their sources of inspiration outside the visual arts, mentioning as
sources Renzo Rosso or Paris Hilton, for instance.
Their
book entitled How
to Be a Successful Contemporary Artist from A to Z,
which was published last year and can be read on, and downloaded
from, the internet, explicitly explains their artistic strategies.
This publication, which was modelled after self-help books, and which
balances between a collection, and a parody, of advisable things to
do, offers practical knowhow on becoming a successful contemporary
artist. According to the Leroy Brothers, their writing of the book
was technically by accident: “We created a large installation for
one of our exhibitions, which featured 26 chapter titles of an
imagined book with our illustrations. As we rethought this work over
and over, we slowly began to develop it further; we wrote paragraphs
and sonorous sentences for the titles. The next thing we knew: we had
a book! It was also useful for us to write a kind of practical
instruction manual – to categorize, review, summarize and
articulate our working methods in an itemized, comprehensible
manner.” In order to facilitate reception, the artists have
recently begun to also make short videos for the individual chapters.
While
the brothers don’t deny that there is no general recipe for
success, they present, in a rather frank fashion, the well-travelled
roads that have been known to lead to it: from branding to the
obligation to produce, from networking and cultivating connections to
appropriation, or the utilization of hired labour. According to its
authors, it is no secret that the strange publication has surreal
motivations behind it and it is for readers to decide whether they
follow – or laugh at – the advice offered.
In
connection to this peculiar book, a mention of the changes in the
present system of visual arts is unavoidable. In order to demonstrate
the undeniable role of the internet in these changes, the brothers
draw an interesting parallel with the world of music. “We are
speaking of cardinal questions in both cases, as, from the time that
music could be downloaded from the internet, music publishers have
had no choice but to fully rethink their operations, with special
regard to the issue of how they react to changes in distribution
habits. Those who have failed to abide by these changes now have
diminished sales or have gone bankrupt. In parallel with this,
today’s art world, and especially galleries, should also find new
solutions in order to keep pace with the new ways of distribution. In
all cases, the gallery system acts as the mediator. As we know, one
of the golden rules of business is to eliminate the intermediaries as
quickly as possible. Thus, what we have at the moment is a rather
risky and interesting situation, whereby, in our opinion, galleries
need to redefine their positions within the system.”
BDRtist
(“be the artist”), the Leroy Brothers’ ongoing project of two
years, was created in an effort to poke and prod at the
abovementioned problematic and to undermine the cult of artwork
creation. It, in essence, utilizes the representational and community
features of the internet, but with results in physical space, as
embodied in the art object. The Leroys worked many long hours to
produce a website where, after registration, anyone can upload photos
and short texts, or can like or dislike (!) the work of others. Their
objective is to offer anyone the possibility not only to participate
in the Leroy project with their own name and picture, but to also
weigh in on the content of their artistic activities and exhibitions.
In
Nicolas Leroy’s words: “We have built a system which helps us
explore whether artwork can be created without intervention on part
of the artist. Registered users are provided with a platform; they
are our sources, they are the ones to determine our creativity.”
Using the most popular images and texts (two images and one text
every 100 hours) accessible on http://www.leroybrothers.com
a software program on the website generates a new image that will
later serve as the basis for the Leroys’ new artworks; they are
painted onto a canvas in China or presented on other carrier
surfaces. Where, and in what form, the work which represents all the
three artists on a single surface will be displayed are to be decided
by the artists and the received invitations to exhibit. Their most
recent show in August was hosted by the French Saint-Paul de Vence.
On 6 September their work will be displayed at the acb Gallery in
Budapest.
“We
reuse everything over and over – just as we do in everyday life.
The questions of the internet and contemporary art are of
significance for us. For instance, if something is part of a system,
then to whom does it belong? We think it belongs to the Leroy
Brothers!” Make no mistake: the finished artworks clearly indicate
the names of those who authored the images and texts that were used.
The question of appropriation, nevertheless, remains problematic, as
the exhibition opens under the name of the brothers. In other words,
once again, we are faced with ever present issue of copyrights. And
from there, we are instantly directed to the questions of information
flow and free usage, as well as the closed nature of an elitist
system of art. Someone has thrown sand in the gears again. Complete
strangers become conversation partners and a single work of art is
made from a number of unique images and thoughts – which, on top of
that, will become part of represented contemporary art.
All
this stands on the important pillars of collective intelligence (as
it is often referred to by the brothers), a democratic voting system,
and the software program that turns the results into a finalized
image. The thematic at work here, which engages questions associated
with the digitalization of culture (and which has also been discussed
in detail by Lev Manovich), is an excellent study on, firstly, the
possible directions in which the new cultural logic of working in
this computerized world can be continued, and, secondly, the ways in
which the new compositional and aesthetic systems provided by
computers can be applied in the fields of new media.
This
essay was written based on a Skype interview with Leroy Brothers
conducted by the author on 4 June 2012.
Sári
Stenczer
Nincsenek megjegyzések:
Megjegyzés küldése