INSTITUT D’ETUDES POLITIQUES DE PARIS, FRANCE

1996

PUBLIC ART PERFORMANCE

“In 1996, I was a student at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, and was studying Constitutional Law and Political Science. In this college, where the vast majority of students came from privileged and very affluent families, my classmates and I had been thrilled to meet our new English professor, the American scholar Rob Conrath. When most of our venerable law professors were wearing suits and ties, he was wearing a leather jacket and black leather boots. Unthinkable for a professor here. The name of his course was American subcultures. During his first course, he came with a VHS tape and played it on the TV set in the classroom. We were in awe to see samples of recorded American popular television programs, TV commercials, talk shows, soap operas and wrestling matches. He certainly was the most subversive professor in the entire college and attending his class was an intellectual refreshment. The end of the year assignment project for his class was simple “Do whatever you want”.

I decided to do an art performance on the day of my project’s presentation in front of the class. I came with a white canvas the size of the whiteboard, brushes and a tube of purple acrylic paint. In front of my classmates and the professor, I silently hanged the canvas on the white board, and started to paint. I was not known to be a painter. Except a very few close friends, I never identified myself publicly as an artist. I was a random arrogant/nerdy student with low social interaction capabilities. I could feel the surprise of my classmates and our professor, who all stayed silent during my performance. Then everyone applauded. I started my speech - After all, I also had to do an oral English assignment - and told that I was actually an artist, and explained the kind of paintings I was doing.

I rolled the canvas and took it back home, and lost it a few years later while moving to another apartment. There is no photographic recording of this painting.

This was my first public art performance and public display of one of my paintings.”

-Pierre Gervois