Président Vertut: Grey Matters / TMproject, Geneva

TMprojects in Geneva, Switzerland shows a new body of work by the artist Président Vertut. The show is called Grey Matters, which is a project that started in 2010 on the occasion of the Geneva City Arts Council’s Grants exhibition at Contemporary Art Centre. With this project, Président Vertut’s character enters into politics: “Through a series of drawings, paintings, and a video installation, the artist conceives the visual identity of a party defined as the extreme center, the Middle Party, which color is a very specific medium gray named Global Average Grey. The Middle Party syncretizes all the contradictions of political action in its current mode of operation. It is not opposed to limit the flexibility of politicians, nor to the soft consensus, or the unlikely idea of a social liberalism that allows strictly individual happiness. It comes to terms with it and, worse, promotes it, even by the use coercive methods.”

The centerpiece of the exhibition is an installation titled Euroscope Méditerranée, a very angry sculpture project consistent of a coin-operated telescope (Euroscope), which was turned into a sniper rifle pointing on a video screen depicting the mediterranean sea, looking out for immigrants.

Président Vertut was born 1978 in Bourg-en-Bresse, France. He lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2008 he graduated from the Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD). He received the City of Geneva Arts Council Grant in 2011 and 2007, and the Quartier des Bains Art Prize in 2011. Président Vertut’s exhibition at TMproject runs until June 23, 2012.

Président Vertut: Grey Matters / TMproject, Geneva. Opening reception (Nuit des Bains), May 3, 2012.

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