A newspaper exposé of racially motivated corruption in the French government is the inspiration for new work by Danish contemporary artist, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, who will turn the South London Gallery into a theatre of the absurd from 14 January.
No other newspaper article has provoked such public debate and controversy or had such an impact on law, justice and society as J’Accuse, written in 1898 by French novelist Emile Zola in defence of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. The article led to the author being tried for criminal libel, his financial ruin and some say even his untimely death.
J'Accuse is the inspiration behind Plenge Jakobsen’s first solo show in the UK in which we (both the artist and visitors) take on the role of the accusers in a bizarre scenario riddled with puns. Completely transforming the gallery into a black and white set, Plenge Jakobsen explores the impossibility of revealing underlying truths in the face of media interpretation and the power of 'the establishment'.
A replica court bench and judges’ chair provide the seating to view The Mineral Judges, a video in which three fictional characters Cerith van Zola, Father Law and Judge Nelson, search for ‘evidence’ in the bed of the river Thames at low tide. The Bank of Evidence, The Bank of England, The European Central Bank and The Bank of Accusations are sculptures made from buckets of gravel and mud, Euro coins, dollar bills and beer cans; and a sculpture of an over-sized judge's wig ridicules the legal system. The sounds of harpsichord, spinet and organ music lend a seventeenth century flavour to the proceedings.
J’Accuse was an open letter to the French President on behalf of Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer in the French army who had been convicted of treason. Zola’s letter exposed Dreyfus’s trial as an anti-Semitic cover-up in which many high ranking French officials were implicated. For his South London Gallery show, Plenge Jakobsen draws parallels between Zola's letter and the current climate of fear and suspicion generated in an environment of political spin.
To launch the exhibition there will be live performances on the harpsichord, played by characters in period costume. |
Send E-mail
.jpg "Contemporary Istanbul")
.jpg "Red Dot Miami")
