From 12 to 29 January 2023
Come and discover the spicy and exciting universe of our resident artist Nicolas Badout – NKL during his new solo exhibition at the Galerie l’Alcôve:
“dans la joie et la bonne humeur.”
«In the world really turned upside down, the true is a moment of the false.» Guy Debord, La société du spectacle, 1967
Inspired by contemporary artists such as Banksy, Joan Cornella, Fabcaro or Afida Turner, and situated at the crossroads of 1984 (George Orwell) and the Angels of reality TV (NRJ 12), Nicolas Badout offers, through his new exhibition, the acidic testimony of a deplorable era: ours.
Starting with digital collages, made from internet memes*, pictorial works or even photographs found on the web (Google, Facebook, Instagram), the artist wanted to mix fiction with current events – or the opposite? – in a world where fake news has become as credible as scientifically proven facts. If all the scenes he represents remain purely fictional, they are nevertheless strongly inspired by reality and, as such, could just as easily have taken place.
By diverting all these images, like a mirror he holds up to us, the artist reveals our failings:
greed, selfishness, violence, stupidity, narcissism; but also resistance, hope, laughter, in short everything that makes up our humanity. These works are you, plus me, plus all those who love us.
This exhibition is our world. It is SUVs, wars, heatwaves, Covid, nuclear apocalypse, Netflix, the 49.3, neo-fascism, sex tapes, electric scooters, Twitter, infinite growth in a finite world, QR codes and lol cats. It’s the news of a world gone mad, ever smarter, ever more, ever more cloudy.
Like an attempt to document the end of the world, this perilous exhibition has the pretension and duty to present itself as a fable, aimed at the Alpha generation, these children of the future all born in the 21st century, revealing to them the shitty world that will soon be theirs. <3
This is a semi-fictional work, half dystopian, half cataclysmic. Any resemblance to real life characters is purely intentional. Keep calm and don’t panic: humour and third degree are required. The artist and all the staff on board wish you a good visit, in a good mood.
* Internet meme: a humorous element or phenomenon that is taken up, adapted and disseminated en masse on the Internet, particularly on social networks. It can take the form of a photograph, a screenshot, an animated GIF, often captioned with a humorous phrase.
Opening of the exhibition: Thursday 12 January 2023 from 6pm.