The Evil Eye
2018, video installation with tiered seating, HD 16:9, colour, 14min 46s Inspired by gatherings, community phenomena and the expression of today’s beliefs – no matter how erratic, widespread or deprived of purpose –, Clément Cogitore’s work is guided by a sense of ritual and the articulation of the sacred. Clément Cogitore responds to the generalized and trivialized circulation of images with a visual intensity and a sense of story-telling that confine on the fantastic. In «The Evil Eye», the artist borrows promotional images and transforms them through an ambivalent staging. The narrative of a female voice travels through anonymous, stereo- typical stock scenes taken from global banks that provide images for commercials and political campaigns. A large LED screen captures the attention in a paradoxically intimate space, where the authority of the technical device and of the spectator both start to drift.
Marcella Lista, Art historian, Curator at the Centre Georges Pompidou - MNAM. Text written for the Prix Marcel Duchamp 2018 exhibition.
