Until March 24, the Alpes Maritimes Department presents a retrospective exhibition “Reality Show” by Anthony Alberti, also known as Mister One Teas, at the Espace Lympia, the former prison of Nice.
This graffiti artist, photographer, painter, and sculptor is a humanist. His work revisits the major themes of advertising and fast food, playing with the logos of fast-food restaurants to transform their meaning into a warning message about unhealthy eating. Visitors are greeted by a cow, a symbol that involves a hide, a cow, and its calf, “Meal”, the meal, followed by drinks.
The author draws on the symbolism of American culture. We follow him with delight as he explains the meaning of his works, often made from recycled products, giving life and destiny to an old cardboard box, to a school stage with its symbolism of the authority of the one who knows and transmits knowledge – an authority now forgotten? Who knows? Who learns?
Amidst the chaos, we no longer really know who the wise ones, the disciples, the students are – perhaps they are all a bit of everything at once. Supermarket carts bogged down in mud aptly define this consumer society mired in an endless and aimless pursuit of often useless or vain possessions. But no matter: appearing is deemed more important than being.
The old maxim of wisdom: “Know thyself” is quite forgotten by social media enthusiasts, who feel the need to exist even if they have nothing to say, only to express it and feel proud to be ‘liked’ by a thousand friends they have never seen and will never meet! Anthony Alberti shows us the user of these so-called social networks as a prisoner of their image, or at least the image they want for themselves. We are thus spectators in a world of sheep.
Advertising and brands are also showcased in their abuses. The artist mainly aims to restore each person’s essence, their human dimension. This exhibition at first glance seems very eclectic, featuring portraits sketched on cardboard, reproductions of mobile phones, remote controls, a Minitel, and a gas pump.
We must take the time to fully understand the associations. All these varied, disparate elements follow a logic intended to make us aware of the invisible chains to which we have bound ourselves.
The location: the former prison provides the perfect setting for this exhibition. Think of the men who lived there, shackled, deprived of light and freedom. In a certain way, the modern man is shackled too!
Thierry Jan
