Trust Us

januari 25, 2016.

Between January 14th and January 24th 2016, the independent arts center Mains d'Œuvres in the Parisian suburb Saint-Ouen showed Trust Us, a monumental installation, all in cardboard, by Michael Ghent (Street Level Industries), an artist originally from New Zealand, but living and working already for many years in Paris. Many of you will remember Michael as the man who for a stretch of years provided independent musicians and artists like ourselves with wonderful spaces to create and perform. First Michael kept the Sputnik in Montreuil, then the magical La Comète, in the very middle of the French capital, not far from the Place de la République.

Michael and La Comète in the end were unable to hold up against the capitalist powers that be, and the former home to a small metallurgical enterprise specializing in the production of snail tongs had to give way to real estate far more profitable than a subcultural and subversive creative space. It was - intentionally - set to fire on December 3rd, 2010, shortly before its planned demolition. Nobody got hurt, fortunately. That is, not physically.

For many months, during a residency at La Générale, Michael sculpted into cardboard a selection of the endless stream of devious motto's and slogans that - with barely concealed cynicism - are being unleashed upon us all, 24/7, by corporations, multinationals, religions and politicians worldwide alike. They are like black magic spells, cooked up to charm us into belief and conviction that all is solely meant and created solely for our good, and will hand us the one and only key to health, fortune and happiness. Or to god. To all.

It was an honor and a pleasure to join Michael and his companion Agnès Belkadi in a sound performance in the Mains d'Œuvres restaurant on the occasion of the opening of Trust Us, on Thursday January 14th, together of course with Rébus, and Anthony Carcone. For a little hour, we wove an ambient background to Agnès's recitations on the Union Carbide gas leak tragedy in December 1984 in Bhopal, India, generally considered to be the world's worst industrial disaster. Up until now, that is.

Some time before his installation's opening, Michael sent us an email with a list of the motto's and slogans that he had used.

They read like a Dada-ist (Dada-esque) poem, that I could not resist to copy-paste, filter, cut-up and re-arrange into the text below. I had it then read by my MacBook ('Think different'), a recording of which I used during the opening performance at Mains d'Œuvres, as well as in the following, fully industrialized, Trust Us-track, which has the text's synth-voice-recitation running in the Audio Palette iPad application alongside a few of my last year's Darwin Tunes. Dedicated, of course, to Michael.

"Trust Us"

---

MAINTENANT

MAINTENANT

de dieu que dieu
dieu que dieu
que dieu
dieu
MAINTENANT
MAINTENANT
LIVE!
A BETTER LIFE
LIFE
^TM(trademark)
^TM(trademark)
∪ (UNION)
^TM(trademark)
^TM(trademark)
^TM(trademark)

PEOPLE, PEOPLE
AND PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT

SMARTER, SAFER,
SAFER

AND PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT

il nâ€(euro)^TM(trademark)y a de dieu que dieu
y a de dieu que dieu
a de dieu que dieu
de dieu que dieu
dieu que dieu
que dieu
dieu

LA ILAHA ILLA ALLAH
IN
ILLA ALLAH

^TM(trademark)$$(dollars)
$$(dollars)
^TM(trademark)
^TM(trademark)

GOD
GOD

GOD.
il nâ€(euro)^TM(trademark)y a de dieu que dieu


IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN GOD WE TRUST
IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN GOD WE TRUST
FOR A BETTER WORLD,
HAND IN IN IN IN THINGS
FOR A BETTER WORLD


IN IN IN IN IN IN GOD WE TRUST
IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN GOD WE TRUST
IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN GOD WE TRUST.
MAKE
BELIEVE.
BELIEVE
IN IN IN IN IN IN GOD.
MAKE MAKE

PROGRESS

...

The following uToop playlist was compiled by Rébus.
It shows you some of the global corporate magic in action...

Don't worry.
Trust Us!

tags: capitalism

# .465.

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