Artistes de garde - Colonel

Art measures the temperature in Copenhagen during climate conference

Can art predict the future and thus engage in an anticipatory function? Should artists take action when they perceive that there is a need for intervention? These are some of the issues raised that the French artist Thierry Geoffroy tries to elucidate with the exhibition Artistes De Garde . "Artists are able to feel the evils of civilization and diagnose future 'diseases'. Some artists detect the infections of the world in images, some through sound, others through form. Some artists observe influenza in the media or in the existing policy. Artists are like thermometers that measure the temperature in society today", says Thierry Geoffroy.

From the 4th to the 18th of December Gallery Poulsen will act as a headquarter, where Thierry Geoffroy, in collaboration with an investigation team consisting of artists, journalists, and hired detectives, will create artworks that comment on everything that happens around them in the context of the international climate conference COP15.

During this period the exhibition will be filled with newspaper clippings, videos and photos that relate to the stories of today - the aesthetics of a collection of gathered evidence. Every day includes new strategies, and every day the exhibition will change form and content. The atmosphere in the gallery will most of all resemble that of a fire station. Artists, journalists and detectives are constantly ready to respond to new events and gather new evidence.

Among the guest-artists of Thierry Geoffroy's Artistes De Garde at Gallery Poulsen, is the activist artist duo The Yes Men, who are in Copenhagen because of the conference. On www.emergencyrooms.org/garde.html you can keep up with which other artists might join the exhibition. The site will be regularly updated.

After the climate conference, all the artworks produced will constitute a total installation, which will be exhibited at the gallery until January 22nd 2010. Since he began working with art, Thierry Geoffroy has chosen to incorporate a degree of unpredictability in his practice, creating a series of dynamic exhibition formats, thereby giving artists the opportunity to respond to, comment on and protest against society surrounding them. The open and flexible formats make it possible for the artworks to be in constant relation to the outside world.

Thierry Geoffroy, also known as Colonel, has just returned from Vietnam, where he, in collaboration with 7 Danish and Vietnamese artists created an 'Emergency Room' exhibition in Hanoi. Geoffroy will also activate a series of Critical Runs during COP15

The Hypocrisy installation is supported by The Danish Arts Agency. The exhibition runs until January 22nd 2010. Opening hours in December: Monday to Saturday from 10 to 18, and by appointment.

Artistes de garde - Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel
& The Yes Men  ...