Matthieu Laurette
Did anybody in New York catch Matthieu Laurette’s talk Monday night? A quick trip around the internet reveals him to be a fascinating Frenchman (even if his website is sort of a nightmare to traverse).
•In 1993, he established his artistic birth certificate by taking part in a TV game called Tournez Manège (The Dating Game) where the female presenter asked him who he was, to which he replied: ‘A multimedia artist.’
Says his Wiki:
•Since his first Apparition on Tournez Manége, Laurette has been developing an ongoing series of what he calls ‘Apparitions’ on TV and in the media. (In French the word Apparition means both ‘apparition’ and ‘appearance’). Among other shows he has appeared in La Grande famille, Canal +, TV (France), Je passe à la télé (France), Journal de 13h et Journal de 20h (France).
Laurette’s Apparition: The Today Show, NBC, 31 December 2004, (Guy Debord Is So Cool!) (2004) renegotiates the critique of mass media: amongst love message banners and goofy signs being held up by the audience of the outdoor-broadcast of the NBC infotainment show on Rockefeller Plaza in New York, Laurette held a pink cardboard sign stating “GUY DEBORD IS SO COOL!”
•Laurette’s Produits remboursés/Money-back Products (1993-2001) was his method of shopping and being fully refunded based on the basic marketing system of the major food and commodities corporations. He fed and cleaned himself for nothing by almost only ever buying products with “Satisfied or your money back” or “Money back on first purchase” offers. In 2001 at the 49th Venice Biennale, he presented Moneyback Life! a large retrospective installation combining enlargements of press cuttings, a truck with an integrated TV wall showing TV clips of his Apparitions/Appearances and a life size wax figure of himself pushing a shopping cart full of Moneyback products.
•Citizenship Project (Wanted: Financial Support to Acquire Citizenships) are a series of projects where Laurette attempts to acquire as many nationalities as possible.
Check out Laurette’s MySpace or download a free 58-page catalogue of his projects.