De haut en bas : Le Crépuscule du Jaguar, 2007 (détail)

24 June – 30 August 2009 Claude Lévêque has been recognised for years as a major figure on the French and international art scene. His works refer to popular culture, daily life and mental images. He creates atmospheres, environments and objects, extending the dimension of the installation by using light and sound effects. Playing with the ability of his works to provoke visual and sensorial responses, he challenges habitual ways of seeing and re-activates cultural references. Le Crépuscule du Jaguar, acquired by the Maison Européenne de la Photographie for its video collection in 2009, presents the black and white image of two eyes separated by a wall. The title is a reference to JoeyStarr’s album “Gare au Jaguarr”, itself a reference to a song by Brassens entitled “Gare au gorille”. The work took two years to make, in a mental hospital for children. The eyes never blink or close. The eye is seen through a small hole and seems to be a mirror image. When we look closer we see that the iris reflects the silhouette of the artist taking the picture. This piece explores visual perception, but it can also be interpreted as a metaphor of photography. It challenges our definition of looking and voyeurism, as well as the way an artist relates to his subject. Who is looking at whom? Is this eye watching its prey, or is it like a frightened, cowering animal waiting for the danger to pass? In parallel with the exhibition at the MEP, Claude Lévêque is representing France at the 53rd Venice Biennale with an installation at the French Pavilion entitled Le Grand Soir. ‘Most of Claude Lévêque’s work consists of installations involving objects, sounds and light and powerfully drawing from both their locations and their viewers. Since the beginning of the 1980s he has developed works that take hold of the spectator, half-way between coercion and abduction’ writes Christian Bernard, curator for the Venice project. ‘Leveque deals with memory that is either traumatised or nostalgic for the wonders of childhood, the ambivalence of signs and emotions, raging desire, rebelling against the difficulty of being and the violence of the world. His work finds its source in destruction, and focuses its attention on that destruction. The existential angst that runs through it, along with the ambiguous feelings it provokes, are emblematic of contemporary forms of social control and oppression — whether servitude is voluntary or not’.