WallOfTemptation#2 at cutlog art fair NY

Cutlog Contemporary Art Fair New York City, NY May 8-11, 2014

The Wall of Temptation #2 Performance / Installation

Clara Feder Curator : Emmanuelle Saint Denis

THE WALL, performance

The Wall of Temptation is a subversive worldwide participative art project about Resistance to Temptation in a world where yielding is the norm. « A stereotyped but unconscious despair is conceald even under what are called the games and amusement of mankind » Walden, Henry D. Thoreau, 1854

« I stage, design, perform, the Wall of Temptation in real life and virtually, so all who want can test their fragility confronted to society’s diktat, explore it, say something about it to the world. » Clara Feder

In an ever menacing world, where money has become the only value, we humans appear more and more fragile and lost. It is increasingly difficult to resist easy money and short term experiences.

During the performances, Clara Feder is testing the participants and giving them a chance to resist. She offers them a real lottery ticket and confronts them to a choice : scratching or not scratching their ticket.

If they resist the temptation of scratching, they can sign/write on their ticket and post it on the Wall of Temptation.

The photographs of fragile Light Travelers figurines lost in their quest are projected on the Wall throughout the performance.

The Wall of Temptation, Dibond panel, approx.118in x 60in

THE VIRTUAL WALL

Each « rebel » is photographed by the artist as he/she posts the ticket on the Wall of Temptation.

Later on, Clara Feder posts all the pictures on the virtual Wall of Temptation, where the faces become part of the virtual Wall.

Leaving your trace on the virtual Wall, 2014

THE WALL OF TEMPTATION, A SIGN OF REBELLION It’s easy to kneel before the King Money. Whether black or white, beautiful or ugly, kind or mean, whether it is good or bad for him, short term or long term, since Men have lost their sense of direction, they are submitted to endless temptations. Their pursuit of possessions leads them to a new form of slavery, consumption becomes their unique El Dorado, overcommunication grows on them as their one and only way of expressing themselves.

The Wall of Temptation exposes our Fragility and offers it an experiential frame within the matrix of Art: the lottery ticket is picked out as a symbol of Temptation. You scratch or you don’t. You resist or you don’t. You join the rebellious circle or you don’t. You question yourself during the decision making process and even afterward. You feel a shared eagerness to be the only one responsible for your actions. It is the hardest path of all, and maybe the only one left to us.

Fragilities, Clara Feder, 2014 THE FIRST PERFORMANCE The Wall of Temptation was experimented for the first time in Marseille, France, on October 15-16, 2013.

7 hours of performance, more than 310 participants. 280 people didn’t scratch their ticket, 30 scratched. A few disappeared with the ticket. In 2 days, more than 500 people came to the exhibition.

There was a lot of collected data, recording, filming of participants and observations made during the performances.

Next city currently discussed, Hong Kong, May 2015.

Watch video of first performance

First WOT was commissioned by the Fing.(France Internet Nouvelle Génération), in relation to Lift international conference.

The work of Clara Feder on Temptation, symbol of our society Why did I get interested in Clara’s work ?

There’s a Latin word, “speculare”, meaning mirror in Latin, that gave birth to the words speculate and speculation. Being a philosopher, I’m interested in speculating. I find Clara’s work speculative in many ways.

First of all, financially, because there might be millions of Euros behind me. We don’t know. One could attempt to buy the art piece, thinking it would be a speculative investment should there be a winning ticket. So this work could be a symbol of our civilisation for, as you might have noticed, we live in a world of speculation. I see it as a sort of fetish, with a money aura. I look at it as an anthropologist would. (...)

It’s a symbol of our society, because it shows a certain type of violence: the hammer, at the right of the window, almost compels you to break the glass (…)

Violence of the manipulation of our desires, with this idea that if you win you’re going to be happy, that it might be the only way to achieve happiness in times of crisis. (...)

Also violence because Clara decided to seize real « objects of hope » and confiscated them behind the glass, deactivating these strong symbols of hope, tickets that make people dream about being rich.

At last, symbol of our society because the artist shows the object and shows us watching the object. Her work truly makes us reflect upon luck, happiness, games and society.

Marc Rosmini, Marseille, February 12th 2012.

Marc Rosmini is a french philosopher, art critic, author of several books.

Break Glass in case of Emergency, 2014. 17,7x13,7 in Real New York lottery ticket on black fabric, frame, hammer.

(Transcript of the introductory speech to the session "Happiness, a question of luck ?", café philo founded and hosted by Marc Rosmini in Marseille in February 2012)

An ever-winning laugh ÂŤ I went to the place where the installation is set up. I'd like to underline that I wasn't just dropping by. Rather, I was determined to go there to make a statement about TEMPTATION. Oscar Wilde's quote etched in my mind, "I can resist everything but temptation," my idea was set: why resist?

Nevertheless, standing before Clara Feder's artwork, I realized that under temptation lies envy, and under envy lies jealousy. I grasped that behind the wall's humor and the game of contributing to the artwork hides a crucial disaster around which revolve all the torments and where all the conflicts are raised.

Throughout my traveler's life, I was confronted to deeply diverse social backgrounds. And I want to affirm that the happiest children I saw were not the ones brought up in well-off families. On the contrary, they dwelled in remote places out of the reach of consumerist appeals. No outside temptation there. And I dare saying that an ostentatious level of poverty put aside, wealth is relative. We always are richer or poorer than someone else! Everything else is greed and submission to an economic system.

The fight to possess is endless, dissatisfaction its only outcome. I have mainly seen misery in people who don't know how to live in the present, those for whom bliss always belongs to the future. Ideologists, clerics, economists, politicians promise us success, paradise, golden ages, fortunes... But those "improvements" are postponed indefinitely. Happiness surely resides in the art of balancing off one's needs to one's resources. And because temptation is strong, the achievement is evermore a source of pride.

To scratch or not to scratch? That is the question raised by Clara Feder. I finally decided not to scratch. Standing for dignity, following the principles of my life. The way I've made it. Against envy. Against lust. Against temptation. "Make yourself happy" is the anarchist’s cry. A cry in the shape of a laugh. An ever-winning laugh.

Thank you Clara.Âť Letter by Patrick de Wilde, Marseille, October 16, 2013 Translated by Victoria Schulsinger

Patrick de Wilde is a Fine art photographer, artist,and participant in the first Wall of Temptation.

Fragilities, a story.

Once upon a time, the Old Values ruled the planet. Existence was patterned and framed by edicts no one dared defy.

Then came a great wind which swept away the tutelary powers; with their fall, certitude collapsed. Suddenly man, like a child who couldn’t grow, found himself very lonely.

Through the open doors of Man’s disarray slid chimeras of many stripes: consumption, distraction, games, and, ruler of them all, the Money King. He’d always been there, scouting his moment from the shadows, and now he stepped out onto the stage and blazed in the limelight. He reigned uncontested, the other Values having vanished.

These were hard times for men. The Money King enslaved them with such guile that many thought they looked like Him. One must say that the King had many servants gifted in enticement. Oftentimes, it was difficult for Men to decipher where their own desires and interests lay, confused by the sugary web of lies that surrounded them.

Men fell and then fell further, yielding to waxing temptation, forgetting children and kin in increments until they didn’t think of them at all, consumed only by immediate gain.

Quickly, men’s vital reserves melted, so busy were they fighting each other to curry the King’s favor. Their depth, their culture, their knowledge, and even their planet lost their substance.

The entire world had become fragile. So fragile that, had another great wind arisen, it would have swallowed men, leveling their towns and cities into vast arid plains were nothing would ever grow again.

Not many understood they should resist the King, and those who did found themselves in trouble.

But one day, as Earth was stepping into imminent chaos, a revolt started to make itself heard. At the beginning it was very soft, sotto voce…

Fragilities, Clara Feder, 2014 Translated by Gabriella Nora Fuller

Clara Feder Clara Feder is a trans-media artist who explores the underlying fragility of human beings confronted to society.

Wether by staging and photographing her lost characters in infinite landscapes, or by confronting real people to one of our deepest fragilities, -Temptation - during her installations/performances, Clara Feder's redemptive questioning mirrors universal concerns and fears.

Born in Paris, France.

Cinematography studies at New York University Film school, New York, USA. Masters in New Technologies, Paris VIII University, France.

Wrote and produced corporate films and won the award Prix de la Ville de Biarritz, at Biarritz Festival.

Published twenty-one books as well as articles related to art and creation under her writer's name Virginie Michelet (in French).

Posts regularly on her blog.

Presently, works and lives in Paris and Aix en Provence.

She currently develops : - The Light Travelers >Photography - The Wall of Temptation project >Worldwide participative+interactive performance Installation, Photography, Internet EXHIBITIONS In preparation The Wall of Temptation#2, performance, Cutlog contemporary art fair, NY, NYC, USA, curated by Emmanuelle Saint Denis, May 7-11, 2014 Kinship of Rivers, photography, collective exhibition, lead artist and curator Wang Ping, Soap Factory, Minneapolis, USA, May 10June 7, 2014 Light Travelers#2, solo exhibition, BOA Galerie, Paris, September/October 2014 Past Corpus/Itineris, photography, solo exhibition, Galerie Edifor Jean Briance, Paris, November 6-24 2013 (Month of Photography, Saint Germain des Prés) Paul et Virginie Remix, installation, solo exhibition at the Grobet-Labadié Museum, Marseille, October/November 2013 The Wall of Temptation, participative performance, Lift/Fing Conference, Villa Méditerranée, Marseille, October 15th - 16th 2013 Light Travelers, photography, solo exhibition, Mouvart and the Young Entrepreneurs Society (CJD), Aix en Provence, May 2013.

La Trocade Art Fair, photography, collective exhibition, Marseille, December 2012.

The Triumph of Virtue, installation, photography, vidéo, drawing, solo exhibition, Rétine leLieu, Marseille, October 2012 Paul et Virginie, photography, collective exhibition, Young Masters Art Prize, by Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London, June 2012 Temptation, Presentation of installation and talk show with philosopher Marc Rosmini, café Philo, Marseille, February 2012 Paul et Virginie, video #1 at Eat-Gallery, Marseille, March 2011 Paul et Virginie-Mises en Boîtes, Installation, Mouvart Art Fair, Marseille, October 2010 Rencontre Clara Feder/Virginie Michelet and Jacques Robert’s photography, Galerie Magda Danisz, Paris, February 2001

BIBLIOGRAPHY An ever winning smile, text by Patrick de WILDE, photographer Light Travelers, text by Marie-Hélène GRINFEDER, art historian, expert in 20th century art, author Clara Feder’s work on Temptation : a symbol of our Society, text by Marc ROSMINI, philosopher, art critic, author Gratte la surface au-delà du regard, text by Julie GRELLEY, writer and scenarist La plasticienne et photographe Clara Feder interroge notre intégrité, article in Artemedia.fr, October 2013 Clara Feder, Traveling Light, article in Kreemo.com, October 2013 Clara Feder, Light as a Feather, interview by Melissa UNGER in SEYMOUR Magazine, Jan 2013 Généreux, article by Claude LORIN in ZIBELINE Magazine, October 2010 Catalogue Light Travelers, October 2013 Catalogue Triumph of Virtue, a retrospective, October 2012 Catalogue of Young Masters fundraising exhibition and auction, lot n°17, June 2012 Catalogue of Mouvart Art Fair auction, lot n° 17, October 2010 VIDEOS Trans-mutations (in the making) Over The Rainbow PRIVATE COLLECTIONS Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr, Paris Marie-Hélène Grinfeder, Paris EDUCATION New York University Film School, New York, USA Paris 8, Master in New Technology Information and Communication, Paris, France

Clara Feder

Emmanuelle Saint Denis Curator Over the past decade, Emmanuelle Saint-Denis has been involved in the cultural and artistic scene in NY and Marseille.

She is the founder of the Mouvart art fair, a contemporary art festival that takes place in Marseille within the urban space. She has also been the curator of major artistic events in Marseille such as Trocade and Pop Up Galleries.

Through her artistic actions, Emmanuelle's objective is to promote art at a national and international level.

Odile Hautemulle Costume designer Passionate about the history of costume, Odile Hautemulle has had numerous experiences in designing for performances. She started her career in cinema with Le Bâtard de Dieu of Christian Fechner, La Reine Margot of Patrice Chéreau and Peut-Etre of Cedric Klapisch. She has collaborated as well with Christian Lacroix, Quasar Khan, Poppy Moreni, and later with the American film director and visual artist Bob Wilson.

PRACTICAL INFORMATIONS

cutlog New York contemporary art fair May 7-11th, 2014 The Clemente, 107 Suffolk st, 10002, NYC, NY

Performances - Wall of Temptation Starting when you hear the Gong once Ending when you hear the Gong twice

Wednesday, May 7th >> Press Preview : 11am – 1pm (press only) >> VIP Preview / Private Tours : 1pm – 5pm (by invitation only) Opening : 5pm – 10pm ( Vernissage Invitation or ticket only) Thursday, May 8th >> Open to Public : 12pm to 9pm >> Opening Reception : 6pm to 9pm Friday, May 9th & Saturday, May 10th >> Open to Public : 12pm to 9pm Sunday, May 11th >> Open to public : 12pm to 6pm Sites www.feder.me www.walloftemptation www.mouvart.fr Contacts samantha@feder.me magali@feder.me emma@mouvart.fr