TINY GEMS

I wouldn’t change you if I could

I Would Like To Be In America, 2007

Bad Beuys Entertainment is a French art collective, founded in 1999, working somewhere on the border between popular culture – specifically that of the French banlieue suburbs, or the hyper-masculine world of hip-hop – and contemporary video, sound and installation art; in other words, the place where Bad Boy Entertainement meets Joseph Beuys.

Sauvageons, 2004

The images above – from the DVD I Would Like To Be In America (2007), which provides subtitles in a random language to the song “America” from West Side Story, and Sauvageons (2004), a cliche photograph of the unemployed masses of the French suburbs, used as Bad Beuys Entertainment’s official press photograph – come from pieces which make hilarious but cutting comments on American and French pop culture forms and stereotypes, as well as the meanings and biases they help to create. However, Champions #4 (1999), a ridiculous performative send-up of the music video, is probably one of their most entertaining videos – and even more interesting now than it was when it was created 9 years ago; in 2008, it is impossible to see something like Champions #4 and not think of the massive numbers of people creating and distributing similar videos every day for a shot at online fame. Humiliation through music-video-imitation: it’s not just for artist’s anymore.

(Thanks to Cat, for the info on Bad Beuys!)