Andres Serrano’s ‘Portraits of America’ go on display in Paris • FRANCE 24 English
[Music] his images have been celebrated vandalized and even discussed in Congress Andre Serrano’s art tackled sex death and above all America its idiosyncrasies and its divisions those born of politics religion class and ethnicity an exhibition of his work called portraits of America has just opened at the Museum mayol here in Paris and he’s with us in the studio to tell us more Andress welcome thank you now the theme of this show your is your home country of course its visual representations they’ve always fascinated you and we see the ultimate symbol of America I suppose the stars and stripes in many different formats in this show sometimes blooded sometimes torn is that how you see America what states It in America is in a troubled state right now but I think it’s always been complicated you know uh growing up you know I was taught to believe America was the greatest country in the world and also the policemen of the world and it’s something that we all have been taught and some of us still believe it but uh as you get older and as times change you realize that sometimes the emperor has no close well one portrait that you can’t miss in this exhibition is that of former president Donald Trump this is a picture you made long before he was president in 2004 and I wonder why you found him so interesting as a subject did you have an inkling of how crucial he was going to become well he was uh important to me for that work uh that was part of uh America he he his portrait was part of America a series that I started in 20 01 right after September 11th and there were more than a 100 people uh represented in my America and Donald Trump was one of the people that I wanted for my exhibition because uh to me he represented the American dream and I think he did he did represent that dream to many uh people uh he was well known to Americans you know uh perhaps not in the best way sometimes he was known as a brager he was known as uh as an a-hole he was uh but he was known and and so I felt like he I needed Donald Trump for my exhibition H and although he represented the American dream for me at that point you could say some could say that now Donald Trump rep represents the American Nightmare well I suppose part of that dream was becoming president and indeed he’s running again uh for president but some years later while he was in office you made a collection of item s that became the exhibition and the book called The Game all things Trump this is some weird and wonderful memorabilia uh either merchandise with his image or with some link to him how did you find these things and what was the strangest item you came across well I I sourced all of these things on eBay most of them uh and I I felt like in addition to the portrait that I made of Donald Trump in 2004 now I wanted to do a more you know different kind of portrait meaning an installation uh which consists of over a thousand objects that uh were created for Donald Trump for his Empire his brand his hotels his casinos is everything and Donald Trump if you look at the game you will see that throughout hisory throughout the decades Donald Trump has put his name on almost everything from Coca colola uh to to vodka uh to to uh uh you know uh Trump University h so Donald Trump has been very good at promoting himself onto companies and later to the American people a month ago two months ago Trump came out with a sneaker and so I felt like I need Trump’s gold sneaker now for the game and uh even though I I couldn’t uh buy one I was able to get one he would only uh loan it to me because it’s signed by by Donald Trump and and he said uh you have to insure for $100,000 so that was the last thing I added to the game Donald Trump’s gold sneakers it’s true that he’s become a bit of a brand and and speaking of trump supporters that’s a world that you’ve explored through another medium Cinema your film Insurrection revisits that fateful day January 6th 2021 when a crowd of riers stormed the US capital in an effort to block the new Administration taking over after the election in 2020 let’s take a look at a clip apologies for freedom I can’t handle this when Freedom brings answer the call on your feet stand up tall Freedom’s on our shoulders USA enemies of Freedom come on boys take them down Donald Trum make America great deal from strength or get crushed every time [Music] so in that film you collage news Clips smartphone footage of those riots historical archive a screening of it was actually cancelled in London because the cinema considered it to be too Pro Trump what did you make of that I thought it was strange um but it’s not unusual for people to misunderstand my work a lot of times people say what’s the message in your work I’m not a messenger I’m I’m an observer and what I do is I create and then I present it to you and I leave it up to you to determine how you see it uh in in terms of the game in terms of uh the Insurrection I feel Donald Trump would love the game he would love Insurrection because it’s all about him and he’s proud of what these people did if you hate Trump of course you’re going to hate those things but so my work is often times inter it depending on who the person is now speaking of protests your hometown New York has been filled with protesters in recent days and weeks University students calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas Colombia University in fact brought in the police celled class could that be seen as an attack on freedom of expression do you think it could be but I I see it a different way I see it as a as a you know uh as something that also happened during the the uh 60s and 70s during the Vietnam War I I was you know young very young during the war but I saw the protest and I re I saw that the protest became so big that eventually they had to end the war and so this is only beginning the beginning of of what’s happening because I see a recurrence and it’s happened before and it will continue to happen also the Civil War as we can see by this recent movie called The Civil War I it was never resolved there are some people who still hate the North and the South and that’s why they have the blue States and the red States so the the country is you know in name United but otherwise it’s not and speaking of some of those divisions I wanted to bring up another series of photographs that you made uh in famous you went to eBay and bought objects memorabilia items for your installations and your images there are some very Politically Incorrect very disturbing images there an example is black dolls Larry that’s a one I found quite striking these sort of symbols bring up some very emotional responses from people sometimes what do you want people to take away from your representations yeah these things are politically incorrect because they’re racist but the thing about history is if you pretend it never happened it just it’s it keeps on happening of course black people are not going to be victimized now but we find new scapegoats America has a habit funny way of finding new scapegoats to uh to come down on to criticize to ridicule and to uh to try to make the bad guy you always need a bad guy and so America is kind of sometimes I hate to say but we’re a bully we pick on certain people and other people we can’t pick on them indeed now I mentioned that your work has been discussed in Congress that was back in the late 80s when a republican lawmaker expressed concerns about artists who are making what he res recalled a a Despicable display of vulgarity with public money the photograph he was referring to was your 1987 piss Christ now that image has become infamous it’s been vandalized three times including here in France in Aenon we know religion is always a sensitive issue but how do you see it right now in America’s landscape as the country faces a presidential election next year Well piss Crist is not an issue at this time I I mean that doesn’t mean it can’t come back usually if piss Christ creates a commotion when there’s a right-wing group uh trying to stir the pot uh and there are still Christians in America who especially right-wing Christians who think they uh they they they know what Christianity Christianity is better than others uh but last year I was invited along with 200 people to the Vatican to hear uh the pope speak at the 16th chapel on the in inauguration of the uh 50th anniversary of the contemporary art collection H and you know at the time everyone was able to get to see the pope for a few seconds and when I saw the Pope I I I said to him in Spanish because he’s from Argentina so I said to him your Holiness my name is Andre Serano and I come here to ask for your blessing and he looked at me he took my hand he smiled he tapped it twice and then he gave me a thumbs up so I feel I don’t care what these Christians say the pope blessed me and that’s all that matters okay well finally we asked you for a cultural tip and you pointed Us in the direction of one of the great painters of the Dutch uh Golden Age France house there’s an exhibition of his work at the moment at the reiches Museum in Amsterdam what is so special for you about his painting well seeing the pictures in person CU I was there and I saw it it occurred to me that uh you know so I I read something about that France house was probably drunk he he liked drinking and he was drunk and that’s why the people are having a good time I don’t see it that way I see France house as a humanist who’s capturing real people and so that’s what I like about it that his people project uh character personality and it’s like my work I feel like even though I I sometimes portray people as representing something more than themselves they also represent themselves and in my in my work and what I try to do is to make everyone look good no matter who they are a universal Humanity of portraiture thank you so much for joining us today Andre thank you well we’ll leave you with a taste of some of France Hal’s masterful portraits do check in with us here on France 24 for More arts and culture there’s more news coming up just after this [Music]
His images have been celebrated, vandalised and even discussed in Congress. Andres Serrano’s art tackles religion, sex, death and above all, America: its idiosyncrasies and the questions of politics, religion, class and ethnicity, which divide its citizens. He discusses this body of work as the show “Portraits of America” opens at Paris’s Musée Maillol, with an eye on the symbols that reveal so much about his fellow Americans. Serrano talks about photographing Donald Trump two decades ago and discusses how the former US president has continued to feature in his work. He also tells us why, when dealing with hot-button issues like race and religion, his work is so often misunderstood.
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1 comment
How is inheriting millions of dollars from your parents the American dream? I don’t get it