Gymnastic
Lorsque j’étais à l’école primaire, on nous demandait tous les jours de nous mettre en rang pour faire des exercices ensemble dans la cour de récréation. L’objectif annoncé étant de préserver la forme physique des élèves. À cette période, la peau du dos de mes mains se fissurait en hiver à cause de la sécheresse et du froid. Toutefois, il m’était interdit de faire les exercices avec des gants, ainsi, dans ma mémoire, la gymnastique de groupe a toujours été associée à la douleur. À propos de cela, trois questions me laissent perplexe.
Pourquoi les élèves n’étaient-ils pas autorisés à se déplacer librement dans la cour de récréation ?
Pourquoi les élèves n’avaient-ils pas le droit de porter des gants sur leurs mains gelées si c’était pour leur bien-être ? Pourquoi devaient-ils faire de la gymnastique ensemble dès leur plus jeune âge ?
"When I was in primary school, we were asked every day to line up for group exercises in the playground. The stated goal was to preserve the physical fitness of the students. At that time, the skin on the back of my hands would crack in the winter due to dryness and cold. However, I was not allowed to do the exercises with gloves on, so in my memory, group gymnastics has always been associated with pain. About this, three questions leave me perplexed. 1. Why were students not allowed to move freely in the playground? 2. Why were students not allowed to wear gloves on their frozen hands if it was for their well-being? 3. Why were they required to do gymnastics together from a young age? Years later, when I was able to reflect on this, these three questions seemed increasingly interesting.
In countries where there is a collective tradition, radio gymnastics is defined as a collective fitness exercise, but it is actually more, in my opinion, an exercise in physical obedience and a common ritual that helps to build a sense of identity. Every morning, everyone is awakened by the sound of radio gymnastics broadcast over the loudspeaker. This time marker, which indicates the start of the day, is controlled by a single command center, in whose hands ultimately lies the domination of time. This sound reminds people that they must wake up their bodies, all at the same time, according to a common order, and gradually put them into motion to be in a suitable state for work and study. This collective physical discipline was born from militarized exercises to which a few recreational breaks were added during which participants can, for example, jump for a few seconds in a fairly anarchic manner. This domination and control, which is done in the name of health and science, transforms bodies into ritual and political bodies. The place where the exercises are performed then becomes a training ground for discipline, regulation, and transformation. In the end, everyone becomes unconsciously the executor of power, watching not only over themselves but also over violators. Man thus loses his creativity and dignity, becoming a creature who can only perform repetitive, automatic work and give free rein to his most primitive desires. It is a true reproduction of what Foucault called "discipline" and Agamben "the politics of identity". And this discipline is still relevant.
The Awa-Odori dance in Japan strikes me as a prime example. Like the gym classes I attended as a child, the dancers move in simple, coordinated, almost military gestures to the sound of repeated music and lyrics.
When I reflect on my childhood, I feel fortunate to have escaped the worst. I have always studied painting, from my early years up to my high school graduation. Thus, I never received a traditional schooling, and became a young outsider. Moreover, my parents were always busy, so I was never oppressed by parental authority. It was thanks to this break from the parental framework that I was able to preserve my rebellious and suspicious spirit. Through self-education, I have the ability to see the other world, the one that hides behind textbooks. If indoctrinated education is compared to a production chain, then I am undoubtedly the "loser" on the outside of the production.
Years later, as I think back on those people and things, I realize that many of them were intelligent individuals who had grown up under the violent oppression of power. My experience led me to be interested in the subjects of power, violence, and humanity. This is why I began a series of research on the history of power, war massacres, violence and death, humanity and animality, etc.
Recently, my artistic approach has focused on studying the power and influence of institutions over men, especially on the theme of the enslavement of populations by powers. The notion of "homo sacer" illustrates this idea well, particularly how human beings could become servile, defenseless, and even without the ability to contest until death. How has society since antiquity succeeded in conditioning and formatting all human survival instincts, and in making its own citizens into obedient and conformist labor? The actors of power have managed to domesticate an entire population through its institutions, who even "tacitly accept" their own death. An example that comes to mind to illustrate this notion of "homo sacer" is the Great Famine in China that caused 37,558,000 deaths.
Through my artistic experiences, I have observed forms of institutionalized violence, characterized by the use of discipline, punishment, and enslavement, especially during the last century, during both World Wars. This situation obviously also refers to our current freedom-depriving era, where states have taken numerous initiatives resulting in the deprivation of our most essential rights.
Another form of modernity that seems very distressing in the future world is the cyberpunk world, that of new technologies. While artificial intelligence, cell phones, and Big Data are very practical innovations, all technologies, beyond their spectacular nature, can lead to significant changes in our relationship to authority, and especially lead to the development of systemic violence.
*Homo Sacer: In Roman times, an individual without civil rights, a pariah who could be killed by anyone.