UNTEL — L’art d’être touriste — Michèle didier Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: November 20, 2015 → January 16, 2016

The UNTEL group is back!

After La boîte Untel , and Le sac Untel and its amazing success at FIAC in 2013, mfc-michèle didier asked UNTEL to reactivate Touriste, its 1978 performance. For this performance, the three members of UNTEL were supposed to stroll in the streets of a city so people would take pictures of two of them, while the third one documented this action.

All three members of the trio were dressed in a Touriste costume, a sort of two-piece construction painter suit, consisting of a white shirt and white pants and a tee-shirt, that were silkscreened, and covered with the word “touriste” (tourist) — in various types and colors — and badges.

On October 16, 1978, during their Fashion Show performance in the Grande Galerie du Louvre, UNTEL presented the Touriste collection. These three historical costumes will be the centerpieces of the new exhibition by the UNTEL group at mfc-michèle didier gallery. They will be presented together with twelve photographic diptychs of the series Touriste, made in the French city of Cahors. Together, the costumes and dyptichs will form an artwork by UNTEL.

On this occasion, a new limited edition will be produced by mfc-michèle didier: UNTEL, La chemise touriste (UNTEL, The tourist Shirt). It will complete the original clothing ensemble. A model for women and a model for men will be manufactured in three sizes (S, M, L). The shirts will be available for sale at mfc-michèle didier gallery, which will turn into a real boutique, and become the official supplier of UNTEL’s latest creation.

Contrary to the new scenery that is in sight in le Haut-Marais, the neighborhood in which mfc-michèle didier is located since 2011, and where all the historical wholesalers tend to disappear, UNTEL has decided to invest the gallery by proposing a scenography that’s worthy of the major brands. For the duration of this exhibition, mfc-michèle didier will be more part of the Haut-Sentier, than the Haut-Marais.

The tourist’s relaxed attitude is now to be considered as a motive Made in Paris, like an artistic attitude. L’art d’être touriste… The art of Being a Tourist… a posture that was thoroughly scrutinized by the three artists, who are true analyst-experts of the urban landscape. This ability to analyze the city’s day-to-day life can also by seen clearly in Vie quotidienne — Environnement de type Grand Magasin (1977), an installation that interrogates the reality of the ordinary life in an urban context, by proposing an inventory of vacuum-packed samples and objects excerpted from a completely banal context, yet very revealing of the era, as a sort of archeology of the everyday life. An timeless look on the consumer society, that the current economic reality reactivates violently.

It is your turn to play the game of The art of Being a Tourist. So, follow the guide and put your shirt on!