Paul McCarthy in conversation with Julien Bismuth and Mike Bouchet
Filmed at Flagey, Brussels on the occasion of Paul McCarthy's latest exhibition
On the occasion of Paul McCarthy’s latest exhibition at the gallery (2023) three films by the artist were screened at Flagey Brussels. The first one, CSSC — It Begins The Coach The Skull, was accompanied by a conversation with Julien Bismuth and Mike Bouchet.
“Yes, maybe it’s an appropriation of Hollywood studio, but it’s really about the studio. This idea of being in the studio. I’m not as aware of the audience; I don’t think as much about them, so it becomes sort of a looping process in my own psyche in a certain way. So, it goes over time, whatever this is. This is moving in a direction for 40 years. This is where it got me. ” — Paul McCarthy
Born in 1973, Julien Bismuth is a French contemporary artist who lives and works between New York and Paris. His mode of expression is diverse, from performance to theatre, from text to object, oscillating from written to oral forms and often combining them. His work alternates from minimalist plastic pieces to performances from which the only remnants are the process and objects left as traces and witnesses of the action.
Since the early 1990s, Mike Bouchet is an American artist who has been producing a seemingly boundless array of conceptually rigorous works —including paintings, sculptures, installations, videos, actions, interventions, and performances —through which he critically questions political, economic, and cultural systems and the role of the artist in society. At once deadly serious and highly absurd, his works walk the line between art and life, fantasy and reality, often purposely creating confusion between these categories.