CAC Brétigny

Adrien Guillet’s art practice involves, among other things, short-circuiting the workings of marketing. By re-appropriating the elements making up a particular brand identity, Guillet offers a different narrative than the one initially being told.

“UMA+GEORGE” springs from a merging of two advertising campaigns, a Schweppes ad featuring Uma Thurman and a Nespresso ad with George Clooney. The forced juxtaposition of these two figures generates an absurd love story that is reduced to the smallest narrative unity. Uma shoots George a very provocative “What did you expect?” to which he answers, slightly amused, “What else?” starting a rather tenuous story that goes round and round in circles like a scratched record. These two slogans become the story’s conclusions (“What did you expect” and “What else?”), repeating endlessly, the advertising spot playing out without end on the television screens.

«UMA+GEORGE» shows the relationship between a personality-image, a brand, and a slogan. Contemporary language now finds itself in this global media and economic understanding, while words are seemingly copyrighted.

Echoing “Le fin mot de l’histoire” (the Real Story) cycle of shows programed for the Théâtre, Guillet’s “UMA+GEORGE” will be on view in the hall and the Phare du Théâtre Brétigny from 12 January to 19 March 2018. The show opening, with the artist in attendance, is scheduled for Saturday, 27 January, starting at 5 pm.

A graduate of HEAD in Geneva with a master’s degree in Contemporary Art Practices, Adrien Guillet has recently shown his work in the exhibitions “Emporium of Benevolent Data” (Corner College, Zurich) and “L'agence de Voyage Citracit” (Indice 50, Paris). His experiments have taken a theoretical and visual turn via painting, sculpture, publishing, and installation work. He draws on a number of areas simultaneously, semiology, philosophy, marketing, and economics to shed light on the almost cultural relationship we have with form.