Art méchant (Attention)

A member of the Fluxus movement and close to Sociological Art, Serge Oldenbourg, known as “Serge III”, developed from the 1960s onward a profoundly subversive body of work drawing on both performance and visual art. Reflection on art and politics has an important place in it, as instanced by the series “Art méchant” [Wicked Art] which evokes his own 14-month imprisonment for having helped a Czech soldier escape the country. Here, items of “vulgar” popular culture – a pin-up and a front cover from Détective, a true crime magazine decried for its immorality – are presented as the innocent victims of art, imprisoned behind barbed wire.