Claude Closky

Autobiography by Claude Closky is a question about identity and social media. On a dark mode theme colored background, tens of « Claude » of different genres and identities are displayed in sequence. What is the real « Autobiography »?
Autobiography is a series by Tonini Editore, published monthly. Each volume is dedicated to an artist, who is free to carry out the topic of the autobiography by means of text or visual supports. Belonging to a series, each book has the same size and maximum amount of pages (64). The selection of the artists participating to the series is coordinated by a scientific committee made up of six renown personalities in the world of the art research and collection: Pedro Barbosa (collector and founder of the Coleção Moraes – Barbosa), Alex Bacon (art historian), Claudio Guenzani (gallery owner in Milan, owner of the Studio Guenzani), Michele Lombardelli (artist, composer, typographer and consultant for several publishing houses), Shwetal Ashvin Patel (writer and researcher, founding member of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale), Christoph Schifferli (collector and scholar), and Valentino Tonini (director of the homonymous publishing house).

This text is the script of a performance by Claude Closky, which took place in February 2022 at the Pernod Ricard Foundation. Invited by Jill Gasparina to an Interview on Art, Claude Closky twisted the exercise by writing a text-partition, based partially on interviews given by the artist since the 1990s.

With its « Dictionary », Claude Closky proposes new definitions for more than 3000 nouns or expressions. Their meanings are described through financial concepts, such as market capitalization, profit margin, return on equity or cash. Indeed, the common feature among all these words is that they have been appropriated by listed companies or investment funds. “Apple”, “Amazon” or “Alphabet” are examples that come directly to the mind, but there are many others, some being surprising, or even creative. Literally, one can now buy or sell these words. With capitalism getting everywhere and absorbing everything, language has acquired an unforeseen value. Common nouns get new meanings that gradually overlap with their original definitions. The compilation gathered in these 262 pages makes this book both a grim and fun read, a direct window on our modern times psyche.

Catalogue de l’exposition des livres d’artistes de Claude Closky au CDLA, dans le cadre du 40e anniversaire du Centre Pompidou. L’ouvrage évoque, dans sa forme, le dispositif de l’exposition. La typographie utilise une police créée pour l’occasion par l’artiste français, la kalavryta, du nom d’une station de ski grecque.

At first glance, the book could appear as a monograph : the 200 spreads appear to show images of Closky’s works. However, the attention is quickly raised by the titles and the sub-texts, which convey a feeling of strangeness. Below images, references are made to Claude Monet, Claude Debussy, Christian Dior, Rasputin, Sean Connery, Harley-Davidson or the San Francisco Giants…

The book is actually a print-out of a phishing website (« Blackywall ») that has appropriated Claude Closky’s official website images (www.closky.info). The « critiques » are algorithmically generated in order to attract Internet audience through a heavy use of keywords, yielding with texts that only relate distantly to Closky‘s work. So as to correct the numerous errors and provide the reader with a reliable monograph, the artist has inserted a loose page that gives proper infos about the works shown in the book. « Blackywall by Sihab Baik » thus offers a new take on appropriation with a « Printed Web » angle, and a bit of humor.

(From the publisher)

Le septième numéro de la revue de dessin monomaniaque, thématique, artisanale et transversale, sur le thème du rire (dessins et contributions écrites d’une trentaine d’artistes contemporains et focus sur une collection privée spécialement invitée).
Avec Nelly Ben Hayoun, Pim Blokker, Davide Cascio, Claude Closky, Colin Cook, Martí Cormand, Denicolai & Provoost, Mark Dion, Frédéric Fleury, FREAKS freearchitects, Fausto Gilberti, Shirley Jaffe, Daniel Johnston, Astrid Köppe, David Kramer, Pierre La Police, Fred Lebain, Natacha Lesueur, Thomas Mailaender, Théo Mercier, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Sophie Perez et Xavier Boussiron, Michael Pybus, Peter Radelfinger, Mathieu Renard, Sylvain Sorgato, Amandine Urruty, et la collection Laurent Goumarre.
Revue constituée de dessins et consacrée au dessin, The Drawer laisse la parole et le champ – presque – libre aux seuls « dessinateurs ». Terrain de jeu, d’expression et de création autour d’une thématique commune, The Drawer réunit semestriellement les dessins et les contributions écrites d’une trentaine d’artistes et de créateurs.

Impression offset, n&b

Impression laser, édition de 300.

Un livre de poésie classique qui chante le monde moderne et ses principaux acteurs : la foule plus ou moins anonymes des vedettes en tout genre.