Scene4 Magazine | Qué Pasa

Catalyst Arts Presents… BAD BEUYS ENTERTAINMENT ‘SPECTRUM CITY WAS THE
NAME’ Reception Thursday 15th March 2007 | 7-9 pm Exhibition continues to
7th April 2007 Gallery hours 11am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday Bad Beuys
Entertainment is- • A political party • A rock ‘n’ roll band • A
ham-fisted team • A company producing works of art • A zulu’s mob
French collective Bad Beuys Entertainment was founded in 1999, at
Cergy-Pontoise, in the Parisian suburbs. The artistic program of the group
can be seen through the multi-lingual play on words in their title. Joseph
Beuys was an influential 20th century German artist who had an original
artistic program that he coined ‘social sculpture’, that is, he considered
social conventions as material for creation, to model and transform by his
actions and statements. Bad Boys Entertainment is the name of the major
American rap label fronted by Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs, whose worldwide
distribution is generated by subcultures. BBE is defined in the crossover
of these two antagonistic attitudes, a major company from the show-business
industry and an artist intent that social reform begins with cultural
production. This profiles the artistic program of the group, its
departure and its frame of reference: if its attitude is not revolutionary,
it is surely a critical one, targeting the spheres of mass cultural
production. Stemming from the ‘culture of suburbs’, the members of this
group produce objects and ‘repetitions’ extracted from urban life. These
works, with their basic and minimalist aspects, are feedbacks of
perceptions conceived as singular forms, for the audience to have a
physical, sensitive relation to them. Catalyst Arts | 2nd Floor | 5
College Court | Belfast | BT1 6BS t: 00 44 (0) 28 90 31 33 03 f: 00 44 (0)
28 90 31 27 37 e: info@catalystarts.org.uk w: www.cataystarts.org.uk
Supported by: Arts Council of Northern Ireland Awards for All The Foyle
Foundation