Alain Bizos

For its first collaboration with the French artist, reporter and photographer Alain Bizos, Polka presents the pop-up exhibition “Politically Incorrect”. 

Throughout his career Alain Bizos has worked with the newspaper Libération, the VU agency, a collective of graphic artists called “Bazooka”, as well as Actuel, a "new and interesting" monthly magazine. Bizos has thus balanced his practice on the edge of fine art and reportage. Since the 1970s, he has labeled his work as “activist art”, utilizing tongue-in-cheek humor and satire.

In 1969, following his graduation from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris, Bizos found himself at the heart of the New York avant-garde art scene, working as Arman’s studio assistant. There he participated in the revival of conceptual photography, creating photo-based works and series such as “Vols Qualifiés”, in which the viewer witnesses the artist's acts of shoplifting. The stolen objects (a cricket set, an electric lamp and a suitcase) are exhibited alongside a certificate stating that, “anyone in possession of this artwork will be considered a fence in the eyes of the law”. 

Through such works Bizos questions whether a work of art is really a commodity like any other. The artist involves his gallerist and collector directly – as fences, and more broadly brings in the viewer as an implicit accomplice of the offense.

In 1979 it is therefore no coincidence that the artist-turned-activist crossed paths with French Public Enemy No. 1 – Jacques Mesrine. Bizos went on to shoot a series of infamous photographs depicting the outlaw that were published in Paris Match at the time. In a similar vein, for the “Wanted” series, the artist created photographs depicting himself as a criminal by replacing offenders’ photographs in wanted posters stolen from a New York post office with his own portrait.

“Politically Incorrect” will also showcase the artist’s more recent work including “Bye-Bye Mao”, a piece exhibited at the “100 portraits” exhibition of Antoine de Galbert’s collection at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2018, or the monumental polyptych “Marianne-colère”.

Bizos’s pieces reflect a highly personal, at times scathingly funny, body of work marked by its strong political conviction and diversity.