Through deconstructions and displacements, in a constant state of hesitation between creation and destruction, Eugene Pelletier’s work questions the products of our time and explores the relationship between society and construction. The meaning of these products, like the society project they describe, constitute the problematic of a practice which is articulated around notions of progress, sustainability, failures and social success. These products embody the expression, and surpassing attempts, of the tensions and certitudes which marked our generations.
This work is usually resolved in its contextual form, in situ installations and performances, taking place in an environment becoming both the pretext and the mean of experimentation. The goal of this practice then, resides more in the gestures and dialogues it brings forth rather than the resulting forms.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Eugene Pelletier’s work is inscribed in a context taken into consideration as the social environment from which the stakes and function have to be revealed. Preferring action or activity from object production, the interventions he creates bring about a hijacking and a takeover of these environments. With this, he proves that their seeming neutrality is formatted by a normalizing system whose takeover brings about new perspectives.
Capitalism, as envisaged by Joseph Aloïs Schumpeter is based on competitive economy which implies that enterprise profitability can be destabilized by the arrival of new entrepreneurs in its domain of activity. He names this economical principle “the creative destruction” because the disappearance of a product or a service is decided by innovation. It’s those terms that Eugène Pelletier reverts to envision his practice as one of destructive creation, consisting in hijacking and take in charge the cyclic operation on which our society is based to introduce a derailment, a creative act, synonym of another relation and a new look on social environment.
François Aubart
(Lecturer in Rennes II University, criticism and curator)
extracted from the text Some repetitive notes on the work of Eugene Pelletier, Au revoir ici, maintenant (...), critical project directed by Béatrice Méline, Ed. Spector, 2011.
