Arlequin (Personnage à Réactiver)

Inspired by the society of communication, by film, role-playing and virtual reality, Pierre Joseph bases his artistic practice on the principle of mise-en-scène or “staging”. In the series of Personnages à réactiver [Characters to Reactivate] which he has worked on since 1991, each work consists of two moments, combining photography and performance, whereby the subject of the photograph returns for a moment to reality. Here the melancholy and impassive Arlequin is the contemporary avatar of the long line of Harlequins that feature in painting, from Watteau to Picasso.