Clément Courgeon – la chariotte des malins, 2024

Inspired by European carnival and folk traditions but also by contemporary massmarket activities like wrestling, Clément Courgeon’s work challenges artistic conventions and social constructs. Often described as “pop-grotesque”, his multidisciplinary work — performance, installation, drawing, video, photography — explores the relationship with marginality and masquerade. The artist regularly works with helpers, who assist him in creating his various characters — the peddler, the wooden man, the moneybox prince — as well as their related pro

“You’re like a clown in your costumes, you ought to live in a caravan.” When a young boy made that remark during a studio visit, it gave Clément Courgeon the idea of creating la chariotte des malins, a composite work that is both an installation and a performance. In an attempt to get away from the traditional exhibition space, the artist has devised a roaming creative laboratory, a display and presentation space geared to encounters and exchange. For several days, he travelled hundreds of kilometres to Lyon in a horse-drawn caravan. When he finally reached the Grandes Locos, he surrounded his mobile studio with a series of pieces feauturing traditional funfair motifs. In the middle of this colourful encampment, he organised outreach activities and performances rooted in the circus. Created with the help of many collaborators in various different workshops, la chariotte des malins is a means of transport and dispatch, a resource for connecting with the public and an exhibition space for works of art.