I wanted to talk to you about the completely surreal trial that took place this week in France, because it superbly testifies to certain wanderings of our time: the Guidounesque quest for glory, careless exhibitionism, overused freedom of expression and outrageous exploitation of new media.
It all started with the relationship, first virtual, then physical, which in 2018 linked Benjamin Griveaux, a prominent spokesperson for the French government, and Alexandra de Taddeo, then a law and political science student.
During the few months that this adventure lasts, Benjamin Grivaux sends his partner videos “of a masturbation nature”. When their story ends at the end of the same year, Alexandra de Taddeo meets Piotr Pavlenski, an artist of Russian origin who has taken refuge in France since 2017 after he had been accused of sexual assault (charges which he rejected in claiming it was a Russian government tactic to get rid of him).
Presented as a performer, Piotr Pavlenski is also a political activist (a term he rejects) who advocates anarchy. During his artistic events, he incorporates themes of nudity and self-harm.
The 39-year-old has a radical gait, to say the least. Indeed, he has already sewn his lips together to support the feminist movement Pussy Riot. He also nailed his scrotum in front of Lenin’s Mausoleum in Red Square, Moscow.
You will agree that we are far from Claude Lafortune and his characters from The gospel on paper.
In 2020, in a relationship with Alexandra de Taddeo, he discovered the existence of Benjamin Griveaux’s videos while the latter was involved in the race for mayor of Paris. Pavlenski publishes them on his site Pornopolitique on February 12.
It’s a real thunderclap! On February 14, Benjamin Griveaux announced that he was withdrawing his candidacy and that he was filing a complaint against the Pavlenski-de Taddeo couple.
The trial for this curious affair opened on Wednesday in Paris. I say “trial”, I should rather speak of circus. First, there was the spectacular entry of Piotr Pavlenski and Alexandra de Taddeo, now an art history student.
Arrived when the trial had been going on for an hour, the couple took the time to linger in front of the journalists. If Pavlenski had opted for a sober outfit, Alexandra de Taddeo sported a turquoise sequined dress which did not fail to have its effect.
But the most astonishing thing about this media stunt is that Alexandra de Taddeo appeared in front of the cameramen and photographers holding the autobiographical novel entitled love which she just published. Not crazy, the wasp!
During his testimony, Piotr Pavlenski castigated “the sneaky conservatives” behind the “banning” of his site. For her part, Alexandra de Taddeo said that she wanted to talk about her book, about which The Parisian said that it is “closer to a work by Virginie Despentes than to The Princess of Cleves “.
The 32-year-old also said she was unaware of her husband’s plan. This would therefore mean that Piotr Pavlenski would have discovered by chance the videos of Griveaux on the computer of his lover.
Piotr Pavlenski “is not an artist, he is a magician”, declared with a touch of irony Me Marine Viegas, a lawyer for Benjamin Griveaux, speaking to Alexandra de Taddeo. “He miraculously found videos he didn’t know existed among hundreds of other files on your computer. Videos of a man he doesn’t know. »
During this incredible day of hearings, three witnesses cited by Piotr Pavlenski came each in turn to declaim extracts from Tartuffe, this masterpiece by Molière which was banned at the time of its creation before being reworked, its criticism of the authority of the Church having been deemed “dangerous”.
“It is undoubtedly, madam, an extreme sweetness / To hear these words from a mouth that one loves”, recited one of the actors who came to testify. Exasperated, the president had to expel a few people and suspend the hearing under the laughter and applause of supporters of Piotr Pavlenski.
“We even had the right to an actor who does not know his text, said Me Richard Malka, one of Benjamin Griveaux’s lawyers, during his argument. It is pathetic ! Some confuse a trial with a show, others with the Cannes Film Festival. »
According to this lawyer, the Pavlenski-de Taddeo couple tried to “delegitimize the judiciary, after having wanted to delegitimize political power”.
“You really are a big fool,” replied Piotr Pavlenski.
At the end of this eventful hearing, the public prosecutor requested six months’ imprisonment for Piotr Pavlenski and six months’ suspended imprisonment for Alexandra de Taddeo.
PHOTO JOËL SAGET, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Benjamin Griveaux, in October 2016
As for Benjamin Griveaux, three years after he experienced a humiliating collapse, this graduate of Sciences Po and HEC runs a firm that offers strategic advice.
The one who was close to Emmanuel Macron and a former “DSK boy” is described by some detractors as “arrogant” and “devoured by ambition”. This strategist with a bling-bling vocabulary (he is a follower of Franglais) was attacked by yellow vests in 2019 who broke down the portal of the ministry where his office was located.
Some regard this video affair as the greatest case of revenge porn (pornographic revenge) of French political life.
This story is as absurd as it is fascinating, because it is based on as many ramblings as on the very nature of art. Challenging rules and conventions, provoking thought, shocking public opinion, it’s all art, after all.
Yes, but…
Are we really witnessing this, or a ridiculous masquerade? I opt for the second hypothesis.
By appropriating the solemn and rigid framework of a court and transforming it into a veritable fair, Piotr Pavlenski tries to convince us that he gives meaning to his approach. Moreover, some claim that what he has done is part of his “work”.
If this is the case, it will be necessary to recognize that art can also have bad associations.