Mehmet Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, strongly encouraged by Baron Taylor and Jean-François Champollion, offered in 1830, to Charles X and France as a token of friendship, the two obelisks erected in front of Luxor Temple. One of them was therefore removed and shipped to France (located on the current Place de la Concorde in Paris, the second one remaining in Luxor will be officially returned to Egypt by President François Mitterrand in 1981. In return for this gift, Louis- Philippe I offered them in 1845 a copper clock which today adorns the citadel of Saladin in Cairo, a clock which however never worked because it was damaged during transport.
In a humorous and somewhat naive intervention on this monument, Argote thus cancels out its symbols of power and identity. The artist’s creative process uses strategies such as disobedience and fantasy, with which he pushes us to change our way of seeing and conceiving of political activism, Western domination and centres of power, in order to point out their absurdity and pretensions.
Les Extatiques, group show curated by Fabrice Bousteau, La Défense, Paris, France, 2020.
View at Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France, 2014.
View at Museum Quarter, Vienna, 2015.
View at The Standard hotel, High Line, New York, NY, USA, 2016
