Grapus (Gérard Paris-Clavel), poster, screenprint, 1989
“In 1989, while still a member of Grapus, Paris-Clavel created a poster that shows a starving African child with Mickey Mouse ears formed from inverted images of the globe to suggest an infantilized corporate worldview. He traps the boy’s emaciated face between the accusatory words “Money World.” Refusing to offer viewers the escape route or consolation of aesthetic pleasure, which can often disarm the campaigning anger of political posters, this brutal, almost disrespectful montage is extremely uncomfortable to look at. Colleagues criticized Paris-Clavel for depicting suffering so shamelessly, but the poster proclaims an outrage against humanity that should cause universal offence and, once seen, it cannot be forgotten. “This image is less unbearable than its reality,” counters Paris-Clavel. “This child dies as a victim of someone else’s decision to sell him. . . . This world is despicable, let’s resist it and change it!””
Adapted poster image shown in Ne Pas Plier s.v.p. catalogue, Stedelijk Museum, 1995:
