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For Gaël Peltier, video is above all a means of recording a performance that cannot be repeated. It is an art of the instant which, as here, culminates in violent mechanical destruction. Its proximity to cinema lies in the procedures behind the actions he undertakes, willingly putting himself in danger and, like a stuntman, accepting the constraints and risks of an operation prepared with meticulous care. Beyond this technical kinship and the references that inevitably come to mind — Crash by David Cronenberg, after J. G. Ballard’s novel, for instance — everything in this work stands in opposition to cinema. There is no narrative: the focus rests on an accident, on the acceleration that leads to it, and on the brutal impact to which the performer submits himself. He places himself entirely within reality; only the driver’s protective gear and harness distinguish this deliberate crash from a fortuitous event of the kind that so often occurs on the road. This resemblance unsettles the viewer’s eye and reveals the presence of a latent desire — not only to watch, but to take part in something that is usually perceived solely as a dramatic event, frequently with fatal consequences.

Gaël Peltier develops a practice in which attitude takes precedence over the production of objects, ready-mades or films, placing his work in the lineage of artists without oeuvre. He describes himself as an “infra-conceptual artist by default,” adopting a lateral position in which a protocol applied to reality becomes the material itself. His projects involve precise forms of commitment: gaining 30 kg in New York for a role that did not exist (La Conjuration, 2010), a car crash staged as critical action (Percussion Mécanique, 2018), or interventions that subtly disturb an otherwise ordinary situation. Video records these processes not in order to produce an effect, but to render visible the conditions of their emergence within real-world circumstances. His work has been exhibited in France and abroad since 2002.