PARIS PASSION 1989

Bart Plantenga

Scoring a Perfect 10

Armed with caustic conceptual witt (on part each of Beuys, Duchamp and Wahrol, but seven parts themselves), Roma Napoli and J.J. Dow Jones, better known as Dix 10, make established gallery environments over into, something else a souvenir shop (1985), for instance. This time it’s un armory filled with a cache of 1,000 colorful Weapons, mocking the official Bicentennial celebration of « half freedoms. Today, Dow Jones declares, « the idea is to storm the Bastille opera. All you need are « plastic guns. »

There approach – avoiding the language of art and applying the stigma of merchandise to it, artist-as-solesman – ultimately helps unravel the etiquette of the Art Cartel. I’s fun, mythless, affordable and plentiful. They may, ln fact, be the world’s most prolific artists: 16,000 pieces andcounting. If you like a piece you can usually take it home, cash and carry. No middleman as the pair dadges the « false deepness of the art world ».

Dix 10 oppropriate their surroundings, paintinq on site for each particular show. And If they run out of merchandise (which has happened) they “Just paint more roses” as for their flower shop show where each rendored rose sold for 10 Frs, the going price for a real rose. This method of pricing their artwork at the price of the object rendered “It’s a way of getting around the rules of the art market”, Roma emphazises. Now theyre selling grenades at 50 francs a pop. This Is one armory show we can enjoy.

Aux Armes de la Bastille : Galerie du Génie, 11 Rue Keller 75011 Tel. 48.06.02.93. May 9 – June.8