BillyBoy* & Lala at the POPA , Porrentruy Switzerland
May- June 2024
MDVANIIISMES – Stages of a Journey – 1975 – 2024
The Artist as Mystery
The artist is by nature a mystery, starting with himself. His surroundings, even his closest friends, only know his work in fragments. His own family barely shows interest—or only from a distance—which is perfectly normal and often preferable. To the general public, art is usually just a distraction, somewhat foreign, even intimidating.
But the public that makes the effort to attend an exhibition is composed of individuals, all of whom have the capacity to be moved, to be surprised, even to reflect without realizing it. The artist becomes the vessel of poetry and meaning, transmitting vital energy through his creation. That is often enough: one doesn’t need to know the creator to appreciate the creation, and, anyway, the artist isn’t supposed to be likeable. He’s not there to entertain—unless he’s Salvador Dali, an unsurpassed master of theatricality. When I was a teenager, I had a huge poster of him above my bed. “Beware, talent is prestigious,” said Georges Braque, who was the very embodiment of discretion. He was not a Surrealist!
A Meeting, A Destiny
When it comes to an artist couple, things become even more complex. Living together is already an adventure, but creating together for more than forty years borders on the unimaginable. This longevity, which might suggest a kind of osmosis, is simply unexplainable. An artist alone often struggles to talk about his own work, so how could two artists speak in unison? Even in cycling, the tandem is an anachronistic invention—very Belle Époque. If both pedal, only one steers. What matters above all is being together. Complementarity is what guides you.
MDVANIIISM BillyBoy* & Lala logo signature with printed fingertips.
Origins of a Journey
The exhibition MDVANIIISMES is thus the story of a journey that began in 1975. BillyBoy (the asterisk was not part of his signature then) was 15, Jean-Pierre Lestrade, aka Lala, was 21. One lived in New York, the other in Paris. They would meet six years later and never part again.
It was in Paris that we met and sealed our fate. Billy was 22, and I was about to turn 28. During the entire evening at a friend’s place—who had insisted we meet—he barely said a word. I didn’t find him particularly communicative. In fact, he had just arrived from New York the day before and was jet-lagged, sleeping behind his dark sunglasses…From time to time, he’d nod or give a faint smile, which made him come across as a snob. Two days later, I came back. I rang the bell, walked in: he was there, at the top of the stairs, without his sunglasses, in pyjamas, music blasting. I remember very well, it was an album of the US 1960s band The Ventures. We looked at each other. “Cut!” That was the take.
I believe in love at first sight the way I believe in miracles. They’re rare—but to deny their existence is to admit one has never known either. “Falling” in love—what a phrase. We fall on the battlefield, meaning we die. To fall in love is to be reborn. It is a state of grace that endures, a kind of altered state that rises above reason and logic. In a single instant, one can make a decision that changes the course of a life. That’s what I did. I dropped everything I was doing on my own, at least on the appearance. No one around me understood. To paraphrase the slogan of Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium perfume, I immersed myself, heart and soul, in the world of Billy Boy. Dazed and enchanted, we were two soulmates finally meeting after a long, erratic journey through space. Without needing to plan or define it, we instinctively began shaping a life that was to be, by nature, creative—one that would unfold into what now appears as a continuum of prolific shared accomplishments.
Shortly after, Billy painted our portraits in oils—his and mine—which he titled Portrait of Lala as a Guardian Angel. As for me, I began turning him into a cartoon character, because absolutely everything he said or expressed—even his despair—could be transformed into a humorous drawing. To fall in love is not only to be enthralled by the other, but also to be dazzled by one’s own fascination.
Billy Boy was the visionary spark, and I became the hand that brought his visions to life. Our bond was alchemical—one ignited, the other materialized. Billy Boy imagined entire worlds; my role was to help give them form, structure, and rhythm. Together, we made the abstract tangible. As BillyBoy* once said, ‘In BillyBoy* & Lala, I am the genius, Lala has the talent”. A statement that might seem bold, but one that perfectly captures the essence of our complementarity.
The Birth of Mdvaniiism
The title MDVANIIISMES comes from Mdvanii (pronounced Mid-va-ni)—the fashion doll, entirely conceived by BillyBoy* (by then, the asterisk had become part of his name), but created together with me. Yes, it was a stroke of genius. It was never conceived as a toy for children but rather meant for adults: it took everyone by surprise.
Mdvanii is a simulacrum of a toy, using all the languages of art. Define as a “scultpure with a Lifestyle”, she has always been “thought with the hands,” the very antithesis of a commercial object. It is therefore a revolutionary doll, necessarily revolutionary, to paraphrase French author Marguerite Duras.
As if by coincidence, it entered the world in 1989, the year of the French Revolution’s bicentenary. Mdvaniiism is its expressive extension. La Maison Mdvanii is an open house – it welcomes collaborations, sometimes incorporating the works of other artists, whether to scale or not.
The works in this exhibition are so diverse that one could imagine them created by artists with no relation to one another: poems, writings, collages, drawings, paintings, dolls, sculptures… abstraction, constructivism, surrealism, pop art, post-apocalypse, parody, simulacrum—what, then, is the Ariane’s thread that links them?
Art as Exploration
These shared and individual works express, each in their own way, a desire for art to move beyond itself, beyond conventions, beyond classification. And this inevitably leads us to the eternal question of the artist’s role and place in society. The artist’s status is both underestimated and overrated—so let them deal with the paradox!
The creations of an artist challenge the established order and preconceived ideas. Yet the artist is not an activist, because he always doubts. As French philosopher Jacques Rancière said: “Revolutionary artists no longer wanted to create works of art, but forms of collective life—and even today, performances and installations in contemporary art stand on the blurry frontier between art and Politics.”(1)
This blurry frontier is perhaps precisely what defines contemporary art. It is in constant flux, in tandem with communication media—today more than ever. Even in his own world, the artist does not live in a bubble. Art is political.
In art, every medium, every material is valid. For some of us, recycling is essential. It offers endless possibilities for DIY invention. There’s always another way to say things. Of course, one can create with everything or nothing—but a work of art, however subjective it may be, remains a cultural artifact. There’s much to say about that. The -isms of Western art history are there to remind us of the stages of its evolution. Today, I may be inspired by a pile of stones or scraps of iron picked up along the road. A rusted metal sheet succeeds in being abstract without human intervention and speaks to me as much as a Twombly canvas.
The artist may, if he chooses, affix his stamp: THIS IS A WORK OF ART. If he says so, then it is. As Georges Braque said—again—”With age, life becomes art.” (2)
So what can we say about a doll that lends itself to all scaffolding and constructions of the mind—to the point of having its own -ism?
Jean-Pierre Lestrade May 1, 2024
1 – Le Temps, Nidal Taibi, 7 octobre 2023. 2 – Le Jour et la Nuit – Cahiers de Georges Braque 1917-1952 – Gallimard nrf
The Mdvaniiismes exhibition catalogue presents BillyBoy* and Lala’s artistic journey, spanning from 1975 to 2024 and explores the complexities of artistic identity, creation as a duo, and the evolving role of art in society. Their Mdvanii project serves as a vehicle for artistic and conceptual transformation. The text, written by Lala, reflects on the influence of movements like Dada and Surrealism, Salvador Dalí’s critique of modern art, and the impact of technology on artistic practices. It argues that art is limitless in form and material, constantly reinventing itself. Ultimately, Mdvanii embodies this evolution, symbolising art’s ability to break boundaries and redefine itself.
