PRESS RELEASE from South London Gallery

HENRIK PLENGE JACOBSEN J’ACCUSE

14 JANUARY – 27 FEBRUARY 2005

PRESS PREVIEW 13 JANUARY, 4-6PM

A newspaper exposé on racially motivated corruption in the French government is the inspiration for new work by Danish contemporary artist, Henrik Plenge Jacobsen, who will transform the South London Gallery into a theatre of the absurd from 14 January.

No other newspaper article has provoked such public debate and controversy or had such an impact on law, justice and society than J’Accuse, written by French novelist Emile Zola in defence of Captain Alfred Drefus in 1898.

Zola’s article, which led to Zola himself being tried for criminal libel, his financial ruin and some say even his untimely death, forms the starting point for Plenge Jacobsen’s first solo exhibition in the UK, also entitled J’Accuse.

Visitors to the Gallery are invited to mount a replica court bench and judges’ chair to view the video The Mineral Judges, in which three fictional characters Cerith van Zola, Father Law and Judge Nelson search for ‘evidence’ in the bed of the river Thames at low tide.

Alongside this Plenge Jacobsen will create a series of ‘bank’ sculptures:  The Bank of Evidence, The Bank of England, The European Central Bank and The Bank of Accusations, made from buckets of gravel and mud, Euro coins, dollar bills and beer cans, while the sound of harpsichord, spinet and organ music will fill the Gallery.

The many components of the installation are unified by a monochrome palate of black and white which dramatically transforms the SLG space and serves as a reminder that nothing is ever what it seems, or nothing is ever ‘black and white’.

J’Accuse was an open letter to the French President on behalf of Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer in the French army who had been convicted of treason. Zola’s letter exposed Dreyfus’s trial as an anti-Semitic cover-up in which many high ranking French officials were implicated.

Plenge Jacobsen draws parallels with the current climate of fear and suspicion within an environment of political spin. He reminds us throughout the exhibition that in occupying the role of passive observer it will never be possible for us to uncover the absolute truth and emphasises the futility of the individual fighting against any system or institution.

To launch the exhibition there will be live performances on the harpsichord and spinet, played by characters in period costume. In one final nod to ridicule the last sculptural work in the show is an oversized judges’ wig.