A Success Story
VICTORIOUS CRISIS MANAGEMENT BY COMMUNIC'ART TURNING AROUND AN UNJUST SCANDAL SURROUNDING THE DOMESTIKATOR
Our mission
For FIAC 2017, the Domestikator, a 12-metre high architectural work by the Dutch artist “Atelier Van Lieshout,” was planned to be part of the Hors les Murs section in the Tuileries Garden.
A living space, a manufacturing workshop, the artist Joep Van Lieshout designed the “Domestikator” as a total work of art, surpassing the frontiers between art, design and architecture.
But its sexually explicit representation was considered disturbing and the work was rejected by the Louvre museum just a few days before being installed.
Communic’Art then began a crisis communication operation, in favour of the piece being installed in another location.
150 press articles denounced censorship of the Domestikator and the announcement of its installation by Bernard Blistène at the alternative venue of the Beaubourg forecourt again resulted in 150 positive articles, making the work a symbol of freedom of expression in the public space.
On the final day of the installation, the climax was the SPA (animal protection charity) sending a communiqué to the French President protesting against such an intolerable infringement of animal rights.
Results
Communication management by Communic’Art meant that the Domestikator, artist Joep Van Lieshout and the Carpenters Workshop Gallery enjoyed matchless media exposure and a wave of support and good wishes which echoed at international level.
The strong and symbolic decision taken by the Pompidou Centre in itself supported freedom of artistic expression in the public space, over and above any kind of controversy.
This communications campaign also stood as a victory for the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in terms of the integration of design into the world of contemporary art, a position defended by Julien Lombrail and Loïc Le Gaillard, since the creation of their gallery.
