Olivier Menanteau

Media Alert

The video Media Alert shows different situations I shot in May and June 2006 in the press and conference halls of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, using an official pass reserved for press photographers. My aim was to consider how the United Nations produces and maintains its image as it has become a colossal instrument of communication and authority for all of the states on the planet, whatever the extent of their power and their size. It is a tool available to heads of states, governments, NGOs, associations, and public figures, that they use to legitimate their power or their cause.

This film seeks to analyze the fragility and the limits of a machine in which hierarchical systems are reproduced in a vast imitation of Western and colonial traditions. Here, a woman postulates outlawing rape as a war strategy in the context of the elections in the Congo; another woman pleads for the genetic conservation of indigenous peoples; and at an AIDS-related event, children are seen performing African dances. The United Nations is explored regarding its protocols, mediagenic representations, and colonialist implications.