DO UT DES

The Parisian graffiti artist SAEIO (1987–2017) is known for his “broad pictorial practice” through which he engages with the everyday reality of urban space. By engaging with various forms of expression (writing, drawing, painting, photography, video, choreography, etc.), he highlights the unpredictable nature inherent in this illegal art form and the ephemeral nature of these works created in public spaces. 

In 2014, SAEIO was fined 50,000 euros for "intentional damage to public property, trespassing, and traveling on railroad tracks". The facility DO UT DES (2015 – “I give so that you may give to me” in Latin) is a kind of dramatization of his trial as legal recognition of his work. 

The inventory of approximately one hundred "acts of vandalism", with detailed descriptions illustrated by photographs, constitutes a body of evidence. It is presented as a catalog raisonné of the artist’s work, while the estimated cost of cleaning the pieces becomes their selling price. 

Through this process of reappropriation, SAEIO examines our relationship with photography and its documentary status by playing with its traditional uses: photography produced as legal evidence is here equated with its function as a reproduction of a work of art. This process of reappropriation extends to an exploration of the formal qualities of certain images, which inspire the creation of silkscreen prints. 

↘︎ Curating: Anne Lacoste, Director of the Institut pour la photographie

↘︎ Acknowledgments and mentions: Presented in cooperation with the parents of SAEIO, Nicolas Dolto, and the publisher Painting