Ben 

“We are all crazy”

The frenetic artist is taking over the Anatole Jakovsky International Museum of Naive Art for a year to show not only his own work but also that of other French and international artists from his personal collection.

Does being crazy mean simply refusing to accept the norm or is it being sound of mind? Whatever the case, the crazy that Benjamin Vautier is staging here is joyful, gentle and somewhat paradoxical. “Ben talks about ego but he’s one of the least egotistic artists of all. He’s well-known and talented but still he’s chosen to show the work of others alongside his own,” enthuses Robert Roux, Deputy Mayor in charge of culture. Ben uses more than 500 works, juxtaposed with the original Anatole Jakovsky naïve art collection, to illustrate that “art is life”, a belief he has held since he became involved in the Fluxus movement. Amidst all the general craziness, the thought-provoking slogans will make you smile and in doing so they will dispel 

the preconceptions of daily life 

and the certainties of contemporary art. “The truth is, not only do 

I never throw anything away and pin everything to the façade, but I also sometimes rummage through the bins,” says the artist, who has covered the walls of his Saint-Pancrace home in Nice with an installation similar to the one he has created throughout the museum. Between the small lounge, bedroom, bathtub, table football, the stairwell he has named his “psychiatric staircase” and the debating podium he has set up for the occasion, the exhibition serves as a joyful reminder that “art is there so that we never ever die from the truth”.

Jusqu’au 6 mai 2024 

Musée international d'art naïf Anatole Jakovsky

Château Sainte-Hélène, avenue de Fabron, Nice