Everything must be repainted green. That’s the motto, the trend. After the whitest of whites comes the greenest of greens.

Greenwashing, a phenomenon at work in the domains of economy and marketing, has spread to political parties, ordinary people, and now the art world.

Close your eyes. Everything is green!

To defy this manipulation and to redirect it, Stéphan Barron created a series of actions and works under the title Greenwatching: smoke out Green, see Green, wash Green…

Greenwatching is a series of works. Videos, installations, paintings, performances, etc.

Thanks to Emilio Laborde and to « La Panacée ».

Greenwatching from Stephan BARRON on Vimeo.

this artwork is described in Paul Ardenne’s book Un art écologique, création plasticienne et anthropocène.

 » In 2016, French artist Stéphan Barron, creator of the concept of Technoromanticism, echoed a widely shared sentiment when he vehemently condemned the greenwashing that is gradually invading the world of contemporary art. More and more “green,” Barron observes. More and more works are focusing on the environmental state of the world. It’s not yet hegemonic (as we’ve said time and again in these pages, ecological art is slow to establish itself), but it’s an undeniable symptom, a consensual one, of the artistic need to “go green,” to cram ecology into everything, into every work, at every turn, greening museum spaces and other exhibition venues as much as possible. “Everything must be repainted green! That’s the general slogan! It’s the fashion!” protests Barron. He soon responds to this injunction in a childish and visceral way with Enfumer vert (Smoke Green), one of the plastic creations in his Greenwatching series (in addition to Voir vert (See Green) and Laver vert (Wash Green), without refinement. Enfumer vert: this short video shows a masked man (the artist himself?) armed with a powerful smoke bomb, pacing back and forth and filling the inner courtyard of the La Panacée art center with smoke until it is completely filled… »

*Edition La Muette, Bruxelles, 2018, Pages 236 et 245

Greenwatching, Communist Flag green dyed, Size 190×50 cm