Opened in 2014 and boasting a unique vantage point overlooking the port of Saint-Tropez, with the pink stones of the old town and bell tower in the line of sight, the Opera unfurls its sublime terrace overlooking the quays where yachts from all over the world come to moor.
Playing with labels, L’Opéra invites you to plunge into a glamorous and sumptuous universe. Its aim: to reinvent the Tropezian nightlife… to surprise, intrigue and seduce the night owls of the international gotha. This season, it’s with the provocative works of Philippe Shangti that the Opéra intends to fulfill this ambition.
On the walls, the artist’s glamorous, iconoclastic and furious photographs directly question his univocal reflections on celebrity and drugs, notably his “NO COCAINE HERE” series. This (im)relevance upsets the serenity of the premises, while exposing one of the most common paradoxes: Those to whom they’re addressed love them and want more, since they’re always the ones who reserve the scoop on his new series. We can put this down to the law of attraction: we’re attracted by what’s similar to us; or we can adopt a more practical attitude: they’re the ones who can afford these prints.
But it’s a sincere and constructive approach that Philippe Shangti unveils his work in this highly sought-after venue. In fact, it’s not for nothing that his delirious imagination has seduced the owner of the premises with its studied aesthetic tinged with provocation. It’s the profusion of luxury we’re talking about here: “So much accumulation, I see it as an overdose. We need to get back to basic values: eating, drinking and sleeping,” he told mensup magazine.
“I like to go into subjects we don’t dare talk about, to show what no one dares to admit to themselves. Alcohol, drugs, prostitution, waste, self-destruction – those who indulge in them rarely admit it to themselves. They hide their faces, they’re ashamed, they deny it. Shangti literally rubs their noses in it… “If the message is violent, it is sublimated to the maximum.
The “No Cocaine Here” series is aimed at the lost bimbo mistaken for wonder woman when she’s taken something – illicit substance or botox, as the case may be – or the soccer player who’s lost his way. The use of superhero imagery heralds a blindness to the absurdities of high society, while subtly preserving humor and glamour. Don’t worry, even if you’re not a superhero, it’s worth the detour!
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