Guillaume Paris, We Are the Children — Part II, 2004

Guillaume Paris, We Are the Children — Part II, 2004
Permanent video (DVD), monitor on a pedestal, colour, silent. 2 min 10 sec (extract)
Courtesy the David and Indrė Roberts Collection

Like father, like son — so the saying goes. This seems to have been taken quite literally in Guillaume Paris’ We Are the Children — Part II, as we travel the world through the eyes of packaging designers of the last decades. A succession of what Paris terms 'portrait-products' pass the screen, with product packaging each smoothly morphing into the other. It’s not just the shape and writing, but also the faces of people on the products that transform. As opposed to an early version of We Are the Children, this Part 2 version specifically focusses on relationships in pairs; adults with a child, heterosexual couples, some same-sex couples, babies with cuddly toys and people of all ages with a pet. Because all the products featured can be purchased in a supermarket and have a domestic use, it is less 'father and son' and more woman and child. What is also instantly noticeable is the uniformity of the couples, with none of the presumed family units or relationships showing mixed race pairings. The marketeers seem to have an incredibly homogenised view of any given society. However, as the languages on the products shift from European to Asian vernaculars, so too do the ethnicities of the smiling faces, showing how these globalised products are adapted for localised markets.

We Are the Children — Part II is part of a larger project called H.U.M.A.N.W.O.R.L.D., an acronym that stands for 'Holistic and Utopian Multinational Alliance for New World Order and Research in Living and Dying.' Created by Paris in 1991, this project — which he describes as 'part Gesamt-Experiment and part imaginary museum' — is an endeavour to respond to issues related to globalisation, the successes and failings of multiculturalism and with that the representation of cultural Otherness.¹

¹ Guillaume Paris, 'H.U.M.A.N.W.O.R.L.D – Introduction', 20 Apr 2015. Available at www.guillaumeparis.com/works/selected_projects/hw.html, last accessed 10 Nov 2020

Set up somewhat like a think tank due to its interdisciplinary approach, H.U.M.A.N.W.O.R.L.D. involves actors, anthropologists, architects, art historians, artists, critical theorists, computer programmers, designers, linguists, models, sociologists, writers and psychics. Together these practitioners question systems of representation within material and visual culture, with the resulting art works functioning as a visual expression of the problems that the group is addressing.

The choice to work with advertising imagery came due to the transparent agenda of these multinationals, as well as the almost universal reach of their vastly expensive commodity campaigns. One of aims of the project is to expose the failure of advertising to accurately represent ethnic diversity. It argues that the array of product images, so omni-present in shops and television screens, serve as both cultural artefacts and social constructs that bolster stereotyping. The reason Paris refers to this project as 'part museum' is because his ‘portrait-products’ aim to function the way collections of cultural artefacts built by Western anthropological museums do, and so highlight the difficulties these collections now face in the politics and ethics of their historically imperialist ideology and self-centered worldview.

The formal qualities of the video follow a similar line of argument. Shot against the simple light-grey background of a photography studio, the products and their saturated colours take centre stage. This look is reminiscent of a ‘United Colours of Benetton'-style campaign, a global fashion brand and thus by extension hyper-capitalist company. During the early 90s, the same time H.U.M.A.N.W.O.R.L.D. was set up, Benetton made a name for themselves with controversial campaign images (profiting from crises including AIDS and mafia-related assassinations), as well as studio-based shoots where racially diverse groups of people, often children, posed in a colourful array of jumpers and slacks. The messaging was simple enough: ‘united (skin) colours’ of the world equals their wide choice of shades, weaponising diversity to give the company a global and progressive outlook. So, whilst We Are the Children — Part II is clearly making an argument against advertising that peddles a one-sided narrative and Western worldview, what would Paris make of such a campaign?

'We Are the Children' is probably best known as a lyric in the 1985 charity single recorded by ‘USA for Africa’, an American supergroup whose chosen moniker unashamedly smacks of cultural and political hegemony over Others. That line is followed up with a lyric that feels apt when questioning the position of the corporates that pass-by in We Are the Children: 'There's a choice we're making / We're saving our own lives.' If anything, the ‘liberal’ position of a company like Benetton points to the far-reaching grasp of commodity culture; the morphing packaging hereby also represents how capitalism can morph to take on any ideological shape, as long as that benefits its own financial gain. Guillaume Paris both exposes the system and adds a layer of complex mystique.