Sylvie Blocher’s work for the Biennale shows a young white man whose body has been partially blackened. Along with many other people the artist feels that in the wake of the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States in 2008, "America has once again become that fantasised, desirable place of old, far removed from the militaristic, autocratic image of a democracy on its last legs": a non-authoritarian territory that may yet contain the seeds of a utopia. In a soft voice Blocher’s character sings a song made up of fragments from Obama’s "A More Perfect Union" speech of 18 March 2008. This artist’s oeuvre pays special attention to clans and identity groups, exploring the organisational complexity and modes of recognition at work in, for example, an American football team or a carefully self-selected nucleus of millionaires. Loyalties shape behaviour and we are all actors within the groups we belong to: how do we react to and cope with the realities of the world? Who governs our behaviour? How do we fashion ourselves?
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