SUNLOVE - Jean-Jacques Lebel

In the 1950s, Jean-Jacques Lebel (born 1936) began to develop an unclassifiable artistic practice, which his friend Felix Guattari described as "painting transversality". Lebel was an artist and an activist, an instigator of happenings and organizer of events, a writer and publisher - he's one of the most important cultural transmitters of the second half of the 20th century.
-Alexandre Mare, Art Press

The happenings that myself and my friends organized in Europe in the years before May 1968 were, unlike those of our colleagues across the Atlantic, directed against the moral order, the dictatorship of commodities, against all self- censorship in matters of sex and politics. We turned our back on the art market and on all academia, even "activist" academia. We wanted to say and do something else, in some other way. And we did it.
-Jean-Jacques Lebel

In December 1967, the International Experimental Film Festival of Knokke-le-Zoute - EXPRMNTL 4 – created by Jacques Ledoux was a unique experience. Combining films, performances and panel discussions, it was soon transformed by waves of dissent, demonstrations and debate, culminating in a spontaneous happening by Jean-Jacques Lebel. Rare film documents by Claudia von Alemann and Jud Yalkut shed valuable light on the energized atmosphere of these rowdy events, just months before May ’68.