Détournement : an art movement that love toys.

We all have youthful heroes. Whether they come from a movie, a game, a cartoon, a series, a toy or a comic, there is necessarily a character that has marked you and with whom you have a special relationship, like a little piece of childhood you have left.

However, some bad rascals once decided to take your heroes and smash them. Not for pure pleasure, but to make people think about what a hero is, on the fact that idolizing something is not necessarily healthy or even to rebel against these heroes who inhibit the creativity of artists by being untouchable. If these "adaptations" can sometimes come close to the genre of parody, we speak more generally of diversion. This act, often militant, is closely linked to modern and contemporary art. Marcel Duchamp by inventing the ready-made diverts objects from their primary utilitarian functions from 1913.

Pop-art in the 60s and the work of Barbara Kruger in the 80s, among others, confirmed this practice.

To summarize roughly, we can divide the diversions into two categories. In the cinema, we will of course quote "La classe américaine" of Hazanavicius or “Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid”.

We also mention the illustrator Tohad and his work "Badass fanarts" which hijacks a multitude of iconic characters with the sole aim of making them Badass.

In the toy world, big names have been hijacked with the work of Carmen Gomes and her "Barbitches" which pervert the chaste and silly image of the original Barbie doll.

Barbie again with Mariel Clayton, who places the famous doll in trash and cynical scenes.

Let's continue with the artist Ron English and his work "Propaganda" to which we had already devoted an article available just here!

In the world of designer toys, let's start with Jason Freeny and his XXray work centered on the dissection of fictional characters. From Looney Tunes to the protagonists of DC comics through the characters of Sesame Street or even the Gummi Bear, there is something for everyone!

Let's quickly (since we talked about it in our article on Mickey Mouse) talk about Kaws, Friendly Fire Bomb by Jason Freeny (again), PoOL’s Droopy Mouse. All three have in common the hijackings of Walt Disney's flagship mouse.

In 2019, Josh Divine brought down Astroboy, who dumped his oil on the ground because of the impact. He relapsed a year later with Mario, who this time lost his face and risks a few osteopathy sessions due to the position of his spine. There is something deeply jubilant about seeing Astro, a little flying robot, on the one hand, and Mario, a plumber leaping all over the place, wallowing. It's even reassuring to see that these seemingly infallible heroes are also subject to the same gravity as us and to the same clumsiness.

Finally, let us conclude this non-exhaustive list with the work of Soasig Chamaillard. Both material and moral misappropriation, the artist recovers damaged statues of the Virgin Mary and transforms them into a multitude of other characters. Pokemum, FrankenMary, Super Marie, Sainta Claus, Saint Goku without forgetting the Sentai Maria, it's a whole universe that is created with originally similar statuettes.