Silicone Valet : “Il faut sauver Bartleby: éviter le naufrage grâce à un micro-management efficace”

Performance, Art-Cade galerie des Bains Douches, Marseille, 2021

“” The nature of my avocations for the last thirty years has brought me into more than ordinary contact with what would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men, of whom as yet nothing that I know of has ever been written [...] While of other law-copyists I might write the complete life, of Bartleby nothing of that sort can be done. I believe that no materials exist for a full and satisfactory biography of this man. It is an irreparable loss to literature.” Herman Melville, Bartleby the scrivener

It seems that Melville lets us have a glimpse of his plans towards Bartleby: to arouse the desire among his audience to write the biography of his character, to edify a myth around the man.

So be it !

Since then, he has been made an anti-capitalistic hero, an embodiment of escaping the hegemony of the market; his statement “I prefer not to” became a mantra, a counter strategy. He would therefore be an antipower icon, which recommends to attack the authority, the authority of the state, remotely, rather than facing it in person. The only thing wewould remember from him would be the efficiency of his active runaway, we would read his loss as a sacrifice for the common good.

Martyr ?! No !

The dreadful fate of Bartleby, if I may say so, is the unavoidable stigmata of his lack of ambition, the result of his laziness, and, i’ll give you that, the effect of a few failures of the management model which he has been subjected to. What’s unfortunate, in my opinion, is the total lack of leadership demonstrated by the office master throughout the story.
If I have to rewrite Bartleby’s story, I'll do it; and I'll do it by interlacing his dreadful fate with the rigor of the files establishing ISO 9000 standards, which allows, over adversity, to provide a qualitative, customer focused management.

We must save Bartleby !
And we will succeed, together !”