Dix10

In the spring of 1982, artists Roma Napoli & JJ Dow Jones founded the Group Dix10.

At the turn of the 1980s in Europe and across the Atlantic emerged a renewed taste for figurative art supported in Berlin by the Gallery AM Moritzplatz, in Rome by the Trans-avant-guard and in New York by the Graffiti movement. In Paris, the "fast action" aesthetic of "The Figuration Libre" was pushed forward by market players and cultural institutions to impose itself on the artistic scene.

It was during the spring of 1982, in this period of excitement that Roma Napoli and Dow Jones, who studied at the Fine Arts university in Aix en Provence, founded the Group DIX10. After more than six months of intense work, they inaugurated on January 22, 1983 on Rue de la Verrerie in the Beaubourg area in Paris, their installation "Le Premier Supermarché de l'Art".  The two floors of Gallery 74 was transformed into a replica of a "self-service / cash & carry" supermarket. More than three thousand paintings, depicting everyday consumer products, were painted on cardboard. The visitors could purchase and take away the artworks at the same price as the products in normal stores.

The installation became an event and the 'super market gallery' shelves were emptied in only a few days time. Well known newspapers such as Liberation, Express, Actuel Magazine and the Pop Club on France Inter Radio all reported the event enthusiastically.

Always close to 'Philosophy of Action', the artists offered their vision and a renewed approach to the artistic sphere and the situation of the artist in the world. Dix10 then launched themselves into a 'controlled drift' and moved to Milan for a year to realize the installation "Le Palais du Tapis" [The Palace of Carpets].  After this they moved to Berlin for five months to prepare the exhibition "Sex Shop" and soon after back to Paris for the installation "Dix10 Toys" at the Gallery Lara Vincy. Then they set up their studio for a year in the Cable Building on Broadway, New York. They prepared the exhibitions "New York Gift Shop" and "The First East Village Shopping Mall".

In 1987 the artists took over an old varnishing workshop in the Passage Saint Bernard, in the Bastille district of Paris which was starting to gain importance on the artistic circuit. Known as the “DIX10 MUSEUM", this multifunctional space served as a workshop, an exhibition space, a photo studio and even occasionally as an After Hours underground bar.

Since then, Roma Napoli and Dow Jones have produced a vast number of exhibitions, installations and live performances. It is with a great pictorial freedom, a broad aesthetic field and a wry and intelligent humor that they have produced all of their works. Many are in prestigious collections such as those of Antoine de Galbert, Cornette de Saint Cyr, Agnès b., Bob Jeudy...

Some interventions over time...

2019 : "Planète Bivouac" Galerie Lithium, Paris, "Caméleon au Dollar" in Salbris [France],  6th Biennal of Contemporary Art and Sculpture, "Rêves de Magie" Galerie Frédéric Roulette and Châteauform, Paris. 2015 : "Les Kitum DIX10" Mons [Belgium], European Capitale of culture. 2014 : "Asphalte Jungle" Galerie Lara Vincy Paris. 2013 : Mural "I Love Bonobo" Le MUR, Paris. 2000 : "The 100 Smiles of Mona Lisa" Metropolitan Museum, Tokyo [Japan]. 1992 : "Interdit d'interdire" Espace Graslin [CRDC / Le Lieu Unique], Nantes [France]

“The Dix10 group has been agitating the contemporary art world for almost 40 years with their unclassifiable, provocative, offbeat and ironic works, that are deeply in tune with their time. We can take the full measure of their creation, understand the links they maintain in our time and, above all, grasp the visionary power of the positions taken, defended and held by the artists both vis-à-vis their artistic practices and artistic world."

- Jean-Louis Poitevin [Art critic and doctor of philosophy. Co-founder of the cultural review 'TK 21']

Dix10 are included in the "2020 New Dictionary of Contemporary Artists" edited by Pascale Le Thorel-Daviot. Ed. Larousse. 

Translation Black Sifichi