David Bowie Dead: Not A Joke Or A Fake Information

While I am watching “Ziggy Stardust” on TV, the news from Monday, 11th of January once again jumped to my mind: David Bowie is dead. Not a joke or a fake information. « The Man who sold the World », 69 years old, died from cancer last night.
I can’t believe the speaker on the radio… I can feel a tear on my cheek when hearing the first musical notes of “Under Pressure” as a vibrant homage to the Thin White Duke.

David Bowie was not for me just a singer, he was an avant-gardist, a great artist mixing all materials : theater, pop music, instrumental sounds, poetry, mime, fashion and fancy dress, acting and painting. His entire carrier long, he always managed to adapt his style to his contemporaries and differ at the same time, creating symbolic alter egos known by everybody today.

I remember the first time I listened to Bowie : it was a cover of “Heroes” by Oasis! I was 13 and I was a big fan of Brit Pop. I can actually say that Noel Gallagher introduced me to David Bowie! As soon as I heard this song, I immediately wanted to know more about his original author.

Years later I learned many things about the man and his works, specially his masterpieces. As far as I felt concerned by Pop Art, I realized the link between Bowie and Warhol and the Factory, and started to understand the influence of this great artist on Pop culture.

In 2013, I went to London in the only goal to visit the great exhibition “David Bowie is” at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A was given unprecedented access to the David Bowie archives to curate the first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie, one of the most pioneering and influential performers of modern times. “David Bowie is” featured more than 300 objects that include handwritten lyrics, original costumes, fashion, photography, film, music videos, set designs and Bowie’s own instruments and album artwork. It was a big event and a real pleasure to visit it. I keep in mind the display of characters diversity he embodied and the huge contribution of Bowie to the world of music.
The itinerant exhibition was next presented in Paris. The “David Bowie is” exhibition stopped at the Philharmonie de Paris on May 2015. During thirteen weeks “David Bowie is” welcomed almost 200,000 international visitors. In fact I unfortunately didn’t succeed to see it a second time, because of the overwhelming demand. “David Bowie is” then headed to the next stop on its world tour : Melbourne, from July to November 2015.

When I listened to “Blackstar” for the first time a few weeks ago, I was so happy and so excited to find again my old hero. I even dreamed to attend a Bowie concert one day… I didn’t notice he was sick. But reality replaced fiction and David Bowie joined my other heroes in Heaven.

As a journalist wrote on last Monday newspaper, maybe he’s not dead, he has just left to travel the universe, to check if there is really life on Mars… I pretty agree agree with this idea.