COURT STATEMENT
June 28, 2023, Paris High Court, France
Author's intent:
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For so long, it has been hard for me to express my true thoughts and feelings.
Growing up as an adult in my 20s was the moment in my life when I manifested the most social conformism. Most things I said and did then were not expressed because I wanted to, but because people expected them from me.
Since I've been notified that I'll be tried for invasion of privacy, people have been asking me two questions. The first question is about my defence. I always say that my defence is not so important in this case and that my lawyer will decide.
The other question, which has been asked in equal proportions, is, "What are you going to wear?"
About this, I used to find it much more interesting to talk about ... until I realised that people had a very narrow vision of what a defendant should wear in a courtroom. Blazer. Straight trousers. Black. Grey. Beige. White. Strict and boring clothes to look 'serious' and 'good' to the judges, the press and public opinion.
Are you a serious person just because you look serious ?
Are you a good person just because you look good ?
Are you an innocent person just because you look innocent ?
Obviously not.
I've stopped discussing what to wear at my trial with other people when I understood that the courtroom was one of the most rigidly, socially codified places in terms of fashion nowadays... probably even more so than the church.
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I've stopped discussing it, but I've decided to wear the 'unwearable' : a sparkly dress in this austere, obsequious place that the courtroom is.
Will wearing a sparkly dress make me guiltier ?
It shouldn't.
The idea of advertising for my book at my trial was inspired by
A Cloud in Trousers by Vladimir Mayakovsky.
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Some lines of this poem refer to a story that was covered by the press at the beginning of the 20th century : a man condemned to death used his last words to advertise Van Houten's cocoa.
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...Good
To yell
When thrown to the gallows,
"Drink Van Houten's Cocoa!"
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My book, which had just been published, faced a very strong omerta from the press whose representatives were, at the same time, eager to talk legal, political and dick matters with me.
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The trial was an occasion to bring some poetry to the event while drifting the public discourse towards what really mattered to me : great feelings, instead of small emotions.​