TOXIC HONEY takes as its starting point the idea that the contemporary art world functions like an ecosystem.

By asking artists to work without fair remuneration in return, the artistic ecosystem finds itself profoundly unbalanced.

With TOXIC HONEY, Elsa Leydier raises awareness on the subject, while at the same time proposing a concrete solution that stems from the work.

The work consists of a set of photographs, shown according to the established codes of the visual arts (framed photographic prints, under glass, hung on the wall). However, the exhibition is disrupted by a number of elements, as each frame is spray-painted with a phrase.

First and foremost, TOXIC HONEY enables activist messages to be deployed in favour of raising awareness of the need for fair remuneration and consideration for their work, in places where artists are usually asked to express themselves in no more than the academic presentation of their work.

But the work takes on another dimension as the pieces are put up for sale. Once the work has been acquired, collectors can choose to delete the message blocking access to the image, or keep it as part of the work.

Reclaiming the «power» over artistic work (which artists are often deprived of in the system as it currently operates) can only be regained once the economic transaction has been completed, and the financial flow has reached the artist who produced the work — thus rebalancing the artistic ecosystem on the scale of the work itself.