Over the week of June 15th the IEA hosted Paolo Cirio as our artist in residence. No stranger to controversy, Cirio’s work investigates various issues in fields such as privacy, copyright, economy and democracy. Producing prints, installations, videos, online performances and interventions in public spaces, Cirio has exhibited in international museums and institutions, has won numerous prestigious art awards, and has had his controversies covered by global media outlets such as CNN, Fox News, and the Huffington Post, among others.

Throughout the week, Cirio focused on a continuing project entitled Overexposed, which centers on a series of nine unauthorized photos of high-ranking U.S. intelligence officials. The photos, found via social media and taken in informal and private contexts, were processed and laser cut from acetate sheets as stencils. With these registrable stencils, Cirio set about creating full color, CMYK graffiti paintings of David Petraeus and John Brennan of the CIA, and James Clapper and Michael Hayden of the NSA. Like the controversies that surround these public officials, Cirio mined for and took private information, except, with his work, he rendered it for all to see.

Below are images of Paolo at work: