a lecture as guided tour by Chris Dercon

introduction by Willem Oorebeek

Sunday December 2, half an hour before his guided tour started, Chris Dercon looked at the Locus Solus Domesticus exhibition. There are plenty of “bollekes”, dots, knots, “petits boutons” in the exhibition, he noted, and those dots, knots are looking back at us, the viewers.

Because of the great number of visitors Chris decided not to walk through the exhibition, but to give a lecture which started with a brief introduction of Raymond Roussel. Roussel is “en vogue”, it seems Roussel is always more or less “en vogue”, inspiring artists, writers, curators. Dali, having a retrospective exhibition in Centre Pompidou until March 2013, was influenced by Roussel, the Neue Züricher Zeitung published a long article about Roussel in the last Saturday newspaper.

After the introduction Chris sped up and posed questions: “Is it possible to make art and continue making art in a post critical era?” “Art that doesn’t allow any contamination of reality is an indifferent art”. “We think that we know everything about art by travelling around the world to see all exhibitions, that is bullocks!” Impressions d’Afrique, Paul Bowles, Serendipity, Knots, Dots, Bollekes, Petits Boutons, Michel Leiris, Alfred Jarry, Jean-Luc Moulène’s mushrooms staring at us, plenty of associations.

Roussel’s Locus Solus is just a framework for the exhibition, like Dogma is for Lars von Trier. You need rules, work with a set of rules, a set of parameters which are binding you. Locus Solus Domesticus has been made with a set of rules for restriction, and that finally creates more freedom. The dots, knots, bollekes and petits boutons return regularly, as a mantra, and Chris made the quote that it made him aware of “seeing oneself seen”. Art is contingent these days, also the makers, of all art forms, like dancers; Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s dancers are going to sing, the musicians are going to dance. It is a set of possibilities, perhaps again disobedience is going to fresh it up, or an exodus is going to take place.

It was a very rich lecture Chris Dercon gave, and a great honour to have him in Institut de Carton. Thanks a lot Chris, also for the aftertalk about textiles.

Chris Dercon on dots, knot's, bollekes, petits boutons and seeing oneself seen

guided tour audience on Sunday December 2 2012