 |
| 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 |
