The Republic of Colours

Text and images for the exhibition in honor of the 100 years of the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme, organized by Wolu-Culture in march and april 2002.

For all art the real and fundamental criterium of quality is political. Could shapes and colours be laid out in a way deeply coherent with a topic apparently as removed as the judicial and political topic of Human Rights ? The thinking here must certainly focus on symbolic values rather than imaginary ones, although the result may be expressed through images.
The illustrative approach to political art, with its production of easily identified emblems, is limited, due to the deep affinity of image and violence. The themes of tolerance and respect for minorities imposes a consideration for the non-mimetic values of the impersonal, the conceptuel, the abstract, the incomplete, the asymetrical. I found it interesting to test on this occasion the cultural possibilities of the paradoxical figuration of synesthesia.

The painting I exhibited in the Palais de Justice of Brussels is a synesthetic compositions of names with a very heavy political sense. The aim is a departure from the magic of names and from the doctrines of the naturality of the sign which, with other aspects of Plato's realism, constitute the archaïc though persistent foundation of totalitarian thought.

The Republic of Colours.
Self-portrait as Fidel Castro, Dziga Vertov, Adolf Hitler.
Acrylic on linen. 110x100cm. March 2002.

Another painting transposes the same principle to the depiction of names of historical figures of the Chinese revolution.

The Republic of the Middle.
Self-portrait as Kiong Houa, Chou En Lai, Tchang Kai Chek, Mao Tse Toung.
Acrylic on linen, 110x110cm, may 2002.

The Republic of the Middle.
Self-portrait as Kiong Houa, Chou En Lai, Tchang Kai Chek, Mao Tse Toung.
Three acrylic sketches 14x14cm on papier d'Arches 30x30cm, may 2002.

 

The painting in the exhibition was shown next to a text,
La République des couleurs (A5, 60pages).

This document can be read on-line
(and in the french original) :

 

While preparing the text and the painting, other images presented themselves to me, on iconographic themes associated with ideas of Justice.

The Weight of Souls.
Giclée print on watercolor Arches paper. March 2002. Dim: 28x28cm. 8ex.

Le Rose et le Noir.
Giclée print on watercolor Arches paper. March'02. Dim: 36x24. 12ex.

The Tomb of Justice in Brussels.
Giclée print on watercolor Arches paper.
March'02. Dim: 55x42,5cm. 8ex.