During the cultural city festival Antwerp Baroque 2018. Rubens Inspires, the M HKA, the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, juxtaposes the spirit of the baroque masters with the vision of contemporary top artists. With the exhibition Sanguine/Bloedrood (Blood Red), curator Luc Tuymans aims to overwhelm the visitor by placing key works from the baroque of, among others, Francisco de Zurbarán and Caravaggio, in dialogue with works by classical contemporary masters, such as On Kawara and Edward Kienholz, as well as new works by contemporary stars such as Zhang Enli, Takashi Murakami, Michaël Borremans, Sigmar Polke and Tobias Rheberger. 

antwerpenbarok2018.be

Thierry De Cordier

(c)image: Syb'l S'Pictures
Le Discours Alpin [The Alpine Discourse], 1987
Print , 42 x 25 cm
ink, paper

Le discour alpin is a black-and-white silkscreen of a desolate mountain landscape. In the gap of the mountain stands a man, the only human presence in this desolate landscape. The landscape is painted; the rock face looks like a picture. The landscape is lighter and has a misty and hazy character. The rock face is darker and more prominent. For that reason the man immediately grabs our attention. The male figure looks like a drawing that was later glued on. He is holding a text in front of him: the discourse of the Alps. There is more text underneath the drawing: J’ai décidé de changer le monde… [I decided to change the world]. The letters are elegant, classic capital letters. The male figure is the artist himself. De Cordier has held numerous speeches, sometimes in the middle of a crowd, sometimes in deserted places, but the effect remains the same: there is no real communication. De Cordier, however, wants to communicate and tries to do so with his art. Nevertheless, his communication quickly becomes non-functional by uttering it, as for example in the alpine discourse, in a desolate mountain landscape. The artist has the will to change the world, but he also realises that it is not possible, that he will not succeed.