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Sire, Je Suis De L'ôtre Pays 19.02 – 24.04.2016 Vincent Meessen Sire, je suis de l’ôtre pays Introduction / Inleiding FR Depuis plus de dix ans, l’artiste belge artistiques et intellectuels inconnus à ce Vincent Meessen (né à Baltimore en 1971, jour entre l’Internationale situationniste et E.-U.) explore les facettes multiples et le Congo. contestées de la modernité occidentale. En Se référant au projet situationniste revisitant des épisodes oubliés ou négligés d’édification d’une cité expérimentale sur de notre passé colonial, Meessen met en une île déserte, Meessen construit une lumière les inévitables points aveugles installation sculpturale ambitieuse en forme d’une interprétation eurocentrique de de labyrinthe. L’idée de l’île implique à la l’histoire. Sa pratique fait preuve d’un fois une séparation du monde et sa possible engagement dans la collaboration recréation. La question demeure : jusqu’où interdisciplinaire et d’actions au-delà des l’art peut-il aller dans la production de sites frontières de l’art. Dans cette optique, il a d’expériences collectives qui aspirent à défriché une partie méconnue de l’héritage changer le monde ? influent de l’Internationale situationniste qui a si radicalement bouleversé les relations entre culture, politique et vie quotidienne. NL Al meer dan tien jaar verdiept de Bien qu’attiré par l’Internationale Belgische kunstenaar Vincent Meessen situationniste, Meessen porte un regard (°1971 in Baltimore, VS) zich in de vele, vaak critique sur sa mythologie, notamment sur la gecontesteerde gezichten van de westerse consécration de Guy Debord comme le héros moderniteit. Door vergeten of verdrongen et de Paris comme son épicentre. Son œuvre passages uit ons koloniale verleden op te récente met en avant certains acteurs moins rakelen legt Meessen de blinde vlekken bloot visibles de différentes parties du monde, qui die een eurocentrische kijk op de geschiedenis complexifient les grands récits du onvermijdelijk met zich meebrengt. Zijn mouvement. praktijk steunt in grote mate op interdiscipli- Sire, je suis de l’ôtre pays, la plus grande naire samenwerking en een ambitie om exposition individuelle de Meessen à ce voorbij de grenzen van de kunst te gaan. Zo jour, intègre divers médias, allant de l’image ging hij aan de slag met de invloedrijke en mouvement et ses structures de nalatenschap van de Situationistische présentation à la typographie, ainsi que des Internationale die de verhoudingen tussen documents situationnistes rares. Pour cette cultuur, politiek en het dagelijks leven exposition, l’artiste a créé un dispositif radicaal overhoop gooide. Hoewel Meessen spatial étendu pour l’installation filmique zich aangetrokken voelt door deze beweging, One.Two.Three. Coproduite par WIELS, blijft hij kritisch voor haar mythologie, niet l’œuvre a été créée à l’origine pour le in de laatste plaats voor de canonisering van pavillon belge à la Biennale de Venise 2015 Guy Debord als haar held en Parijs als haar et est montrée pour la première fois en epicentrum. In zijn recente werk vestigt hij de Belgique. Structuré autour d’une chanson aandacht op minder zichtbare figuren uit contestataire redécouverte par Meessen verschillende uithoeken van de wereld, die de dans les archives du situationniste belge grote verhalen van de Situationistische Raoul Vaneigem, le film révèle des échanges Internationale wat minder eenduidig maken. Sire, je suis de l’ôtre pays is Meessens heritage of the Situationist International, a grootste solotentoonstelling tot nu toe. Ze movement that upset so radically the maakt gebruik van diverse media, van het relations between culture, politics and bewegende beeld en de bijbehorende presen- everyday life. While drawn to the tatiestructuren tot typografisch werk, in Situationist International, Meessen is combinatie met zeldzame situationistische critical of its mythology, not least the documenten. Voor deze presentatie bedacht consecration of Guy Debord as its hero and de kunstenaar een uitgebreide ruimtelijke Paris as its epicentre. His work highlights omlijsting voor de filmische installatieOne. certain actors in different parts of the world Two.Th ree. Dit werk, een coproductie met whose less visible contributions complicate WIELS, werd oorspronkelijk gecreëerd voor the grand narratives of the movement. het Belgische paviljoen tijdens de Biënnale Sire, je suis de l’ôtre pays, Meessen’s van Venetië in 2015 en wordt hier voor het largest solo exhibition to date, incorporates eerst in België vertoond. Het is opgebouwd media that range from the moving image rond een protestlied dat Meessen ontdekte in and its display structures to typography, de archieven van de Belgische situationist together with rare situationist documents. Raoul Vaneigem. Zo brengt de film de tot For this presentation, the artist has created dusver onbekende artistieke en intellectuele an expanded spatial setting for the filmic wisselwerkingen tussen de Situationistische installation One.Two.Three. Co-produced by Internationale en Congo aan het licht. WIELS, this work was originally created for In verwijzing naar het plan van de the Belgian Pavilion at the 2015 Venice situationisten om een experimentele stad te Biennial and is shown here for the first time stichten op een onbewoond eiland bouwde in Belgium. Structured around a protest Meessen bovendien een ambitieuze sculptu- song rediscovered by Meessen in the rale installatie in de vorm van een labyrint. archives of Belgian situationist Raoul De idee van een eiland suggereert isolement Vaneigem, the film reveals hitherto van de wereld, maar ook de mogelijkheid om unknown artistic and intellectual exchang- die wereld te herscheppen. De vraag blijft: es between the Situationist International hoe ver kan de kunst gaan bij het creëren van and the Congo. sites voor collectieve ervaringen die streven In reference to the situationists’ plan to naar wereldwijde omwentelingen? construct an experimental city on an uninhabited island, Meessen has further- more built an ambitious sculptural installa- EN For over ten years, Belgian artist tion in the form of a labyrinth. The idea of Vincent Meessen (b. 1971 in Baltimore, the island implies both a separation from USA) has been exploring the multiple and the world and its possible re-creation. The contested faces of Western modernity. By question remains: how far can art go in revisiting forgotten or overlooked episodes producing sites for collective experiences of our colonial past, Meessen exposes the that aspire to change in the world? blind spots that inevitably accompany a Eurocentric account of history. His practice demonstrates a commitment to interdisci- plinary collaboration and agency beyond the borders of art. In this light, he has recently been mining the influential Wild Architect SIISIS One.Two.Three Index Index FR Dans l’entrée de l’exposition, on peut NL In de inkom van de tentoonstelling hangt voir le portrait frappant d’un jeune homme een frappant portret van een jonge zwarte noir lisant la douzième numéro de la revue man die het twaalfde en laatste nummer van de l’Internationale situationniste (1969). Le de Internationale situationniste (1969) leest. portrait au pastel est de l’artiste sénégalais Dit werk in pastel werd rond 1973–1974 Issa Samb et date de 1973-1974. Le modèle gemaakt door de Senegalese kunstenaar Issa est Omar Blondin Diop, un révolutionnaire Samb. De geportretteerde is Omar Blondin sénégalais, militant anticolonial ayant Diop, een antikoloniale revolutionair uit étudié à Paris et qui prit part aux Senegal die in Parijs studeerde en er deelnam événements de mai 1968. Le portrait est tiré aan de gebeurtenissen van mei 1968. Het d’une photographie anonyme de Diop qui portret is gebaseerd op een bestaande, appartient à la série environnante de anonieme foto van Diop, die terugkeert in de 26 tirages encadrés, intitulée Index (2015). omringende reeks van 26 ingelijste prenten Dans cet alphabet en partie visuel, en partie met de titel Index (2015). In dit deels visuele, textuel, Diop illustre la lettre D. En dépit de deels tekstuele alfabet staat Diop voor de son titre officiel, Index établit des letter D. Het werk brengt via een reeks associations inattendues entre une séquence portretten en documenten een imaginair de portraits et de documents issus de netwerk in beeld van twintigste-eeuwse mouvements d’avant-garde internationaux avant-gardestromingen, van het dadaïsme du XXe siècle, des dadaïstes aux tot de situationisten, en hun connecties in situationnistes, et de leurs rapports avec Afrika in de koloniale tijd. l’Afrique à l’époque coloniale. Net als de muurteksten van de tentoon- Tout comme les cartels de l’exposition, stelling zijn de letters van dit alfabet gezet in les lettres de cet alphabet sont en Belgicka, Belgicka, een opensource-lettertype dat une police de caractères open source, Meessen ontwikkelde in samenwerking met développé par Meessen en collaboration de typograaf Pierre Huyghebaert. Anders avec le typographe Pierre Huyghebaert. dan de vastheid van de meeste lettertypes is Contrairement à la rigidité standards Belgicka ontworpen om eindeloos te worden typographiques courants, la Belgicka est aangepast door de gebruiker. Ook de titel van conçue de manière à pouvoir être de tentoonstelling is trouwens een aanpas- indéfiniment modifiée par ses utilisateurs. sing. Het motto ‘Sire, je suis de l’autre pays’ Le titre de l’exposition est également une (Sire, ik kom uit een ander land) uit het adaptation, extraite de l’épigraphe du manifest ‘Formularium voor een nieuw manifeste d’Ivan Chtcheglov de 1953, urbanisme’, dat in 1953 werd geschreven door « Formulaire pour un urbanisme nouveau ». Ivan Chtcheglov, werd – in een geest van Dans un esprit de pollinisation culturelle wederzijdse culturele beïnvloeding – door croisée, Meessen adapte « Sire, je suis de Meessen aangepast aan de fonetische logica l’autre pays » en suivant la logique van de Creoolse talen. phonétique des langues créoles. EN In the entrance to the exhibition hangs a striking portrait of a young black man reading the twelfth and final issue of the Internationale situationniste (1969). The pastel portrait was made by Senegalese artist Issa Samb around 1973-74.
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