00:00I'm Antoine Waterkens, welcome to ArtCurlen.
00:17I'm showing here with Fred and Ferry Gallery, together with Leila Aydoslu, we have here
00:23a duo booth and I'm very happy to be here.
00:27So we decided to put a big central piece in the middle to get a bit the attention.
00:35And this piece is in fact, this kind of pyramid structure is part of a series of four, three
00:42pyramid structures and one more apart that you will see later.
00:48So this, we could call them cutouts or in fact we could also call them theatre props
00:56for a hypothetical theatre play.
00:58So a theatre play will never happen or exist.
01:04So now you see them presented this way, but normally when I have a solo show or a bigger
01:10exhibition I would take different of this series of theatre props and mix them together,
01:18mix all the stories together, shovel the cards, I call it shovel the cards, to make new composition.
01:24But then they are more presented like a theatre depot, like a stockage of a theatre.
01:31And this is important for me, the stockage, because there the pieces just are in rest
01:37and lie, they just are resting until the theatre happens.
01:44It's like the time before the theatre play and for me the time before the theatre play
01:50creates more possibilities, because then the viewer can come in and activate the theatre
01:55play by its own.
01:58But every series, like this series is based on a story, but the story doesn't need to
02:04be clear for the viewer.
02:07And here I started with the book of Victor Hugo, Le Notre Dame de Paris, The Hunchback
02:13they say in English.
02:15Victor Hugo was somebody who did a lot of research before he wrote books, and in this
02:21book there is a court of miracles, La Cour des Miracles.
02:25These were real places that existed in different medieval cities, it were in fact like favelas,
02:33where all criminals, all beggars, all prostitutes gathered and lived.
02:39And they had also a caste system, so there were kings following with vassals.
02:45Why was it called the court of miracles?
02:47Because the beggar who couldn't see or walk outside of the court, suddenly could see or
02:54walk when he...
02:55So that's why miracles.
02:56Yeah, it were places where nobody dared to go, even the police at that time, or the knights.
03:02And so here I started with this series.
03:07So there were already Romas in that time in Europe, and this is the Roma king, which
03:16I found a kind of Indian Roma image.
03:20And that's what I always do, I mix the pieces, I cut them, so I still cut the cutouts in
03:26different figures that refer to their own cultural history or other references.
03:33For example, the Roma king has magical powers in the book.
03:37So downstairs I put this witch who's drawing this summon circle to summon demons.
03:44There's also a king or a vassal of the mutilated soldiers, or the pretending to be mutilated
03:52soldiers, because you never knew.
03:55And he's represented in a book like a drunkard who likes to touch women, and there's a prostitute
04:02sitting on his lap.
04:04That was a difficult figure to find.
04:06I don't know if you know, I took then Falstaff, you know the book?
04:11That's also a drunk guy who likes to touch, a drunk knight who likes to touch women.
04:17And this is in fact Orson Welles playing Falstaff in Chimes in Midnight.
04:22And the under part is a series of the eight big vices in medieval times.
04:30And one is gula, of eating and drinking too much.
04:34So this is why you have this Eberschwein in a wine ton, and the wine already coming out.
04:43So this is what I mean.
04:45They refer to each other, but they're different characters.
04:48And they're also painted in a different way.
04:51And here you have from the same series, that's also a nice one, it's Avarice.
04:58I don't know how to call it in English, when you don't like to spend money and you keep
05:03your money.
05:05So this is a begging frog, and he's so avar that he has his house on his back.
05:14Because this is a mattress that I wanted to paint in a bit Mondrian way.
05:20And then in the back you again have another witch.
05:24So yeah, there's all these interconnections.
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