The series Iconotextures consists of twelve works: vast fields of 300 x 150 cm paper where blue ink assembles into a whirlwind.
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium welcome 12 monumental works by Thierry De Cordier from November 8th onwards. In this first exhibition of the artist since the Venice Biennale in 2013, the visitor can discover a series of new works called “Iconotextures”. These gigantic works on paper show thousands of definitions of God transcribed in blue ink by the artist. This series is the result of five years (2011-2016) of labor and will be on display at the RMFAB until the 22nd of January 2017.
“Iconotextures”
The series Iconotextures consists of twelve works: vast fields of 300 x 150 cm paper where blue ink assembles into a whirlwind. The artists presents a waterfall of text that links to absurdity definitions of God. Both definitions that claim and deny His existence. Oscillating between irony and the sacred, the words become the spiritual material (texture) of an image that, like an icon, materializes the invisible. Through this calligraphy of his own effusion, Thierry De Cordier reflects the absurdity that is the very idea of defining God. His Word turns to flesh. Blue as night, deep as doubt: the testimony of the inherent fragility of human consciousness.
Thierry De Cordier
Thierry De Cordier (b. 1954, Oudenaarde, Belgium) is a philosopher, visual artist, writer and poet. He currently lives and works in Ostend, Belgium. A large room dedicated to his work was on view in the exhibition The Encyclopedic Palace curated by Massimiliano Gioni at the Venice Biennale in 2013. Solo exhibitions include Landschappen at BOZAR, Brussels (2012), and Drawings at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2004-2005). He was responsible for the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1997. His monumental public work De Kapel van het Niets, in the garden of the SintNorbertus psychiatric hospital in Duffel, Belgium, was inaugurated in 2007.
The series Iconotextures consists of twelve works: vast fields of 300 x 150 cm paper where blue ink assembles into a whirlwind. The artists presents a waterfall of text that links to absurdity definitions of God. Both definitions that claim and deny His existence. Oscillating between irony and the sacred, the words become the spiritual material (texture) of an image that, like an icon, materializes the invisible. Through this calligraphy of his own effusion, Thierry De Cordier reflects the absurdity that is the very idea of defining God. His Word turns to flesh. Blue as night, deep as doubt: the testimony of the inherent fragility of human consciousness.
Thierry De Cordier
Thierry De Cordier (b. 1954, Oudenaarde, Belgium) is a philosopher, visual artist, writer and poet. He currently lives and works in Ostend, Belgium. A large room dedicated to his work was on view in the exhibition The Encyclopedic Palace curated by Massimiliano Gioni at the Venice Biennale in 2013. Solo exhibitions include Landschappen at BOZAR, Brussels (2012), and Drawings at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2004-2005). He was responsible for the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1997. His monumental public work De Kapel van het Niets, in the garden of the SintNorbertus psychiatric hospital in Duffel, Belgium, was inaugurated in 2007.
