There is No Spoon – First Solo Show

2007 / Interactive / Sculpture

Technical support : Thierry Sablon in the workshop of Polo Vanden Bossche
Production : Józsa Gallery.

“Do not try to bend the spoon — that’s impossible. Instead, only try to understand the truth: there is no spoon.”

The Matrix

The poetic force that is released from certain works is the only means I know to evacuate what separates the physical from the mental, to attempt to bring together this body-mind reality. In my view, the soul is within the body, which is why I work on pieces that are addressed at the spectator’s whole body, hence also the objects of experience. For example, the Sablier (the Hourglass) or the saucepan in There is No Spoon are not autonomous works; they only exist through the relationship that the visitor will weave with them, by confronting their body with the object (placing one’s head in the saucepan or looking at oneself in the tray of the hourglass). They are not necessarily communicating objects, but have been created so that the visitor has an experience by means of them. Not only is there the object of experience, but also the space.

Thomas IsraelLA MéMOIRE DU CORPS Entretien avec Philippe Franck

LA CASSEROLE IDENTITAIRE

Interactive video scupture.

Aluminium, steel, computer, camera, infrared sensor — 190x161x82cm.
Supported by the Commission Arts Numérique

After touring for 10 years in Europe, the sculpture is now in the collection of the MigratieMuseumMigration

An amusing experience, a kind of video game of consequences, endlessly revitalizing itself, recording the passing faces and mixing them in real time with the faces of each visitor. 

Le Mobile

Sculpture
Steel, video projector, DVD player, mask — 180 x 100 x 27 cm.

There is a world of difference between the skin of the mask and what is projected onto it, similar to the distance between the physical and the symbolic body.

Le Sablier

Interactive / Sculpture
Video sculpture — Steel, glass, sand, screen,
Camera — 193 x 161 x 82 cm.

Evocation of the experience of the ego’s dissolution: the ego is dissolving endlessly, and if the self-image holds it for a moment, it finally lets go because of the accumulated weight, dropping the traces of the past.