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Le Cabinet des Arts – I. Après

Performance - Installation, Living novel, Chapter I. Àpres

Technique: Mixed-Media, collected objects, spotlights, black velvet, strings

Size: room min. 20 qm

The installation “Le Cabinet des Arts – I. Après” is the first work in a series of nine. The series is kind of a living novel, where one can experience single chapters from a novel live. The main character of this living novel is Madame Magritte. The observer enters the installation through a black velvet. Only one person at a time is allowed into the room. After the observer’s eyes have adjusted to the darkness, he finds himself in a large, cold room of about 25 square meters completely covered with black velvet curtain. Precious objects are floating in the room, lightened with spotlights. Inside the installation the viewer is surrounded by the speech of a calm female voice.

Excerpt from the audio text:

“I was standing in front of a plateau. Circular and black. Like the night. It was empty. Unbearably empty. I was so afraid. Something sparkled in the middle. Pretty. I liked it. I didn’t see anything. Only this sparkle. I could not recognize it, I wanted to know it so much, was running around it all the time. Faster and faster. Then, suddenly, time stood still. The hand of the clock was broken. I stood there for a long time, bent over. The tips of my toes met the rim. The first step… I was so afraid of it, but I knew it, I had to go. I stepped onto it. It felt like dying. When I looked back, all of you were standing on the side. You were waving at me so sweetly. The parting hung so heavy on my heart. You told me once, Monpti, “The black captures me. It yells at me.

You reproached me for shooting the moon.

I shot it so it would finally be black in my room. I loved you. All.”

Chapter I. Le Cabinet des Arts - Après

Chapter II.
Le Cabinet des Arts - Madame Chose