DIDIER VERMEIREN

“The questions that nag Vermeiren are those of sculpture from its inception.”

Jean-Pierre Criqui

Monument à Victor Hugo (1991), by the Belgian artist Didier Vermeiren (1951), is one of two works with this title. While the sculpture from the Mudam collection presents two identical plinths, one on top of the other, in the second piece the wooden mould of the plaster plinth is mounted on the latter. Making very clear reference in its title to the original monument by Auguste Rodin, the work triggers a multitude of allusions and associations in the observer.

But the work is itself a tautology – it is a plinth that presents itself, and thus transforms from a supporting structure into the core of the work. Vermeiren’s art draws the observer’s gaze towards the – often neglected – existential conditions of sculpture, exposing its construction and function, and thereby providing a manifesto-like commentary on sculpture and how it is presented.

Eldorado
01/07/2006 - 20/11/2006