Radicale1924 I 2024
‘The artist is not present’ 2022 Mikes Poppe
A.L. Steiner (USA)
Carlos Aires (ES)
Cédric Fargues (FR)
Corentin Canesson (FR)
Elias Cafmeyer (BE)
Georges Adéagbo (BJ)
Guillaume Bijl (BE)
Hantrax Dolls (BE)
Hans Demeulenaere (BE)
Idris Sevenans (BE)
Jack Davey (UK)
Jolijn Baekelandt (BE)
Jordi Colomer (ES)
Juli Susin (GER)
Luc Deleu (BE)
Michel François (BE)
Mikes Poppe (BE)
Nienke Baeckelandt (BE)
Nicolas Bourthoumieux (BE/FR)
Pierre Martin Vielcazat (FR)
Pieter Van der Schaaf (NL)
Pierre Bismuth (FR)
Ria Pacquée (BE)
Samyra Moumouh (BE)
Shulea Cheang (TW/USA)
Siham Mehaimzi (FR)
Simon Mascchelein (BE)
Simona Mihaela Stoia (ROU/BE)
Stéphanie Lagarde (FR)
Agence Future (BE)
AFF /Furkart 1984- 2024 (FR)
Véronique Bourgoin (FR)
Wim Wauman (BE)
Yi Zhang (ROC/BE)
Zena Van den Block (BE)
‘Maisons Daura’
Maisons Daura
#⌂mD
Exhibition Date : May 15 – June 2
The inaugural act in May revolves around the artists' abode of the Catalan painter Pierre Daura. Thomas Delamarre, director of Maison des Arts Cajarc& Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, opens Maisons Daura as an exhibition space to Radicale1924.
Maisons Daura
MAISONS DAURA
This 13th-century building (13th-16th), once a patrician house on the Way of St. James, was restored by the Catalan painter Pierre Daura in 1930. Renowned for his mastery of landscape painting, Pierre Daura was also a central figure in the Cercle et Carré group, alongside Michel Seuphor and Torres Garcia, advocating for geometric construction and abstraction in opposition to surrealism. Formerly a haven of peace for Pierre Daura and his family, the house was donated by Martha Daura, daughter of Pierre Daura, to the Occitanie Region. Today, the house serves as an artist residency as part of the programming of Maison des arts Georges et Claude Pompidou, a nationally recognized contemporary art center located in Cajarc and Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. https://www.magcp.fr
Samyra Moumouh
Hans Demeulenaere
Nienke Baeckelandt
Jolijn Baeckelandt
Idris Sevenans
Ria Pacquée
Simona Mihaela Stoia Simon Masschelein
Stéphanie Lagarde
Pieter van der Schaaf
Yi Zhang
‘Saint Cirq Lapopie’ 1930 by Daniel Adrien Routier
Maison Routier
#⌂mR
Exhibition Date : June 24 – July 31
Maison Routier, now the epicenter of the residency project, will open its private spaces during the Radicale1924 exhibition. Works by Radicale 1924 artists will be presented in the house, a unique space highly valued by every artist who has had the opportunity to stay there.
MAISON ROUTIER
Situated at the core of this venture is Maison Routier, owned by Yzermans and her life partner, Sylvia Zade Routier. Particularly Sylvia’s grandfather, Dr. Daniel Adrien Routier, a prominent early 20th-century physician, former president of the French Society of Cardiology, and an ardent art enthusiast. Residing in Saint-Cirq since 2020, Chantal Yzermans and Sylvia Zade Routier have transformed Maison Routier into the residency's focal point. The house features a unique workshop, once used by Sylvia's grandfather, which artists find exceptionally valuable. A village, like Saint Cirq Lapopie, experienced by its visitors as a nostalgic sanctuary, provides fertile ground for reflection for artists.
Daniel Routier was an eminent cardiologist and physicist, co-founder of the Electrocardiograph, whose career was marked by numerous world-renowned works. However, as an unrelenting creator and a true designer before his time, he was also a painter, photographer, musician, and dandy who designed his own clothes.
His constant inventiveness also saw him excel as a mechanic and creator of original bodywork for his cars and motorcycles, as well as unique models for his bicycles.
In Saint-Cirq, Dr. Routier wrote numerous scientific works and, to unwind from these arduous tasks, often went to the banks of the Lot to fish. It is there that he enjoyed painting many small canvases in oil, which he intentionally left unfinished because, he said, what interested him particularly was what he felt about the landscape from the first impression. Passionate about photography, he annotated technical details on the back of each snapshot. He developed his photos and made his own prints, creating an interesting archive of the region, especially from the 1930s. Always inclined towards research, he managed to create panoramic views with three exposure planes of the village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. In Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, he did not practice medicine, but he always remained accessible to the villagers (who still mention him) for medical advice.’
Maison Routier
AFF/Furkart 1984-2024 (FR)
A.L. Steiner (USA)
Cédric Fargues (FR)
Corentin Canesson (FR)
Guillaume Bijl (BE)
Idris Sevenans (BE)
Jack Davey (UK)
Agence Future (BE)
Mikes Poppe (BE)
Pieter Van der Schaaf (NL)
Ria Pacquée (BE)
Shulea Cheang (TW/USA)
Simona Mihaela Stoia (ROU/BE)
Stéphanie Lagarde (FR)
Wim Wauman (BE)
Zena Van den Block (BE)
Maison Andre & Elisa Breton
#⌂mB
Exhibition Date : Sept 28 – October 13
As September unfolds, the grand finale transforms the village square into a banquet hall, constructing a village revelry around the Maison André & Elisa Breton. On the occasion of the centenary celebration of the publication of the Surrealist Manifesto, it seems essential that the Radicale 1924 project continues the village's legacy as an artists' village, demonstrating its commitment to encouraging artistic exploration and collaboration. The 100th anniversary of André Breton’s First Surrealist Manifesto, published in 1924, offers us an exceptional opportunity to revisit surrealism in the light of our times. Collaborating with the avant-garde becomes a way to question cultural history and explore creative methods that combine research and practice to be both disruptive and propositional.
MAISON ANDRE & ELISA BRETON
Summer residence of the renowned André Breton, the French writer, poet, and an international emblematic figure of surrealism. In 1951, Breton acquired this house, one of the oldest in this historic town, consisting of a main building and a tower dating back to the 13th and 12th centuries, respectively. Inspired by the World Citizenship movement, Elisa and André Breton chose to settle in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. A year later, the poet expressed his feelings, stating: "Beyond many other sites, Saint-Cirq had on me the only enchantment: the one that fixes forever. I ceased to desire elsewhere."
Every summer from 1950 to 1966, the couple stayed here with members and friends of the surrealist group, including Toyen, Benjamin Péret, Max Ernst, Dorothea Tanning, Méret Oppenheim, Man Ray, Julien Gracq, and others. Acquired by the municipality in 2016, the house is now an exhibition space entirely dedicated to surrealism. Considered the first international center of the pictorial and intellectual movement of the early 20th century, this house-museum aims to keep the spirit of surrealism alive. Today, the house is known as Maisons André Breton et Emile Joseph Rignault.
A.L. Steiner (USA)
Carlos Aires (ES)
Cédric Fargues (FR)
Corentin Canesson (FR)
Elias Cafmeyer (BE)
Georges Adéagbo (BJ)
Guillaume Bijl (BE)
Hantrax Dolls (BE)
Hans Demeulenaere (BE)
Idris Sevenans (BE)
Jack Davey (UK)
Jolijn Baekelandt (BE)
Jordi Colomer (ES)
Juli Susin (GER)
Luc Deleu (BE)
Michel François (BE)
Mikes Poppe (BE)
Nienke Baeckelandt (BE)
Nicolas Bourthoumieux (BE/FR)
Pierre Martin Vielcazat (FR)
Pieter Van der Schaaf (NL)
Pierre Bismuth (FR)
Ria Pacquée (BE)
Regan Elena (USA/FR)
Samyra Moumouh (BE)
Shulea Cheang (TW/USA)
Siham Mehaimzi (FR)
Simona Mihaela Stoia (ROU/BE)
Stéphanie Lagarde (FR)
Agence Future (BE)
Thomas Rodriguez/Archive Furkablick Furkart (FR)
Véronique Bourgoin (FR)
Wim Wauman (BE)
Zena Van den Block (BE)
Leendert Van Accoleyen (BE)
‘A Good Circle Makes A Good Square’’ 2024 Samyra Moumouh & Hans Demeuelenaere
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“… ‘Cercle et Carré, the movement of abstract artists to which Daura was associated and which was a counterweight for surrealism. That was an interesting link to us and we decided to continue on this path, rather than working around Breton or surrealism…” excerpt from interview with Tamara Beheydt and the artists , March 2024
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Reflections on ‘A Good Circle Makes A Good Square’ 2024
Hans Demeulenaere/Samyra Moumouh
April 15, 2024“A good circle makes a good square.”
“A good square makes a good circle.”
“A good circle is a good square.”
"A good square is a good circle.”
“A good form is a good form.”
“A good form is a good circle.”
“The anti of the anti-form is a good square and that makes a good circle.”
“The anti anti-form is a good form.”
Dudd, Plato, Morris.
Sitting at the kitchen table this April in the Maisons Daura, I observed the (albeit) convoluted conversation between D. and M. that resulted in the deceivingly simple title (or, rather, statement) : ’A Good Circle Makes a Good Square’ 2024. Although not all quotes are verbatim, I have tried to do justice to their deliberations.Later on that same day at an entirely different table, D earnestly shared a photograph he had imagined of their work with me. “We could be giants”, moulding and manoeuvring a tiny city scape below. “Claiming the space”, picking up a fire station here, deposing a post office there […], mammoth and gentle in their mouvements. Petrified by a mechanical device, only their hands visible. Or, perhaps, their touch is that of a farmers. They stoop to harvest the bounty of seeds sewn long ago. There, now ! The shutter sounds again. Hinged at the waist, two marionette dolls hang, arms outstretched. A single strand holds them aloft ; they wait to finish an endless dance that will never begin.
D: “It is interesting for me, who defines myself as an artist to work with someone who does not. It opens up my practice and gives both of us a sense of freedom.”
Artist and architect, architect and giant, giant and farmer, farmer and puppet, puppet and circle, ‘Cercle et Carré’.
R
Hans&samyra_2024
‘The silent apparition of a brute confusion’ 2022 Simona Mihaela Stoia
For the inaugural exhibition of Radicale 1924 at Maisons Daura, Simona Mihaela Stoia presents 'The Silent Apparition of a Brute Confusion,' a large landscape painting created in 2022. Stoia's artistic work draws inspiration from a diverse array of impressions gleaned from her surroundings.
During her residency in May 2024, a new work will be produced in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie at Maisons Daura, inspired by the picturesque surroundings of the Lot region. Amidst the layered transparency and accumulation of paint in her works, Stoia's artistic vision continues to defy easy interpretation, rooted in the rich tapestry of her environment.
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‘There are things you cannot grasp with language and other communication. I like to leave room for questions. Like a good poem: you understand it at the age you read it, but later you understand it differently. It grows on you.’
Excerpt from the interview with Tamara Beheydt and the artist. -
‘Automatic’ Reflections on ‘Comfort II’ (2023)
Simona Mihaela StoiaMarch 12, 2024
‘Comfort II’ (2023) cannot be photographed. You cannot capture it, but instead must allow yourself to become enveloped within its lustrous folds, led astray. The emotion, perhaps, that S. seeks is not perfection, but melancholy (“ça-a-été” so famously spoken of by Barthes), the very noeme of photography itself. In S.’s own words, “‘ Comfort II’ […] was based on light. […] I made it back in Belgium so I couldn’t see the light as it was in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. I thought it was best to let the subconscious speak, the feeling I had in my body when I experienced it, which is even better than memory.”
When not the memory, but the feeling within our bodies begins to decompose, what can be done to stop such dissolution ? Painting as a medium allows one to “see”. Is not writing disposed with the same power ? Writing, that allows for the transmutation of the ever evasive topoi of photography into textual constructs. Writing, resulting from a lacune; the images it conjures ultimately forge a perforating, fictional sensibility. And yet, unbeknownst to me, the nimble fingers of time have already begun their task of unraveling. The apt words evade me.
As I reflect upon Comfort II in particular, I am left with other questions. What is it to be haunted ? To host an almost palpable (visceral ?) unrest that can only be realized by way of kinetic devices ?
S. coaxes one not to attempt to construct a perfect copy - as a photograph often attempts to be- but to fantasise about such a feeling, to dream of it, to bathe in the light that is “glowing and disappearing and coming back again.” Perhaps Saint-Cirq is such a place where one goes to lose themselves, on the heels of that ever evanescent light: a sort of illusory enchantment. I tempt to imagine it now, to feel it.
(You may) consider this a long winded answer as to why there will be no picture of ‘Comfort II’ included in the present archive.
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Simona Mihaela_2024
For his participation in the Radicale1924 program Pieter van der Schaaf creates ephemeral works through collaborations with local associations and inhabitants. Echoing the 2021 edition, Pieter works again this year with the pictures of the inhabitant-cats of Saint Cirq Lapopie, silkscreened on pizza boxes at the nearby printshop Imprimerie Trace. The work will unfold throughout several stages revolving around a collective meal and its very remnants.
Pieter Van der Schaaf
Sylvia ajouta: "Je ne sais pas...évidemment ce qui peut sauver tout ça c'est l'amour." 2024
Sylvia ajouta: "Je ne sais pas...évidemment ce qui peut sauver tout ça c'est l'amour." (2024)
The work of Stéphanie Lagarde created for the 2024 edition is based on a quote from Sylvia Zade-Routier, taken from a discussion in 2022.
Both a private home and a place for research and artistic creation, Sylvia's house is the heart of the Radicale1924 project, based on the practice of hospitality. This sentence resonates like an echo of the Radicale1924 project, and more broadly, as a societal project. This sentence was the subject of a video work during the 2022 edition of Radicale1924, a textile work for the 2023 edition, and a long hand-embroidered banner, displayed in progress in May 2024 at the Daura Houses, and completed in September 2024 at the André Breton House in Saint-Cirq Lapopie
Stephanie Lagarde
‘The weight of a stone’ 2022 Yi Zhang
Yi Zhang
‘The Circle of Marokko’ (2004) courtesy of the artist
Ria Pacquée stands at the forefront of the inaugural wave of artists who delved into the realm of performance art in Belgium during the latter half of the 1970s. In Antwerp, she was part of a pioneering group of artists who explored this innovative art form, influenced by movements emanating from New York and Germany.
From the early 1980s onwards, Pacquée recurrently embodied two distinct characters in her street performances: Madame (1982-1991) and IT (1991-1995).
Fos Radicale 1924 group exhibition at Maisons Daura, Pacquée spotlights primarily in the role of observer. Since the early 1990s, she has meticulously documented her surroundings, capturing tens of thousands of images depicting people and objects encountered during her extensive walks in cities, streets, squares, and fields—not only in Antwerp but also in locales such as Athens, Bangkok, Kathmandu, New York, and Paris, among others. Pacquée organizes these photographs and slides into thematic series, often transforming them into videos or digitally enhancing them. Guided by her unique perception of colors, shapes, clothing, and lighting, which prompt her to create cohesive visual narratives. These series evoke a myriad of emotions, ranging from whimsical to poignant, and offer profound insights into human coexistence and the shaping of our shared world—transcending cultural boundaries.
Ria Pacquée
‘The Floating Archive’ 2022/ image Hans Theys
Idris Sevenans
‘Recup’ 2023, Jolijn Baeckelandt
Baeckelandt’s work tries to point out the duality between the expected and the unexpected, chaos and order, The complex relations and the movement between these. The constant ping pong. There’s a personal desire to search for chaos, a need to explore the unknown when life becomes too much of a pattern. When the chaos is too present, we go back to the safety of our old, known and repeating, structural habits.
The production process of the kitchen towels consists out of repeating mechanical movements (from tread to towel, one towel after another; mass-production). As so does the graphic design of the kitchen towel, a repeating pattern of lines and squares within a plane. This in relation to the function of this object, its repetitive nature relates to the daily repetition.
jolijn Baeckelandt
Simon Masschelein revisits his inaugural sculpture created during a Radicale 1924 residency in 2021, utilizing materials found at the restoration site of Maison André Breton. For the May exhibition, Simon reimagines his artwork specifically for this group exhibition in the Maisons Daura.
SIMON MASCCHELEIN
‘Tasteless’ 2023 ( still from video) , Nienke Baeckelandt
Nienke Baekelandt will present a video titled "Tasteless III" (2024) building upon the installation she showcased last year during the 'Parade, the public event' on the terrace of Maisons Routier in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie.
Nienke Baeckelandt
Beuys & Byars The introduction of the Sages to the Alps, Furkart 1984' copyright Furkart 1984 Institut Furkablick
Special invitee to Radicale 1924 at Maison Routier is Thomas Rodriguez /AFF
Thomas Rodriguez founded AFF, Archive Furkablick Furkart, in 2014.
Primarily comprised of communication documents and ephemera, this archive was used in the creation of the book "Furkart Ephemera," released in 2019. Since then, the archive has been exhibited in various locations across Europe, including Greylight in Brussels and Heerlen in the Netherlands, as well as at Muhka in Antwerp, Château d'Oiron in France, and SIS123 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
Featured
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‘Poop Philosophy in four words : I hate French theory’ Cédric Fargues , 2023.
Cedric Fargues
‘Portraits of André Breton’ an intervention by Carlos Aires during the last edition of ‘Parade, the public event’ 2023. ©Nathan Verstraeten
Carlos Aires
For Radicale 1924 Ria Pacquée primarily took on the role of observer. She uses the street as her arena of study, viewing it as a living setting in which she moves discreetly ('street rambling'), recording events from a particular viewpoint with a camera.
For this current exhibition, Ria Pacquée presents a video she made in Saint Cirq Lapopie during her first visit in 2021.
Nicolas Bourthoumieux on his research and practice since 2021 in Saint Cirq Lapopie
‘I imagined a project. In order to overturn Musil's observation, I wanted to create a monument dedicated to oblivion as much as to self-denial, to the one who 'almost made it.' An allegory of the anonymous, Collins more than anyone else was the first man not to walk on the Moon. I tried to contact him by sending letters to NASA and to the publisher of his autobiography. The idea was to create a casting of his foot (probably the left one) instead of a bust, make a bronze or aluminum cast of it, and then bury it somewhere in secret. In the Pech-Merle cave, a few kilometers from Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, there is a fossilized footprint of a child. A left foot. A 'vestigium pedis' (a term that refers to the representation of the trace left by Prophets or saints and which constitutes a relic). The child slipped in the mud, no one ever passed by there again, and time turned the mud into stone. You can visit the cave, which I did for the first time when I was five or six years old. The guide had pointed out to me: "you see: he was your age 25,000 years ago." It is the only memory I have of the visit.’
NB, 2023
For the final exhbition in September 2024 Nicolas will premiere the final phase of this research in the video installation called ‘Ellipse’ (2024) .
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Michel François: It was Nico who told me about Radicale1924 and thought it could be interesting for me. Guillaume Bijl also spoke to me about it. I have a feeling that this is how the whole project is created, through a chain of contacts and ideas. grows gradually, right?
Nicolas Bourthoumieux: Yes, I believe in a way it’s a rather spontaneous project. Chantal (Yzermans) at first invited artists she knew, and then the group expanded. What I really like about this project, is that nothing is formal or regulated. It’s very open and free.
Featured
LOVEME2030
Shu Lea Cheang presents ‘Loveme2030’ in Saint Cirq Lapopie .This work , created in 2005, refers to all the unfulfilled, unfinished love stories that have become scattered and will be reunited in the year 2030 in the buildings of a love inn, the Love Hotel Inc. ‘LOVEME2030’ will be projected on the facade of the Maison André Breton at the occasion of the Radicale 1924 exhibition this summer.
50 over 50 /You are on View
Zena Van den Block will present the performance ‘ 50 over 50 /You are on View on’ July 5th in Maison Routier
Zena Van Den Block
Guillaume Bijl at Maison André Breton on his first visit in Saint Cirq Lapopie , June 2021
Featured
Wim Wauman's central narrative revolves around an 'alchemical marriage' between Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and Rupelmonde, a heritage village in Flanders, Belgium. Rupelmonde, the birthplace of the famous cartographer Gerard Mercator (1512), is known for its historical tower, tide mill, sundials, and the swallows that fly around them. In the contemporary myth the artist is creating, it is also home to 'the miller’s daughter’: a shapeshifting character and siren, referencing the medieval European ‘Melusine’ folktale, previously referenced by André Breton in Nadja (1928) and Arcanum 17 (1944). Wauman draws a meaningful connection between Rupelmonde and the artist village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, the collection of Daniel Adrien Routier, surrealism as well as 'La Route Mondiale des citoyens du monde’
Featured
During his residency in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in 2023, Jack Davey developed a series of works on cardboard and parcel paper in the Nightshop of Radicale 1924. His sculptural language revolves around themes such as the subconscious, memory, sexual frustration, and desire. A body of work reflecting his effort to capture and freeze energy, imbuing objects with a sense of immovable certainty and consciousness.
Featured
Concert TNHCH , Nightshop August 2023
TNHCH presents itself as an experimental rock group with eclectic influences, combining post-rock, post-punk, electronic music, and ambient. Formed in Rennes in 2013, the band was initiated by Corentin Canesson (guitar) and Arthur Beuvier (machines, synthesizers), later joined by Damien Le Dévédec (bass, vocals), Tim Karbon (drums, percussion), and Maëla Bescond (vocals & bass).
Featured
Mikes Poppe created ‘Ready Face’ during his residency in Maison Routier in 2023 : a special integrated work of art, which is part of the building.
Featured
Beuys & Byars The introduction of the Sages to the Alps, Furkart 1984' copyright Furkart 1984 Institut Furkablick
Special invitee to Radicale 1924 at Maison Andre Breton - Émile Joseph Rignault is Thomas Rodriguez /AFF
Thomas Rodriguez founded AFF, Archive Furkablick Furkart, in 2014.
Primarily comprised of communication documents and ephemera, this archive was used in the creation of the book "Furkart Ephemera," released in 2019. Since then, the archive has been exhibited in various locations across Europe, including Greylight in Brussels and Heerlen in the Netherlands, as well as at Muhka in Antwerp, Château d'Oiron in France, ,SIS123 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland and Maison Routier in Saint -Cirq-Lapopie.
Featured
Major Arcana Redux ( for Leonoara)
Major Arcana Redux (for Leonora)
2024, A.L Steiner & R.C. Berks
22 color pigment photographs
During their residency at Maison Routier in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie this summer, A.L. Steiner and R.C. Berks created their own suite of tarot designs, based on the Major Arcana tarot cards created by Leonora Carrington, often described as 'surrealist objects.' The role of tarot in Carrington's life and creative process remains a source of revelation, which Steiner draws from, infusing her own approach into this timeless subject. Together with her partner, R.C.Berks, they reinterpreted the original tarot imagery to create a contemporary edition in the village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, as a homage to Leonora Carrington.
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‘Poop Philosophy in four words : I hate French theory’ Cédric Fargues , 2023.
Cedric Fargues
‘Portraits of André Breton’ an intervention by Carlos Aires during the last edition of ‘Parade, the public event’ 2023. ©Nathan Verstraeten
Carlos Aires
For Radicale 1924 Ria Pacquée primarily took on the role of observer. She uses the street as her arena of study, viewing it as a living setting in which she moves discreetly ('street rambling'), recording events from a particular viewpoint with a camera.
For this current exhibition, Ria Pacquée presents a video she made in Saint Cirq Lapopie during her first visit in 2021.
Nicolas Bourthoumieux on his research and practice since 2021 in Saint Cirq Lapopie
‘I imagined a project. In order to overturn Musil's observation, I wanted to create a monument dedicated to oblivion as much as to self-denial, to the one who 'almost made it.' An allegory of the anonymous, Collins more than anyone else was the first man not to walk on the Moon. I tried to contact him by sending letters to NASA and to the publisher of his autobiography. The idea was to create a casting of his foot (probably the left one) instead of a bust, make a bronze or aluminum cast of it, and then bury it somewhere in secret. In the Pech-Merle cave, a few kilometers from Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, there is a fossilized footprint of a child. A left foot. A 'vestigium pedis' (a term that refers to the representation of the trace left by Prophets or saints and which constitutes a relic). The child slipped in the mud, no one ever passed by there again, and time turned the mud into stone. You can visit the cave, which I did for the first time when I was five or six years old. The guide had pointed out to me: "you see: he was your age 25,000 years ago." It is the only memory I have of the visit.’
NB, 2023
For the final exhbition in September 2024 Nicolas will premiere the final phase of this research in the video installation called ‘Ellipse’ (2024) .
-
Michel François: It was Nico who told me about Radicale1924 and thought it could be interesting for me. Guillaume Bijl also spoke to me about it. I have a feeling that this is how the whole project is created, through a chain of contacts and ideas. grows gradually, right?
Nicolas Bourthoumieux: Yes, I believe in a way it’s a rather spontaneous project. Chantal (Yzermans) at first invited artists she knew, and then the group expanded. What I really like about this project, is that nothing is formal or regulated. It’s very open and free.
Featured
LOVEME2030
‘Utter’Utter (2023) is a mixed- media installation that serves as a self-portrait of an AI, incorporating two videos—UTTERINGand PARAMETERS—along with two modified candy dispensers filled with blank computer keycaps. The installation delves into the concept of AI alignment, exploring how artificial intelligence is guided toward human values, ethical principles, and goals. Ultimately, Utter serves as both an artistic and conceptual reflection on AI's capabilities and its role in society, offering a meditation on the intersection of technology, art, and the human experience.
(Shu Lea Cheang presented ‘Loveme2030’ in Saint Cirq Lapopie during the summer 2024. projected on the facade of the Maison André Breton at the occasion of the Radicale 1924 exhibition this summer. This work , created in 2005, refers to all the unfulfilled, unfinished love stories that have become scattered and will be reunited in the year 2030 in the buildings of a love inn, the Love Hotel Inc.)
Shu Lea Cheang
‘Gros Bisous de Saint-Cirq-Lapopie’ 2024
serieof 50 postcard
Zena Van Den Block
Guillaume Bijl at Maison André Breton on his first visit in Saint Cirq Lapopie , June 2021
Featured
Wim Wauman's central narrative revolves around an 'alchemical marriage' between Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and Rupelmonde, a heritage village in Flanders, Belgium. Rupelmonde, the birthplace of the famous cartographer Gerard Mercator (1512), is known for its historical tower, tide mill, sundials, and the swallows that fly around them. In the contemporary myth the artist is creating, it is also home to 'the miller’s daughter’: a shapeshifting character and siren, referencing the medieval European ‘Melusine’ folktale, previously referenced by André Breton in Nadja (1928) and Arcanum 17 (1944). Wauman draws a meaningful connection between Rupelmonde and the artist village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, the collection of Daniel Adrien Routier, surrealism as well as 'La Route Mondiale des citoyens du monde’
Featured
During his residency in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in 2023, Jack Davey developed a series of works on cardboard and parcel paper in the Nightshop of Radicale 1924. His sculptural language revolves around themes such as the subconscious, memory, sexual frustration, and desire. A body of work reflecting his effort to capture and freeze energy, imbuing objects with a sense of immovable certainty and consciousness.
Featured
Concert TNHCH , Nightshop August 2023
TNHCH presents itself as an experimental rock group with eclectic influences, combining post-rock, post-punk, electronic music, and ambient. Formed in Rennes in 2013, the band was initiated by Corentin Canesson (guitar) and Arthur Beuvier (machines, synthesizers), later joined by Damien Le Dévédec (bass, vocals), Tim Karbon (drums, percussion), and Maëla Bescond (vocals & bass).
Featured
Ein guter Künstler ist ein toter Künstler’
2024, Mikes Poppe
Performance
On September 28,
I will be transported in a crate
to a Maison André Breton in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie.
I will shout through my megaphone:
A good artist is a dead artist
Un bon artiste est un artiste mort
Ein guter Künstler ist ein toter Künstler
After that, I will be laid out in a half-open crate,
in Maison André Breton.
At regular intervals, I will spit out coins.
There will be an opportunity for a salute during the exhibition's opening hours.
---
Le 28 septembre,
je serai transporté dans une caisse
jusqu'à La Maison Breton à Saint-Cirq-Lapopie.
Je crierai dans mon mégaphone :
A good artist is a dead artist
Un bon artiste est un artiste mort
Ein guter Künstler ist ein toter Künstler
Ensuite, je serai exposé dans une caisse à moitié ouverte,
dans la Maison André Breton.
À intervalles réguliers, je cracherai des pièces de monnaie.
Il y aura une opportunité pour un salut durant les heures d'ouverture de l’exposition.
Featured
‘Spielecke’ 2024 Pierre Martin Vielcazat
"TOTEM”
2024, Samyra Moumouh, Hans Demeulenaere & Pierre Martin Vielcazat
In TOTEM, Samyra Moumouh and Hans Demeulenaere expand their exploration of circles and squares from sculptural objects to graphical representations. For this final exhibition at Maison Breton, they invited graphic designer Pierre Martin Vielcazat to translate their sculptural forms into one-dimensional totems. This collaboration continues their exploration of geometry and artistic expression, echoing their previous works created during the Radicale1924 residencies. Earlier works like ‘The Artist Chair’ engaged with the original furniture of André Breton, preserved at Maison Breton, and organically connected with the principles of the "Cercle et Carré" movement from Pierre Daura , proposed in the former exhbition of Radicale 1924 at Maison Daura .
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‘Flux Tendu’ 1998, Michel François - première installation aux Moulins Albigeois, Cimaise et Portiques, Albi
‘Flux Tendu'
1998, Michel François
Michel François is deeply engaged with the dynamic tension between two states, a theme that runs through all his works. His creations can be seen as a "formal master key," exploring the transition between the density of matter and its potential to disperse or vanish. His work often unfolds as "escape plans" within the space, much like a ball of string shifting between a finished object and the materialization of an ongoing process. This duality mirrors the tension between capturing an instantaneous moment and marking the passage of time, as well as the contrast between a physical act and a metaphysical reflection.
Flux Tendu was first installed in 1998 at the Moulins Albigeois, Cimaise et Portiques, in Albi. For Radicale 1924, the work will be presented in a linear view extending from Maison André Breton to Maison Routier, creating a visual connection from Breton's window to Routier's.
Over the past few months, art historian, writer and curator Tamara Beheydt conducted a series of interviews together with the artists.
Archivist Regan Elena’s epistemological approach reflects upon the essence of an archive — digital and physical — in anticipation of the culmination of project, Radicale1924.
The archive of Radicale1924 goes beyond that of cultural conservation in its attempt to draw from the eternal and elusive artistic essence that has permeated the medieval village of Saint-Cirq Lapopie for over a century. How best to archive such a mystery ? The collection will not be merely retrospective, possessive, nor chronological. Rather, the archive that unfolds is one that is reactive, future-oriented and suffused with the imagination (and the people) that made the project possible in the first place. It may be considered among other “liberatory archives”, spanning multiple temporalities and realising the power of shared cultural heritage.
Elena chose not to negate all that is “transient and un-archivable” (Ernest, 2004 and 2010), particularly through automatic prose ‘Archivist Reflections’ inspired by exchanges between the artists involved and art writer and historian, Tamara Beheydt. These interventions, in turn, become part of the ever mutable selection.
Featured
Interview between Simona Mihaela Stoia and Tamara Beheydt in the artist’s studio,
31 January 2024
An important undercurrent in your work is the relation between humans and animals, or nature, and a sense of loss concerning that connection. A sense of a ‘lost paradise’. Where does that come from?
When I was a child, growing up in a village in Romania, I saw my grandmother harvesting the grain. She left part of the harvest for the deer that she knew would come out to eat later. This had a great effect on my life. I grew up surrounded by nature and animals, and on equal terms with them. This was in 1988. We have evolved since then, but did we get better? We have so much more access to knowledge and information. At the same time, maybe my grandmother had a different wisdom. We understand more scientifically, in school we learn more (my grandmother only had four years of school). But there is a wisdom we lost. My grandmother could say ‘oh, it will rain’ because of the direction of the wind, the smells in the air, etc. She could predict it, and it was always true. It was knowledge, not some sort of sorcery. Compared to that, there is a disconnection happening in our contemporary society. Of course we also enjoy nature, but usually only if it follows our rules.
After leaving Romania and coming to Belgium, you studied painting at KASK and graduated in 2019. How did you know you wanted to paint?
From early on, although I knew very little about art, I felt that painting was the only medium that allowed me to ‘see things’. I knew I could create the illusion of objects, textures, colours, … In the small town where I grew up, the communist mindset lingered on and, for a long time, I didn’t have any access to art except social realism. So, when I wanted to become a painter, everyone around me seemed to think it was stupid. I first finished law school and started working as a jurist in a small company. A lot of my official documents and files had drawings on the edges. All the time, I had this need to put something out there. When I came to Belgium I was painting every day. I was just painting nonsense, I had no plan, but I felt the need to work. Finally, I visited KASK, and it was the first time in my life that I felt at home. The smell of the studios, the people, how they dressed, how they behaved, everything felt normal. So, I dived into it.
From the very beginning, did you want to explore the connection between humans and animals or nature?
It was always there, but I was working on other things. At school, we start from to do life drawing, still life, etc. Toward the end of my education, these themes showed themselves to me. It was subconscious. It was a form of unrest. Something was there, even if I didn’t understand it completely. If I understood it, I wouldn’t paint it. That why we have visual arts. There are things you cannot grasp with language and other communication. I like to leave room for questions. Like a good poem: you understand it at the age you read it, but later you understand it differently. It grows on you.
How did you get into contact with Radicale1924 and how did you travel to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie for the first time?
In the beginning of 2022, I had an exhibition in Antwerp, as a part of a series of shows curated by Hans Theys. Chantal (Yzermans) visited the show and contacted me afterwards. Our first contacts happened through video calls. She told me about the project and it sounded fascinating. I went to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie for the parade in September 2022.
What was your experience of the village that first time?
The village was very impressive, there is a medieval atmosphere, it’s like you step back in time. I stayed for about five days. The first two or three days I just walked around, learned about the local history, etc. What impressed me, was the combination of medieval buildings, but also modernity: there are lots of renovations happening, facilities being built. By walking in the smaller back streets, you realize that the main streets are re-conditioned. It is tricky. All over the village, there are signs of modernity. I visited the church, I think it’s from the 13th century, and went to the river. Two things impressed me a lot, that still haunt me today: this, and the light. And for the piece that I sent over the following year, for the Parade in 2023, I worked around that light.
You have created two works for Radicale1924 so far, one in 2022 and one in 2023. They are both different from you normally do, they are not paintings in the strict sense. Does that have to do with the effect of the context, of the environment, making you want to create differently?
There are several reasons why Saint-Cirq-Lapopie triggered me to do things I never do. Firstly, I didn’t carry with me any materials or canvas etc. Secondly, the place has so much impressions. When I was walking on the streets that were not renovated (and you can hardly walk there), I felt like I was walking in the footsteps of who came before, people 100 years ago, also artists. It is a kind of mirage, it has a power. Thirdly, as a child I was always collecting things I found. I still collect things when I walk and I see an interesting shape. For me it is a way to interact with the environment. Comfort, the work I created in 2022, was an installation. I didn’t have much time. I created the work while being there, in the days before the Parade.
For me, the work was like a painting, with found materials, from everywhere in the village. It is about Saint-Cirq-Lapopie being in constant transformation. We add all kinds of things to it – canalization, electricity – to make it more complete for our era. It becomes like a body. And this work functioned in the same way: it had m&ms, stones, pebbles, figs, etc. There was life in it. I wanted the viewer to experience the installation like the whole body of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, and it didn’t make sense to make it just with lifeless things. I also weaved plants into it. When I go back, I will have to add to the work – the village will have changed, so the work must too.
Comfort II, my work for 2023, was based on the light. There were moments in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie when I felt like I was on the seaside, because of the colours. There is a particular light ocre colour on the rock that the houses are built with, and then moments later, it can all go dark, greyish. That impressed me. The light is glowing and disappearing and coming back again. Above Maison Routier, there is a sort of garden. From there, you can see the whole Lot valley. The green becomes spring green. And in another moment, it can become a foul green.
This piece was a kind of automatic drawing. I made it back in Belgium, so I couldn’t see the light as it was in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. I thought it was best to let the subconscious speak, the feeling that I had in my body when I experienced it, which is even better than memory. I allowed it. I experienced the power of the subconscious without caring about a certain aesthetic. There are two important elements in this work: there needs to be light, and the viewer has to have a certain position. Since I could not be there myself, it was up to Chantal to show it properly, and I think she did, even though the work is impossible to capture on photos.
Why did you choose the title Comfort for both works?
I was thinking about the state of the houses and their transformations. For me now, it is almost inconceivable to go to the toilet outside in the middle of the winter. But when I think about it: hundreds of generations did that. They had good lives. Everything we do and add to the village is not essential, it’s comfort. If you talk about essential, then it was good the way it was. I don’t judge that, it’s an observation. We are occupied with much more than our basic needs and it costs much more. My thoughts around this also have to do with Romanian villages, when I was young. The generations of my grandparents, they found a piece of land, maybe given by their parents, and all their friends came together and built them a house, that could stay there for hundreds of years. However, there was no electricity, plumbing, etc. That’s the difference.
You live in a smaller town in Belgium, and you mentioned you felt like coming here because of the village context you grew up in. Here, an artist might be an exception in the community. However, small village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie has always attracted artists. How does it feel to be there in a community of artists?
Being in a village makes me feel balanced, complete, safe. I believe we have chaos and we have order. For me, to have order I need to be in an environment where I feel safe and the calm of the village gives me that. I can be in a city, but it makes me tired and leaves no space in my mind to be creative.
In Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, you immediately feel you belong. That is also the merit of Chantal, who knows how to put something together, and invited all the artists – all of them were kind people, we had amazing conversations, maybe even more deep than we could have had here in Belgium. Maybe it has to do with an energy of the past, when artists came there and created together, maybe helped each other, found the same safe place. They left their ghosts behind. Maybe that’s the reason the artists today feel good there. I felt in a safe space. Everyone was there to create, to transform. There was a kind of magic. The Parade felt like a pilgrimage. To experience every work and give it time, felt mind-blowing. It’s not like in an exhibition when you are surrounded by works. Here you can experience one work at a time, and as a part of the village, so it gives it power.
Maybe it was like this for André Breton too: a kind of refuge, a place to be safe, be with his art, have a perspective, literally. It’s quite an isolated village, it’s small and on top of a rock. It’s attractive because it’s secluded. At the same time, Breton constantly invited friends. There is a dynamic between getting away, creating distance, but at the same time the generosity of sharing this experience.
Well, think of it as a really good cake. It’s better when you share it with others than when you eat it by yourself in a corner. I think that’s the case for Breton and also Radicale1924. They invite everyone else to experience this. Saint-Cirq-Lapopie was at some point considered the most beautiful village of France with a reason. There is a kind of magic there, you don’t have to be an artist to experience it. Everything is built on top of each other, everything is in layers. The buildings on the hill, but also the vegetation against the stone, etc. It’s almost a fairytale. There is also an artificial side to it, yet the magic is still there, and it makes me wonder, what will it look like in fifty years?
What is surrealism to you, how close is it to what you do? I could see some surrealistic elements in your painting, but at the same time it is very easy to call something “surreal”.
Before going to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, I never questioned surrealism. I knew about it, and it interested me, but I was rather coming back to baroque, expressionism and abstract expressionism. My artistic career hasn’t been very long yet, I graduated in 2019. But Saint-Cirq-Lapopie gave me so much. I read Breton’s First manifesto of surrealism before going there, and I was intrigued by some things in it and by his presence in the village.
I can see or feel that your works are not purely rational thought-out compositions. The work is not cerebral. Isn’t there always a level of the subconscious in your work? Like you are painting something that was always there, in a sense?
The work that I created for Radicale1924 in 2023, as an automatic drawing, seemed natural It was triggered by surrealism because by that time, I was looking at surrealism. And then more consciously, I started looking at my work in general and seeing things that maybe I didn’t see this clearly before. For example, this sense of lost paradise comes with a sense of escapism. This world with all the wars and capitalism is not necessarily nice to look at.
The other important thing I found in my work, is the subconscious. When you have ideas or inspiration, it’s usually voluntary thoughts. The subconscious consists of involuntary thoughts. I have that a lot. Breton speaks of that. It’s like being haunted. Images are formed in my mind and I am triggered by them and other images follow, but I don’t know where they come from exactly. Certain shapes come together, but you can’t trace it logically. This is what I see and experience myself as a level of surrealism in my work.
I go outside, I see things they generate something else. I don’t know why. And then I have to go back out in the real world, and search for subject matter, to actually put on the canvas. That’s the challenging part. The idea is so pure, but when you put it out, it starts to diminish. How do I keep it as sharp, as vivid, as it was in my mind? There is a transparency, an abstraction in my work that is connected to the subconscious. The experience in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie made me see this clearer. I didn’t fully grasp this before. For my art practice, and my awareness of what I’m doing, being there has been extremely important.
What was your experience meeting the other artists who visited Radicale1924 during the Parade?
Firstly, I discovered that most of the artists there struggled with the same things I struggle with as an artist. They have the same questions, or had answers to my questions, which means they experienced this themselves. For me this is important, I often feel like I’m by myself. I felt like I was in a community there, there were people that went through some steps that I was going through at that moment. Being there in a group, in a network, meant a lot to me. It gave me confidence.
What do you have planned for the exhibition project in 2024?
I treasure the experience I had during my first stay in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. Now it is transforming, and I look forward to it. I would like to paint there.
Apart from my studio here in Ottenburg, I only paint in Romania, when I go there in summer. In part, I paint there because it is inevitable. When I don’t paint for a while, I become anxious. The first years that I went back, I couldn’t paint there, but now I confront what is there for me, I can engage in my past. It is like playing also, I feel like a child, thinking ‘what happens if I do this, if I do that?’ There are rivers there, I can swim, bathe my feet, walk around. It gives me peace and a sense of belonging with nature.
There is something in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie that makes me feel similar, because of the general surrounding and the way everything is built manually. Everything there stays local, local-made, not ‘touristic’ is a visibly consumerist way. This is something from my childhood: walking around a village with local manufacturers. There is a sense of pure life there. I walked to the castle and the entire road, I thought about all the labor that went into it: bringing all the stones, the materials up there, etc. When I say I want to paint in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, I’m thinking about the experience of paint and colour there. I don’t have a specific painting in mind yet, but using the brushes and paint there will be different, will be an experience, I want to feel that.
‘Automatic’ Reflections on ‘Comfort II’ (2023)
Simona Mihaela Stoia
March 12, 2024
‘Comfort II’ (2023) cannot be photographed. You cannot capture it, but instead must allow yourself to become enveloped within its lustrous folds, led astray. The emotion, perhaps, that S. seeks is not perfection, but melancholy (“ça-a-été” so famously spoken of by Barthes), the very noeme of photography itself. In S.’s own words, “‘ Comfort II’ […] was based on light. […] I made it back in Belgium so I couldn’t see the light as it was in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. I thought it was best to let the subconscious speak, the feeling I had in my body when I experienced it, which is even better than memory.”
When not the memory, but the feeling within our bodies begins to decompose, what can be done to stop such dissolution ? Painting as a medium allows one to “see”. Is not writing disposed with the same power ? Writing, that allows for the transmutation of the ever evasive topoi of photography into textual constructs. Writing, resulting from a lacune; the images it conjures ultimately forge a perforating, fictional sensibility. And yet, unbeknownst to me, the nimble fingers of time have already begun their task of unraveling. The apt words evade me.
As I reflect upon Comfort II in particular, I am left with other questions. What is it to be haunted ? To host an almost palpable (visceral ?) unrest that can only be realized by way of kinetic devices ?
S. coaxes one not to attempt to construct a perfect copy - as a photograph often attempts to be- but to fantasise about such a feeling, to dream of it, to bathe in the light that is “glowing and disappearing and coming back again.” Perhaps Saint-Cirq is such a place where one goes to lose themselves, on the heels of that ever evanescent light: a sort of illusory enchantment. I tempt to imagine it now, to feel it.
(You may) consider this a long winded answer as to why there will be no picture of ‘Comfort II’ included in the present archive.
R
Featured
‘Initial Archivist Findings’, 2024, Regan Elena
‘Reflections on Comfort II’ 2023 by Simona Mihaela Stoia’, 2024, Regan Elena
Comfort, 2022
Simona Mihaela Stoia (BE/RO,1982 )
Installation
In her installation Comfort (2022) Romanian-Belgian painter Simona Mihaela Stoia represents the inevitable but starkly different forces of man and forces of nature that conquer a space, resulting in continuous reconstruction.
Nestled in the quaint village of Saint-Cirq Lapopie, Stoia draws upon not only its rich history but also its transformation. This year, Stoia utilizes both artificial objects and nature found throughout the village in the making of Comfort (2022). Objects such as earplugs portray the significance of the Second World War particularly in reference to the Surrealist movement. Alternatively, the scattering of vibrant m&m’s at the base of the piece reveals a certain absurdity. Stoia sees the texture and the relationships between colors as means of construction. In the artist’s own words, “I built this as a painting in my head.”
As stated by the twentieth-century philosopher and art historian Hans Theys in 2020, Stoia possesses the unique ability to “create paintings that... that on a closer look breaks up into countless harmonious colors that are not different values of the same tone, but individually touched, autonomous tones, which she can 'see' beforehand.” Stoia’s approach to painting emanates through the composition of the installation Comfort (2022) that harnesses the dichotomy between the conservation of the past and the pure practicality of modern society.
Text : Regan Elena
Conversation between Samyra Moumouh, Hans Demeulenaere and Tamara Beheydt in Samyra Mouhmouh’s studio.
19 March 2024
How did you first come into contact with Radicale1924 and how did your collaboration start?
Samyra Moumouh: I’ve known Chantal (Yzermans) for a long time. In 2019, she discussed the idea of starting a residency in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie with me and invited me to the village. That’s the first time I was there, even before Radicale1924 was an operational project. In 2021, the year of the first Parade, Chantal asked me to contribute. I knew I couldn’t be present during the Parade itself, so I proposed a work that she could easily install herself. However, I don’t consider myself an artist – I am an exhibition architect and designer. When it comes to artistic concepts, I prefer to collaborate. So, when Chantal invited me back, I suggested to invite Hans Demeulenaere, with whom I had already had several collaborations in the past.
Hans Demeulenaere: Chantal and I didn’t know each other yet, but Samyra spoke to me about Radicale1924 and vice versa. We had a videocall, and decided that Samyra and I would collaborate on an artistic project for Radicale1924. Indeed, I think our collaborations have been very fruitful. It is interesting for me, who defines myself as an artist, to work with someone who does not. It opens up my practice and gives both of us a sense of freedom. Some works we created together in the past question the conventions around ‘sculpture’, ‘furniture’ and ‘object’. However, we don’t call them ‘furniture’, as they don’t have a large-scale production. They are unique and have an autonomous existence. They can be shown in an exhibition or be a part of an interior.
What were your experiences of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, and of the Parade?
HD: I have to say I don’t really feel a connection with the village itself. It feels a bit stifling to me. The first time I was there, my wife and I stayed in a house owned by an American lady who wasn’t there herself. It was very generous of her to let us stay there. Apart from that, we didn’t have that much contact with other inhabitants. With the group of artists, it feels a little bit like a school trip. It’s to be together in a large group, but there is also space to be alone. I don’t have much need for late-night gatherings and things like that. I know there is a photo of that year, 2022, with all the artists together, but when that was made, I was already gone. It reminded me of the residencies at Frans Masereel Centrum in Kasterlee, Belgium. The location itself is a bit isolated and you are there with a group of artists, yet all can choose whether you spend together of focused on your work.
SM: I have a similar experience. At first, I was a bit weary that we would have to be together as a group the whole time. That is not the case. There is time together, and time apart. Everyone decides for themselves when they take time to work.
What was the first work you created together for Radicale1924?
SM: We created a video as a registration of a performative gesture, inspired by Edward Krasinski, who did several interventions with lines of blue tape. Hans tracked one room in Maison Breton with blue tape, while I filmed. The tracing of the space with one continuous line speaks about (re-) claiming a space, both physically and in art.
HD: It was a statement, a conceptual artistic intervention. I think the museum staff might have been a bit suspicious. Anyway, it made sense for us, to use a limited time-frame to claim a space. We did an intervention, but removed it again and no one saw the action in itself. What remained, was the registration of the action, in the form of a video installation. During the Parade that year, in 2022, the video was shown in Maisons Daura, because Maison Breton was still in the process of being renovated. We thought the connection between these two artists and their houses was interesting.
Then, for the Parade of 2023, you created a completely different work, but also with a certain connection to both of these artists, Breton and Daura.
HD: I had noticed some chairs at Maison Breton. Not everything in the museum is authentic, but they have some original chairs that belonged to Breton. Chantal sent us photos. We created two objects based on one of them. Someone at Maisons Daura saw them and pointed out that one had a square shape and one had a circular shape. That made them refer to ‘Cercle et Carré, the movement of abstract artists to which Daura was associated and which was a counterweight for surrealism. That was an interesting link to us and we decided to continue on this path, rather than working around Breton or surrealism.
The work for the upcoming exhibition in 2024 is a continuation of this idea?
SM: We were inspired by this idea of ‘Cercle et Carré’ – circle and square. We both searched our libraries and marked every image that combined those two shapes. Out of that source material, we selected 13 images that we translated into new objects. The number of 13 is a coincidence – we originally wanted to have 12, one for each month, but ended up with 13 of them.
HD: We did end up with objects resembling furniture again. They are all completely made from the same material, green chipboard. All the parts are screwed or glued together. Samyra made detailed construction drawings. I need to see a 1:1 model to know that it will work as an object. These try-outs are done in my studio in Bruges. That’s where the final designs are assembled.
SM: This year, in May, we will show these 13 objects at Maisons Daura. Afterwards, they will travel to an exhibition in Ghent, in the office space of the architect Bart Dehaene. There, we will also present a limited-edition publication, containing the model drawings of the works.
HD: I think it’s interesting to allow every object to be recreated by the public. In the spirit of Enzo Mari, I like the idea that everyone can put this piece together. We are collaborating with the graphic designer Pierre Martin Vielcazat to translate each object into a graphic model. We could print them in a publication or as posters, spread throughout the village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, that could also be interesting.
Reflections on ‘A Good Circle Makes A Good Square’ 2024
Hans Demeulenaere/Samyra Moumouh
April 15 2024
“A good circle makes a good square.”
“A good square makes a good circle.”
“A good circle is a good square.”
"A good square is a good circle.”
“A good form is a good form.”
“A good form is a good circle.”
“The anti of the anti-form is a good square and that makes a good circle.”
“The anti anti-form is a good form.”
Dudd, Plato, Morris.
Sitting at the kitchen table this April in the Maisons Daura, I observed the (albeit) convoluted conversation between D. and M. that resulted in the deceivingly simple title (or, rather, statement) : ’A Good Circle Makes a Good Square’ 2024. Although not all quotes are verbatim, I have tried to do justice to their deliberations.
Later on that same day at an entirely different table, D. earnestly shared a photograph he had imagined of their work with me. “We could be giants”, moulding and manoeuvring a tiny city scape below. “Claiming the space”, picking up a fire station here, deposing a post office there […], mammoth and gentle in their mouvements. Petrified by a mechanical device, only their hands visible. Or, perhaps, their touch is that of a farmers. They stoop to harvest the bounty of seeds sewn long ago. There, now ! The shutter sounds again. Hinged at the waist, two marionette dolls hang, arms outstretched. A single strand holds them aloft ; they wait to finish an endless dance that will never begin.
D: “It is interesting for me, who defines myself as an artist to work with someone who does not. It opens up my practice and gives both of us a sense of freedom.”
Artist and architect, architect and giant, giant and farmer, farmer and puppet, puppet and circle, ‘Cercle et Carré’.
R
Featured
‘Archivist Reflections Notes on ‘A Good Circle Makes a Good Square, Demeulenaere/Moumouh’, Regan Elena, 2024.
Conversation between Michel François, Nicolas Bourthoumieux and Tamara Beheydt in the studio of Michel François, 11 March 2024.
This conversation is quite exceptional. We have the aim to speak about Radicale1924 and Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. Nicolas, you have been there several times. However, Michel, you are invited for the project this year, but you haven’t actually visited the village yet. How did your participation come about?
Michel François: It was Nico who told me about Radicale1924 and thought it could be interesting for me. Guillaume Bijl also spoke to me about it. I have a feeling that this is how the whole project is created, through a chain of contacts and ideas. grows gradually, right? The first time I heard about it, it seemed like a rather shy project, but now there are many people involved.
Nicolas Bourthoumieux: Yes, I believe in a way it’s a rather spontaneous project. Chantal (Yzermans) at first invited artists she knew, and then the group expanded. What I really like about this project, is that nothing is formal or regulated. It’s very open and free.
As for myself, Chantal called me one day, because she knew my work through Hans Theys. When she told me about the project, it turned out that I grew up in a village not far from Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, about 20 km away. So, I loved the idea of doing something there. I took a little detour during holidays to check it out. It’s isolated, but I became really enthusiastic to work there.
MF: Is it that isolated? Apparently, it’s one of the most touristic villages in the world.
NB: That’s true, but there is nothing around. You really have to go there specifically. It’s a fake village in a way, it’s like an attraction park, it’s so classified and protected that it’s empty. Which is why I understand it’s appeal for Guillaume Bijl.
MF: I once talked to Guillaume about his work and asked him what his ambition was. He said ‘my ambition is to be classic’. And I understand it more and more, because it happens a lot, that I see a place and think ‘oh, that’s like a work by Guillaume Bijl’. He pushes absurd situations in daily life to the extreme. So, for him, this village would be the perfect scenery.
NB: It really is a décor. There are only four inhabitants I think, including Chantal. The other houses are either commercial spaces or second residencies of foreigners. You should visit it soon, maybe off-season. Right before or after the summer, the light can be so beautiful there. Or sometimes the weather changes and it turns completely grey. But off-season, it’s quite empty and still.
MF: It almost sounds like a ghost village! What is the closest city?
NB: It’s Toulouse. But that’s still 150 km away, I think.
MF: Oh really? That’s quite far. And the river running there…?
NB: It’s the Lot.
MF: And what about Breton, what is his role there?
Breton first visited Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in 1950 and owned a house there from 1951 until his death in 1966. He mainly spent his summers there. The house was in bad condition, even back then. It was restored and opened as a museum dedicated to him and the surrealist movement last year (2023). The house is now connected to the neighboring Maison Rignault, which was the home of a collector.
MF: And he brought a lot of other artists there?
That is one of the foundations of Radicale1924. On the one hand it’s a refuge for artists, it’s an isolated postcard village, so it can offer a form of escapism. But on the other hand, Breton wanted to share this. He invited Man Ray, Toyen, Max Ernst, … That’s what really inspires Chantal I believe. It’s less about surrealism and more about an artist community and a chain of relations and contacts.
That’s the way it also happened with you, I believe. Nicolas, you made the contact between Chantal and Michel. How do you two know each other?
NB: I worked with Michel while I was a student at La Cambre. I saw his show at SMAK. Someone who worked for Michel at the time, was a jury member during one of my exams. I thought he didn’t like my work, but it turned out that he told Michel about me. So, Michel asked me to come visit him to get to know each other, and bring some beers.
MF: And we are still good friends.
Nicolas, you have been to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie several times. What works did you, or will you, create there?
NB: The works that I create for Radicale1924 go back to an idea I had before. In 2018, I knew the 50th anniversary of the moon landing was approaching. I wanted to work around that. For very long I’ve had a photograph of the third man who was on the mission, the astronaut who did not step on the moon. His name is Michael Collins. He fascinated me, because he was literally in the shadows, he disappeared from history so that the mission could succeed and he is forgotten. This fact, to consciously not be part of history, fascinated me. On that moment, he was the loneliest man in the universe. He was not on earth, and his colleagues were putting the first steps on the moon. He was alone in-between, in space. However, when you hear him in interviews, he clearly didn’t mind. He didn’t have any metaphysical crisis at all. I wanted to work around him. I had the idea to cast his foot, because he is the first man to not have walked on the moon. He is symbolically the last earthling to move his feet before we become an alien species. I tried to get in touch with him but then he passed away.
When Chantal invited me, I wanted to pick up this project again. The first idea was to make a cast of Collins’ foot, in bronze, and to bury it. That was now impossible, but I turned what was supposed to be the result of a project, to the start of something. I made a cast of my own foot with a sock with a hole in it, and buried it in the garden of Maison Routier. The house is built against a hill and the garden is actually higher than the house and is one of the highest points of the village. It gives you this magnificent, famously picturesque look over the valley.
And what will you show in the exhibition this year?
NB: I think I will show a new video installation at Maisons Daura, another artist house in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, which is somehow connected to an arts center in Cajarc, a nearby village. It will most probably be on several screens. Maybe I will also include some objects. I’m not sure about the final form yet.
I saw a link between Michael Collins and the caves of Pech Merle, where there is a footprint in the earth of approx. 25.000 years old. I visited this cave when I was a child and the guide asked me my age and said, “see this footprint was left by someone your age, but 25.000 years ago.” That stayed with me. I saw a connection between this foot that had not walked on the moon and the foot that was maybe one of the first on earth. It’s a trace, whereas Collins didn’t leave any.
There are three main points in the film: Michael Collins, the caves, and I would like to include the two paintings about the fall of Icarus by Breugel. This is also about a double image. The only part we see of Icarus is his feet. He’s already in the water, but it’s clear that he comes from the sky.
I included Hans Theys in the film in the cave because my participation in this project came about through his network. And he makes these videos with his phone when he visits artist studios, showing the artistic process. I thought it would be interesting to reproduce this in the caves. However, we weren’t allowed to film for very long inside the caves. There were a lot of restrictions and a lot of administration. Hans brought his daughter, who now plays a role in the film, visiting the footprint.
Michel, what about you? If I understood correctly, Nicolas thought of one of your works to show at Saint-Cirq-Lapopie?
NB: When Chantal asked me about you, and thinking about the village which is constructed on a hill, I thought about your work, the rope connecting several locations.
MF: Yes, it’s an existing work, that can be reactivated. It’s simply a rope spanning a great distance. It would be nice to span it over the river. I did this before over the river Tarn river, during a project in a village with mills. On the other side of the river, there’s a city. The ball of rope is an object in itself, a sculpture, but with the potentiality of it’s gradual desappearance. At some point, the ball disappears, and at the end there is only a floating rope stays visible. The spectator arrives too late in a sense. You can only imagine how this distance has been covered, you did not witness it.
Would you say there are some surrealist aspects in your works or practices?
MF: You know, surrealism… There are a lot of movements in art history. Historians identify a starting point and an ending point. But when it comes to surrealism, the project stays open. I mean, people continue to dream, to be interested in psychoanalysis, in the subconscious, in coincidence. So, I think it would be an error to fix surrealism only to a certain part of history. Working with the subconscious is still vivid. Of course, there is a subconscious element in my work. There are other artists who really focus on it, and that’s different. But I would say every artist uses the subconscious in one of another. I wouldn’t say there is “surrealism” in my practice, I would rather called it forces of life, simply. Breton named it surrealism. There are other terms possible.
NB: What interests me, is that surrealism appeared around the same time as quantum mechanics. In my work, I am less interested in surrealism and more in quantum physics and metaphysics. But both have something to do with searching for the meaning and truth of our lived reality. It has to do with wanting to create a parallel reality, with not being satisfied with what is handed to us and with searching for what is not readily seen in life. I think more of this, rather than seeing any direct link with surrealism in my practice. Also, I believe Radicale1924 builds less on surrealism, and more on the topography of the village itself. That’s where my focus is, throughout the several works that evolved there.