M HKA Ensembles

Mixed Media, 40 x 50 cm.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. BK5722_M77).

The work C'est peut-être ici que ... [It is perhaps here that ...], an enameled plate that as to form and appearance is similar to old-style street-name signs, is fixed to a wall in the museum. The text is presented in both French and Dutch.  The dominant artisanal design contrasts with the literary anecdote:

C’est peut-être ici que P. MONDRIAAN (Amersfoort, 1872 – New York, 1944) décida de retoucher une de ses compositions pour qu’elle rejoigne les véritables couleurs d’une photographie surexposée la représantant.

Hier is het misschien dat P. MONDRIAAN (Amersfoort, 1872 – New York, 1944) besloot één van zijn composities bij te werken zodat zij de ware kleuren van een haar voorstellende overbelichte foto zou benaderen.

[It is perhaps here that P. Mondriaan (Amersfoort, 1872 – New York, 1944) decided to rework one of his compositions to replicate the true colors as represented in an overexposed photograph of it.]

The design harks back to the widely known sort of signage that is so often used as an instructional aid, providing information for all manner of situations and places.  Here, however, Corillon offers no information pertaining to events that had actually occurred.  Rather, he relates pseudo-historical happenings and hypothetical situations from the life of famous artists, in this case the painter Piet Mondriaan.  So doing, the conceit takes on an 'official' form, and the artist parodies the administrative approach of this type of signage.

As a viewer, one is disoriented.  Confusion reigns between the fictional and the real.  The sign puts its stamp on the place, and looks like it is inextricably bound there.  The reality and the illusion are not placed facing each other, but alongside each other.  They complement one another, and there is a shift from presumed knowledge to the artist's story.