M HKA Ensembles

Sculpture, 1000 x 200 x 400 cm.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. BK5496_M49).

At the heart of Baquié’s work is the vehicle. By adding words to cars, trains and aircraft wrecks, he transforms them into sculptures. His preferred literary genre is the invention of titles, which confront the words and objects with each other and simultaneously links them together. Dérive consists of the tail section, also called the rudder, of an old aircraft, onto which scraps of text have been mounted. This piece of wreckage, chosen for its material qualities, is converted into a sculpture. The combination of the title, the words and the object give rise to a narrative element.

The title can be interpreted in several ways. The French-English dictionary (Oxford/Hachette) translates it as follows: ‘1 (evolution regrettable) drift; ~ nationaliste nationalist drift; 2 (errance) drift; à la ~ drifting; aller or partir à la ~ to drift away; 3 Écon. slide; ~ budgétaire budgetary slide; 4 Naut (aileron) centre-board; (deviation) deviation; navire à la or en ~ ship adrift; être à la ~ to be adrift; 5 Aviat (deviation) drift; (gouvernail) (vertical) fin; 6 Électron drift; 7 Mil, Sci drift. ~ des continents Géog continental drift.’

These meanings appear in many senses to correspond to the work of Baquié. However, the text on the tail section of the plan expresses all this in a more poetic language: ‘Le frisson de ton sexe, la caresse du vent, pressentir mes morts violentes’ [The tremor of your sex, the caress of the wind, have a premonition of my violent death]. In this case, the machine is not so much a symbol of a particular era, but of a personal memory that can be different for everyone.