M HKA Ensembles

Installation, 20 x 20 m.

Collection: Collezione Prada, Milano, Courtesy Fondazione Prada.

From the seventies onward, his artistic activities are increasingly taking place in Europe, especially Berlin, where he and his wife further deepen his oeuvre. In 1972, the duo is asked by Harald Szeeman to take part in documenta 5, where the installation Five Car Stud  is shown: nine life-size figures, five cars, various trees and a truckload of sand. The installation shows a circle of white men, lit by the headlights of the surrounding cars, who pin down, beat up and castrate a tied down black man, while in one of the cars a child and a white woman – the companion of the victim – witness the scene with powerless desperation. Five Car Stud is a timeless shock to the system. An uppercut to the solar plexus of white supremacy and the unadulterated racism of the American urban seventies.

After documenta, the installation disappears into a Japanese collection, and remains unshown for 40 years, until renewed interest arises a few years ago. Luc Tuymans wants to show Five Car Stud in Antwerp as it was shown in 1972 at documenta: outside the circuit, in the darkness of a large dome that will be erected on the Waalse Kaai, on the axis between M HKA and KMSKA. The importance of the installation, as a connecting factor between baroque paintings and contemporary art, not only lies in its theme that eventually led to the title Sanguine/Bloedrood, but also in the cinematic setting of the arrangement.

On display till 03.09.2018

Text: Hans Willemse
Translations: Michael Meert