The Spirit of Ecstasy, 2012
Book, 16.5 x 23.4 cm, 224 p, language: English, publisher: Bruxelles: Éditions Komplot & Black Jack Éditions, ISBN: 9782960120714.
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2025/239).
Literary synopsis A group of protagonists build a castle and an exhibition inside. Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice *The Spirit of Ectasy* began as a project in 2009, when a group of 10 artists asked David Evrard to help them to make a catalogue for the exhibition they were making in the south of France. After two or three meetings, Evrard told them that he wasn’t really interested, but that he could write a fiction instead, in which all of them would be the main characters. Thus, those ten artists became the protagonists of the novel. David Evrard approached the creation process of the novel as an object, as one more piece within his practice in the visual arts. For him, it is like making a sculpture, ”but just with many more layers”.
Authorship: Artist Author.
Creative Strategy: Artwork-Novel Parallel Lives, Artworks Biographical Origin .
Genre: Adventures, Erotic/Pornographic, Fantasy, Fictitious reference work, Historical fiction, Historical non-fiction, Interview, Roman à clef, Speculative Fiction, Tragic Farce.
Publishing: Art Books Publishing House, Non-profit Art Organization.
Theme: Accidents, Anarchism, Art, Death, Desire, Disintegration, Drugs, Ecstasy, Everyday Life, Feminism, Ghosts, History, Love, Memory, Mysticism, Perverse Sexuality, Photography, Post-Apocalyptic, Post-Humanism, Psychedelic Mundane, Religion, Rituals, Sculpture, Secret Societies, Socio-Political Critic, States of the Self, Subjective Experience, Systems Theory, Violence.
Media
>Ensemble – Collage, David Evrard, 2011 / David Evrard made this collage with all the protagonists of the novel. It is a Photoshop collage that is included in the book.
>Sans titre (Alina Szapocznikow), David Evrard, 2011 It is a picture that the artist took at the Wiels exhibition on Alina Szapocznikow (2011). Detail from the piece Rolls Royce II , 1971. It is also included in the book. "The Spirit of Ecstasy" is the name that the sculptor gave to his sculpture that has been now for a hundred years on top of Roll Royce car radiators.
>Moto is a document that one of the protagonist sent to David Evrard to work with.
>Grotto, 20 x 30 cm, 2012 / Drawing for chapter 3 of the novel 'The Spirit of Ectasy'.
>Jenny Jean, 2012 It is a picture of Jenny Donnay. The artist took this photo of Jenny, who is one of the characters that inspired him to write the novel.
>'Hangar',20 x 30 cm, 2012 / Drawing for chapter 2 in the book 'The Spirit of Ectasy'
>Cover image 'The Spirit of Ectasy', 2012
>Cover 'The Spirit of Ectasy', 2012
Artist
> David Evrard.
Exhibitions & Ensembles
> Exhibition: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE ARTWORK BECOMES A NOVEL?. M HKA, Antwerp, 07 December 2012 - 21 April 2013.
> Exhibition: THE BOOK LOVERS - A Project about Artist Novels. The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, 25 January 2013 - 09 March 2013.
> Exhibition: Book Lovers 4.0 (Pop-up Bookstore). De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam, 28 January 2014 - 02 February 2014.
> Exhibition: The Preparation of the Novel (Book Lovers 5.0). Fabra i Coats - Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, 18 July 2014 - 05 September 2014.
> Ensemble: The Artist's Novel.