ART-TRIBUTE:Marcel Broodthaers

Although produced art for only 12 years, the Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers initiated a critique of Post-War Modernist art practice that remains central to the concerns of Belgian sculptors who have emerged in the three decades since his death in 1976.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Archive of Monnaie de Paris & Hebert Foundation

Broodthaers began his career making sculptural objects from the discarded materials of life. Mussel and egg shells-containers or molds that shaped their contents over a period of time-became for the artist apt metaphors for the process of making art. Musée d’Art Moderne – Département des Aigles was conceived by Broodthaers in 1968 as a conceptual museum with no permanent location and no permanent collection. He founded the museum at his house in Brussels and between 1968 and 1972 added another 11 sections which were shown in various exhibitions and locations. In 1970, Broodthaers created the “Section Financière”, declaring the museum “For sale on account of bankruptcy”. The sale was announced on the cover of the Cologne Art Fair catalogue in 1971, but failed to attract a buyer. For its spring/summer exhibition, La Monnaie de Paris has, after much research reconstructed Broodthaers ‘museum’, which closed in 1972. According to the Museum, in creating the “Section Financière”, Broodthaers pursued his exploration of the ties between art, the institution of the museum, and the art market. Another highlight of the exhibition is the “Section des Figures. The Eagle from the Oligocene to the Present”, details of which reconstituted for the very first time at Monnaie de Paris. In the exhibition also is recreated a room of the artist’s house on Rue de la Pépinière where he originally opened his Museum. Comprising the ground floor of the Hebert’s Foundation exhibition space, “Carte du monde poétique” presents a substantive selection of films, works, artist books and documents of Broodthaers that are part of the Herbert Collection. The presentation explores several aspects of Broodthaers’ diverse oeuvre, including his high affinity with poetry and literature, his wit and humour as well as the acute questions he raises about the structures that bind the art world. The title of the exhibition is deduced from the work “Carte du monde poétique” (1968), a large world map entitled “Carte du monde politique” on which Broodthaers crossed out the letters “li” and replaced them with the letter “é”. In his series of maps Broodthaers did not altered the image of the map but added words.

Info: “Musée d’Art Moderne – Département des Aigles”, Monnaie de Paris, 11 Quai de Conti, Paris, Duration: 18/4-5/7/15, Days & Hours: Fri-Wed: 11:00-19:00, Thu: 11:00-22:00, www.monnaiedeparis.fr & “Carte du monde poétique”, Herbert Foundation, Coupure Links 627 A, Gent, Duration: 25/4-15/11/15, Days & Hours: Sun: 14:00-17:00, www.herbertfoundation.org/en/