Letre

2014

LA VERRIERE HERMES, BRUSSELS

an exhibition curated by Guillaume Désanges

Letre is a unique installation by Benoit Maire for La Verrière. It is an archipelago of sculptural situations made of what he describes as «decided objects» (materials transformed by the artist) and «waste» (the residue from decisions made on certain objects). Each piece of waste, which is thus «undecided», is indexed by a word or a sticker.

Letre is a reflection in actions on the decision, qualification and designation of objects, a play on the French words «l'être» (a being) and «la lettre» (a letter). Can a piece of waste be an object? When does a situation crystallise to become a work of art? What choice governs whether to keep an object or throw it away? What is the relationship between a painter's canvas and his palette?

The exhibition offers a horizontal «safeguarding» approach to these essential questions, based on a principle of equality or non-hierarchy between the location of the art and its opposite. In doing so, it draws a landscape of sliding meanings, to be explored, resulting in an interaction between chance, intention and intuition, in something as programmed as it is poetic.

text: Guillaume Désanges

Credit photo: Sven Laurent