Hilde Van Gelder interviews Philippe Van Snick in the artist’s studio.
Brussels, December 7, 2005
This is a short excerpt of a video interview that lasted almost two hours (tape 1, 5:31-12:03).
Open de waterkraan [Turn on the tap]
Philippe Van Snick introduces Open de waterkraan [Turn on the tap]. This takes the form of an A3 print folded in half. The artist’s name is printed on the front, and on the back we find his portrait. When we open the folded print, we see the drawing Open de waterkraan (1982). Open de waterkraan was Van Snick’s contribution to the exhibition catalogue of De structuur voorbij [Beyond structure]. This exhibition ran from January 15 until February 20, 1983 at the Internationaal Cultureel Centrum (ICC) in Antwerp, curated by Phil Mertens[1]. Open de waterkraan was an installation concept for which the artist would turn on a water tap, letting the water drain across the exhibition’s floor. The work was performed on the inner courtyard of the ICC during the exhibition’s vernissage.
Philippe Van Snick (PVS): I made this catalogue contribution in response to an invitation by Phil Mertens. She gave me a working title for the exhibition: De structuur voorbij, for which I made the proposal Open de waterkaan. At the vernissage, we turned on the tap on the inner courtyard of the ICC for a short moment. We did not actually let the water run, because this would have caused some conflict with the caretaker, I did not want to carry things too far.
Hilde Van Gelder (HVG): What time of the year was this?
PVS: I should look it up again, I don’t know. Probably in spring. [The exhibition ran in the winter of 1983, from January 15 until February 20. The vernissage took place on January 14, 1983.]
HVG: ’83 apparently.
PVS: In ’83, indeed. [Van Snick folds the A3 print double again and shows a portrait of himself with a book in his hands on the backside of the paper.] Back then, I was reading Moby-Dick for an artist’s portrait. For me, Moby-Dick is a very broad reaching story. The pursuit of the impossible. The identification of Achab with the white whale is incredible, almost like an epos. It is a great novel. Through reading this book, I came to understand the power that can reside within the oeuvre conceived as an oeuvre. That was a crucial insight. I could identify with such a representation of the battle that one fights in an attempt to depict the world. In Moby-Dick, an entire world is imagined. Of course, with the restriction of fishermen on a galleon. The same can be said for me and my work. I have imposed restrictions on myself. But within those restrictions, a greater expressiveness arises, one that otherwise would be lost.
Dix papiers [Ten sheets of paper]
Philippe Van Snick introduces Dix Papiers [Ten sheets of paper], a publication of ten sheets of paper in which Van Snick applied a variation of mathematical equations on two groups of points: group A and group B. The infinite variations operate as a driving force which leads the artist towards his geometrical figures. They are characterized by an internal functioning and an external structure. Van Snick published this edition in cooperation with Wide White Space in Antwerp and Galérie 27 in Paris, where he exhibited an installation of ten decagons cut out of cardboard (each 110 cm high x variable width). The exhibition ran from 11 to 30 April 1975.
PVS: This is Dix Papiers, an edition made in 1975 in cooperation with Galérie 27 in Paris and Wide White Space in Antwerp. It contains ten sheets of paper.
HVG: It does look very fragile.
PVS: Yes, it does. This is from the time when I was working with the ten points. It is an offset, printed on 150 or 300 copies. I don’t remember how many exactly. On each sheet of paper, I make an identical equation: Group A, points A, points B. Then I continue the equation: Does A equal B? Does A not equal B? Does A to the power of ten equal B to the power of ten? In this way, I run through the entire equation. In fact, this is the same element that keeps recurring, only described differently. You see, here they are bundled together into clusters, and here they are considered separately again.
HVG: So, they are a kind of infinite variations.
PVS: They are variations, to infinity. In the end, you reach a kind of geometric figure with points on the inside and points on the outside. So, an internal functioning and an external structure.
HVG: Indeed, one that is very dynamic.
PVS: Yes, that’s right. In this way, you can continue until you arrive to a certain shape. Along with the publication, large decagons were being shown at the gallery, cut out of cardboard. They were exhibited in Paris (at Galérie 27). I can show you a photograph from that time, which was published in a magazine that came out recently.
[Van Snick stands up and obtains the magazine.] (Ohm, un petit journal de l’art contemporain 21 (Caen, 2003), issue dedicated to the Polish gallerist Anka Ptaszkowska.)
In an excerpt from a draft of a letter to gallerist Anka Ptaszkowska (Galérie 27), Philippe Van Snick describes his publication Dix Papiers as a “state of things.”[2] The mathematical equations illustrate the artist’s indifference to an end result. Instead, Van Snick is interested in different processes of growth. He compares artistic creation with processes of growth found in nature.
[1] Phil (Philomène) Mertens (°1928) is a Belgian art historian, author and curator, specialized in modern Belgian painting. She organized several exhibitions in, amongst others, the International Cultural Centre in Antwerp, the Museum Vander Kelen-Mertens (now Museum M) in Leuven and the Museum for Modern Art (part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium) in Brussels.
[2] Liesbeth Decan and Hilde Van Gelder (eds.), Philippe Van Snick: Dynamic project (Brussels: Asa Publishers, 2010), 95.
