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Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles

BPS22

BPS22

A must-see art museum in the Belgian cultural landscape, the BPS22 is distinguished by cutting-edge exhibitions, sometimes radical, but accessible to all audiences thanks to innovative mediation. Anxious to contribute to the construction of critical thought, the relationship between art, power and society are the main axes of its programming and its acquisition policy. In this, it is fully in line with the project set up by the Théâtre National. This is why, the first of what will be a beautiful and long collaboration, BPS22 was invited to share a work from its collections to be hosted for a season at the Théâtre.

The choice made by the BPS22, by a subtle inversion of point of view, fell on a work which, rather than giving itself to be seen, offers a chance to see the place which welcomes it. With its 360° panorama, facing outwards, David Evrard’s Banc public (Public Bench) is an invitation to sit down and take in the space around it. This sculptural object, by its reference to the banal, redefined the public spaces of the Théâtre National to return to the very heart of the home, namely a place of life, a place where we gather, find ourselves.

Visual artist, author, publisher, David Evrard (BE, 1970) deploys a protean work where categorizations, whether artistic, cultural or social, are deliberately challenged.

Made by cabinetmakers from the Charleroi region, Banc public was produced for the first BPS22 exhibition in 2001. The opening of this new place dedicated to contemporary art corresponded to the creation of a new public space that was yet to be defined. David Evrard has thus designed a work operating simultaneously as furniture, urban design, architectural element and sculpture playing on the ambiguity of its status. In its first version, the bench was equipped with a palm tree in reference to Marcel Broodthaers, while in its current version, it is embellished with neon lights of different colours. These take up the entire palette of this type of neon, giving the object a reading that evokes possibilities.

© Gloria Scorier