Speech by Yves Leterme at the inauguration of the exhibitions Wim Delvoye and Lucas Cranach the Elder
19/10/2010
Excellencies,Ladies and Gentlemen,
When asked to speak about art or artists, I always feel hesitant. Not because I do not appreciate art. But because I have the feeling that everything significant or important already has been said or written. Also, I tend to share the pity of the Goncourt brothers for works of art. They once said, and I quote: “Nothing has to listen to so many stupid remarks as a painting in a museum’. (End of quote). The same can of course be said about sculptures.
I am sure that Wim Delvoye would be rich, or rather, a lot richer than he is today, if he had received a euro for every stupid remark his works have had to listen to.
I am also sure Wim, who comes from the same West-Flemish part of the country as I do, does not mind those remarks, and even enjoys them. For Wim delights in wrong-footing his public. And he disarms art critics in advance by making criticism and subversion, mockery and self-mockery the very essence of his work.
We are all familiar with the brilliant versatility of Wim Delvoye, who is an icon in the international contemporary art scene. This time around, he even had played God with his laser-cut gothic tower. He himself has said that he and his team, and I quote ‘started working on it as a sort of god, from the top’. (end of quote). As a mere politician, I can only envy the scope of an artist… and wish I also could sometimes start working form the top.
For his tower, Wim Delvoye immersed himself in the Gothic age and art, drawing his inspiration more specifically from three great Gothic cathedrals, the Notre Dame of Paris, and the cathedrals of Cologne and Milan - which, by the way, again illustrates that there is a European art and culture.
For many reasons, it was an excellent idea to confront the art of Wim Delvoye with Lucas Cranach the Elder, contemporary of Holbein, Dürer and Luther. Cranach’s superb work embodies the transition of the late Gothic art to the Renaissance. He was also a European artist, who translated Italian influences into a brilliant personal idiom, who travelled also to the Low Countries and visited ‘our’ Quinten Matsys in Antwerpen.
It was high time that a major exhibition of this great German painter was organised in the Low Countries.
I sincerely congratulate Paul Dujardin and his staff for this initiative, and for the confrontation between two challenging artists. I also warmly congratulate Mr. Dujardin for the - well deserved - distinction, the Verdienstkreuz am Bande, which the German Federal Republic will bestow on him tonight.
I thank you for your attention,
