Narcisse Tordoir

'One Victory' 1997

Location: to be determined

"How can one deal with painting in a useful manner now that photography has taken over the painter’s work?" In order to answer that question, Tordoir (1954) turned his studio into a laboratory for three years, where he experimented with shapes and materials. This also became the concept of 'One Victory' (1997), for the laboratory and research are things that scientists and artists have in common.

Tordoir begins his story with a messy worktable, the first ordering and the spontaneous reaction. Using a photo of his son playing with a skeleton, he depicts that last-mentioned item. Tordoir: "That skeleton he had won at the funfair and he had taken it to bed. It startled me, for it was exciting and beautiful at once."

Contemplation is the next phase, represented by a man resting his head on the table, in front of a mirror. The penultimate serigraph shows the tidied studio (the work is almost finished) and the last one shows an easy chair, in which one can lean back and inspect the result.

The title of the work (also) refers to Tordoir, who is seldom entirely satisfied. If he is, it feels like a (temporary) self-conquest: 'One Victory'.

The serigraph with the dancing son was hung up first, separately, to test the attachment. Many employees associated the work with the Dutroux affair and this caused a commotion. The parties only found each other in a special meeting, when Tordoir read out the accompanying text:

"The child still has this freedom, only later does it learn to see the dark shadow that is cast also by freedom and that has always followed him on the sly. Now his fate is grotesquely suspended from a rope and death is still called the grim reaper. You and I have lost that. Look well, PASSER-BY, at this small god."

Wall hangings

Narcisse Tordoir