This conference recalls the historic process of the relationship between words and pictures, as highlighted by René Magritte in his 1929 manifesto “Words and Pictures”. It highlights the current artistic resonances of this founding text, which continues to make its mark on numerous artists. Venue: the Wallonie-Bruxelles Centre, Paris, 11 and 12 January.
Chaired by Michel Baudson, Curator of the exhibition “Pictures and Words since Magritte”, the conference has the honour of welcoming distinguished speakers to two evening talks: Didier Ottinger, curator of the exhibition “René Magritte, The Betrayal of Images” and deputy director of the cultural programme of the National Museum of Modern Art at the Pompidou Centre, Paris, and Zhu Qingsheng, Professor at the University of Beijing, critic, conservator and editor-in-chief of the Annual of Chinese Contemporary Art, who is also an artist working under the name “LaoZhu”.
Each evening event will subsequently feature contributions from artists at the heart of the debate.
Wednesday, 11 January, 7 p.m.
- Michel BAUDSON: General introduction to the conference and the story of the exhibition “Pictures and Words since Magritte”
- Didier OTTINGER: Magritte: Words and pictures
- ZHU Qingshen (LaoZhu): The relationship between pictures and words in Chinese calligraphy and iconology
- Jacques LENNEP: Magritte here and there: an art exposé
- Jacques CHARLIER: On some friendly encounters with Marcel Broodthaers
- Michel BAUDSON: Discussion
Thursday, 12 January, 7 p.m.
- Michel BAUDSON (2nd contribution): Summary of the previous evening’s contributions and introduction to this second part of the proceedings
- TENG Yuning, University of Beijing - Centre of Visual Studies: Discursive differences between pictures and words in artistic expression in China. The example of the Temple of the Earth
- Showing of Dotremont – Logograms: film by Luc DE HEUSCH (1972 - 14’), an exceptional documentary showing Christian DOTREMONT making his logograms
- Showing of Eric Duyckaerts: film showing the course given by the plastic artist in Venice on 8 June 2007 (13’33)
- Showing of the film Exit (29') by Bruno GOOSSE, questioning the notion of frontiers, followed by an interview with the plastic artist about his work “After Exit”
- Michel BAUDSON: Final discussion and conclusion
Free admission
Duration: 2 hours per event
The exhibition “Pictures and Words”, previously shown in China in 2012, compared the work of French-speaking Belgian artists to that of contemporary Chinese plastic artists. The conference affords the opportunity to have a dialogue with China and is open to Belgian and Chinese artists.