Alain Declercq
01 Jun - 09 Sep 2013
Extra Muros
My Home Is A Castle II
The French artist Alain Declercq (Paris, 1969) has parked his monumental artwork ‘My Home is a Castle II’ (2013) on the DOK site at the Handelsdok near Ghent’s Dampoort station. He created this tank truck for the 30th anniversary of FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, and it was brought to Ghent in collaboration with the S.M.A.K.
Nord-Pas de Calais – as the border region between France and England – is a place of considerable migration. By installing bus seats in the truck’s tank, Alain Declercq challenges us to reflect on the issue of clandestine immigration, while exploring the contemporary history of the region at the invitation of the FRAC. But immigrants and refugees come into Ghent too. By putting the tank truck – ‘My Home is a Castle II’ – at the docks, Declercq makes this social issue visible.
‘My Home is a Castle II’ is characteristic of Declercq’s artistic practice. As a photographer, video film-maker and installation artist, he presents an ironic critique of the everyday reality around us. For his photographic series ‘Welcome Home Boss’ (2001), for example, he lit up the facades of a fashionable neighbourhood of Montréal with a powerful mobile floodlight. So he is active in the field and, not always without risk, defies the limits of the social, political and cultural systems.
A joint venture by S.M.A.K. and FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais.
In the context of ‘Pléiades - 30 ans des FRAC’. An event organized by 23 FRAC and PLATFORM. The work was realised with the support of the Fondation Nationale pour les Arts Graphiques et Plastiques – FNAGP.
With thanks to DOK.
Alain Declercq is represented by gallery Loevenbruck (Paris) and the Elaine Levy Project (Brussels).
My Home Is A Castle II
The French artist Alain Declercq (Paris, 1969) has parked his monumental artwork ‘My Home is a Castle II’ (2013) on the DOK site at the Handelsdok near Ghent’s Dampoort station. He created this tank truck for the 30th anniversary of FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, and it was brought to Ghent in collaboration with the S.M.A.K.
Nord-Pas de Calais – as the border region between France and England – is a place of considerable migration. By installing bus seats in the truck’s tank, Alain Declercq challenges us to reflect on the issue of clandestine immigration, while exploring the contemporary history of the region at the invitation of the FRAC. But immigrants and refugees come into Ghent too. By putting the tank truck – ‘My Home is a Castle II’ – at the docks, Declercq makes this social issue visible.
‘My Home is a Castle II’ is characteristic of Declercq’s artistic practice. As a photographer, video film-maker and installation artist, he presents an ironic critique of the everyday reality around us. For his photographic series ‘Welcome Home Boss’ (2001), for example, he lit up the facades of a fashionable neighbourhood of Montréal with a powerful mobile floodlight. So he is active in the field and, not always without risk, defies the limits of the social, political and cultural systems.
A joint venture by S.M.A.K. and FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais.
In the context of ‘Pléiades - 30 ans des FRAC’. An event organized by 23 FRAC and PLATFORM. The work was realised with the support of the Fondation Nationale pour les Arts Graphiques et Plastiques – FNAGP.
With thanks to DOK.
Alain Declercq is represented by gallery Loevenbruck (Paris) and the Elaine Levy Project (Brussels).