Artist: Narcisse Tordoir
Exhibition title: Narcisse Tordoir – MQ
Curated by: Samuel Saelemakers
Venue: M HKA, Antwerp, Belgium
Date: September 14, 2019 – January 5, 2020
Photography: Christine Clinckx / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and M HKA, Antwerp
This archival presentation comprises of a selection of scale models by Narcisse Tordoir (Mechelen, 1954). These scale models – made between 1989 and 1996 – are tangible witnesses of a specific way of working and show the development of forms, image-motifs, and thoughts had by the artist. The models are not mere three-dimensional sketches or technical exercises, rather they testify to the artist’s continued search for new conceptions of painting.
Narcisse Tordoir – MQ also offers an insight into the reality of art making: not every work can be immediately made, yet it wants to exist. These “works to scale” allowed Tordoir to safeguard the pleasure of the creative process from the limitations and frustrations of the final production of an artwork. Nowadays, the artist also deploys digital tools to give shape to his ideas. These scale models however, are the result of a process rooted in a visual culture that was still entirely analogue.
The scenography of the presentation is based on never before exhibited murals made by Tordoir in 1996 in his studio, and on the use of bright colors in his recent works. The exhibited models are part of a donation of over one hundred scale models donated by the artist to the M HKA.
