Urgent Conversations: Athens – Antwerp

Le discour alpin is a black-and-white silkscreen of a desolate mountain landscape. In the gap of the mountain stands a man, the only human presence in this desolate landscape. The landscape is painted; the rock face looks like a picture. The landscape is lighter and has a misty and hazy character. The rock face is darker and more prominent. For that reason the man immediately grabs our attention. The male figure looks like a drawing that was later glued on. He is holding a text in front of him: the discourse of the Alps. There is more text underneath the drawing: J’ai décidé de changer le monde… [I decided to change the world]. The letters are elegant, classic capital letters. The male figure is the artist himself. De Cordier has held numerous speeches, sometimes in the middle of a crowd, sometimes in deserted places, but the effect remains the same: there is no real communication. De Cordier, however, wants to communicate and tries to do so with his art. Nevertheless, his communication quickly becomes non-functional by uttering it, as for example in the alpine discourse, in a desolate mountain landscape. The artist has the will to change the world, but he also realises that it is not possible, that he will not succeed.