Séroux

OUR LIVES

AS ARCHIPELAGO

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This unofficial site offers, with his agreement,

an overview of the Belgian artist's research.

fr / HOME / ARTWORKS / PORTRAITS /

A SINGULAR COLLECTIVE / PUBLICATION /

CONTACT & CRITICS /

A "RELATIONAL" WORK

1 / What makes it special

Like the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa, who wrote poetically under several heteronyms in addition to his own name, Séroux is a painter, draughtsman and photographer, but his name also refers to a body of work that is equally multiple and paradoxically collective.

He works closely with his heteronyms David Realh, Alex Svi, and the collections of found photographs of Zorah Somexki, for example, and a few others.

The singularity of the work consists in linking the works of different heteronyms. The relationships are constituted by art historian and curator Paul Qwest, in the form of arrangements that then become unbreakable.

See the UN COLLECTIF SINGULIER page.

2 / Philosophy

This process of seeing very different forms (painting, found photographs, various typographies, objects, drawings, etc.) enter into dialogue is close to the thinking of the French philosopher Edouard Glissant. Instead of a fixed identity, he prefers the trembling of its components, and instead of continental conceptual monoliths, he favours the diversity of archipelagos:

‘It is in archipelagic regions that lack the density and mass of continental thought that we can best try to see what today's humanities are tending towards.’

To put it another way, pluralism is understood as a diversity of points of view on the move, a richness that is the opposite of single, monomaniacal, totalising thoughts. This is also true when it comes to our private lives. But there's more...

ESCAPE

Séroux

New York 2012

8 watercolours on paper 40 / 30 cm

The Somexki Collection

1 photograph found in Paris

Alex Svi

1 question

Arles 2016

Séroux

1 photograph 2017

Fuerteventura

3 / In ancient Hebrew,

the word ‘life’ doesn't exist

in the singular.

Would it be possible to know only one, a single life, defined, constant, always the same, coherent and unique? Does something begin the day we realise that our identity too is more complex than determined, made up of multiple juxtaposed aspects? And if something begins on that day, what, for example?

‘Our lives do indeed follow one another in stages, from early childhood to death. They are also simultaneous, and sometimes both serene and worried at the same time, very different depending on the relational contexts in which we find ourselves.

They take many forms, depending on the angle from which we see them: physical, spiritual, private, public, family, professional, emotional, sexual, cultural, intimate, avowable, unavowable, dreamt of, experienced, that of our memories or that of our future hopes and expectations...

Not all of them are consistent with each other, far from it, but each one is related to others.

And here we are:

The plastic translations of our intimate polyphonies are at the heart of what is on display here.

4 / A book

The spirit that runs through this research has been translated into a book entitled ‘Nos vies comme événement’, co-authored by Elisa Brune and Paul Qwest and published in Paris by Odile Jacob in 2019. See the PUBLICATION page.

The literary form of the book is directly inspired by the plastic form of the work presented here.

SIX RECENT

artworks

for example

AMBITION

The Somexki Collection

1 photograph found in Paris

Séroux

2 paintings

& 1 work on sur paper

Alex Svi

1 question

Arles 2016

Orgasm

Séroux

3 watercolors

The Somexki Collection

1 photograph found in Bruxelles

Alex Svi

1 question

Arles 2016

A.I. /

Does foam have a vision

of the universe

The Somexki Collection

2 photographs

Séroux

1 painting

Alex Svi

1 question

Arles 2016

The Ghabor Collection

3 photographs

ART /

Does art imply the existence

of any kind of disorder

Séroux

1 painting

The Somexki Collection

2 photographs

Alex Svi

1 question

Arles 2016

The Ghabor Collection

1 photograph

TRAVEL /

Why does one year

circle around the earth

The Collection Somexki

1 photograph

Séroux

1 watercolor sur papier

Patagonia / Strait of Magellan

4 x 70 / 50 cm

Alex Svi

1 question

Arles 2016

CONFIDENCES

The Somexki Collection

1 photograph

Séroux

2 paintings

La maison rouge / Paris

Alex Svi

1 question

Arles 2016

3 / One of the projects

This ? NO !

TRIBUTE TO FELICIEN ROPS

OR THE ART OF SAYING IT LIKE IT IS

"Rops am,

virtuous ne puis,

hypocrite do not deign".

Félicien Rops made this profession of faith throughout his life. Born in Namur, Belgium, on 7 July 1833, he was a friend of Baudelaire, whose collections he illustrated.

His artistic impulses and his lifestyle reflected the independence of spirit and creation that characterised his art. A free thinker and humanist, he remains one of the most creative, sulphurous and provocative men in the history of Western art.

Arthur Rimbaud, his contemporary, was abandoned by his friends after ‘Le bateau ivre’, on the pretext of bad taste. He countered with the concept of the ‘MAUVAIS GENRE’.

This ? No !

The ‘TRIBUTE TO ROPS’ section in the WORKS menu contains sets that echo the spirit of ROPS and are grouped there so as not to disturb anyone. Some of them are likely to shock or even provoke controversy, or on the contrary to delight and allow us to experience the depth of our raptures.

So don't go if the spirit of Rops bothers you, or if your education, ethics or sensibilities forbid you.