Re-Institutionalize # 05: DANSSTUDIO ARABESQUE (2004)
In Deurne, Belgium

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Excerpts from an interview by Heike Wetzig:

That work of art, where was it shown, and how did you make it?

Corpulent Ballerina (2001) is a large painting (267 x 196 cm) in silvery grey, iridescent acrylic colours on paper. For a long time I wanted to show it in a ballet school; now it happened at the Dansstudio Arabesque. My project was rejected three times in three different dance institutions before that, as „not adequate“, „too experimental“ and „not fitting into the programme“.

The picture was shown at a place that corresponds perfectly to the ballet pose which appears as a mirroring or accompaniment. The work seems to be the one big shadow of the little dancers. How do you see this arrangement, not to mention the attractive superficial contrast of these opposites in the photographs?

I did the painting „Corpulent Ballerina“ after a black & white photograph I found on a porn web site. For me, it is a picture with a lot of potential. I wanted to confront a dance school with the reality of this painting. I wanted to see the picture „at dance“. Mainly, I wanted to observe a practising situation. The painting was hanging in a dance class which was entered for training only. It was not a place of contemplation but a place of action.