I came across this store window exhibit by Claire Fontaine. There’s an arts festival in Brussels starting next week, which has provided several occasions for me to see some of the preparation, but I especially liked this piece.

All images on the website are copyrighted by the gallery and the artist, so I went back to take a shot of the store front window myself. This is a good example of how being too protective over property forces inferior representations of the work. Creative Commons licensing makes sense for providing a level of control  over the usage of images rather than just saying ” No unauthorized use may be made of the images“.

I’ve always wanted to create a service that would match artists and retail space owners. It would be great opportunity for promotion for both parties. Sorry Claire, I didn’t mean to reduce your wonderful work down to a capitalist opportunity. Here’s a little something about the work:

The sculpture exhibited in the window Untitled (flag dryer) composed of a modified industrial dryer and of several Belgian flags tackles the cycle and the stagnation as typical aspects of the rags of any national identity. The continuous drying of the flags is in the same time a bitter consideration about corruption and a comment on the Belgian habit of displaying the national flag outside apartment windows; this action is compared to the one of hanging out the washing, that even if not dirty, would be better far from the eyes of the passerby.

SORRY WE’RE CLOSED [Claire FONTAINE]

Contemporary Daily