Marcel Broodthaers: the artist of hidden anagrams

Authors

  • Maria Elena Minuto Liège Université

Abstract

On 24 October 1970, under the aegis of Jean de La Fontaine, the Belgian poet and artist Marcel Broodthaers (Brussels 1924 – Cologne 1976), inaugurated a screening room in his Düsseldorf home to show films created with the fervid intention “to grasp reality and at the same time what it conceals” (M. B., 1972). A poster stating “Théorie le Secret. Le cinéma n’est accessible que sur rendez-vous. Inutile de se présenter” was presenting this outstanding initiative. The still glowing embers of the Section Documentaire (1969) were giving birth to the Cinéma ModèleProgramme La Fontaine, “a rebus, something you have to want to figure out” (M. B., 1968) inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s allegoric images, René Magritte’s “deceptive pipes”, and Kurt Schwitters’ collage and assemblage works. In the same year when Daniel Buren staged the installation 140 stations du métro parisien, and Joseph Beuys modelled the multiple Felt Suit (Filzanzug), Broodthaers was projecting his poetic films, inviting viewers to reflect on the controversial relationship between art, language, and fiction.
Starting from the study of the book-object Pense-Bête (1963-64), through the analysis of Poèmes industriels (1968-72) and Décors (1974-76), this essay focuses on the far-reaching themes and intermedia practices the artist engaged with including poetry, painting, photography, cinema, and sculpture. Deeply convinced that “there are no Primary Structures apart from the language that defines them” (M. B., 1968), Broodthaers radically calls into question the allegorical status of art “under the reign of the culture industry” (Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, 1987) providing new and revolutionary insights into the intersection between artworks and the way they are exhibited, circulated, and perceived. Mistrustful of the Conceptual Art and Institutional Critique, and according to the counterculture of the 1968, Broodthaers proclaimed “the identity of the Eagle as Idea and of Art as Idea” (M. B., 1972) by performing one of the most poignant actions of the Neo-Avant-Garde “institutional détournement” (Rosalind Krauss, 1999): the Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles (1968-72).

Author Biography

Maria Elena Minuto, Liège Université

Postdoctoral Fellow al Fondo nazionale della ricerca scientifica belga (F.R.S.-FNRS), Maria Elena Minuto è maître de conférence all’Università di Liegi e ricercatrice alla KU Leuven. Beneficiaria di una Bourse d’Excellence della Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (2020-2021), le sue ricerche si concentrano sull’opera del poeta e artista belga Marcel Broodthaers, sulla poesia concreta e visiva e sulle pubblicazioni d’artista della neoavanguardia. Ha dedicato a questi temi diversi saggi, tra cui: Scritture di immagini. Arti verbovisuali, dal secondo Novecento a oggi (Vol. 1 e Vol. 2, "piano b. Arti e culture visive", 2020, con G. Zanchetti e A. Acocella), Marcel Broodthaers. Écrivain d’images, 1924-1976 (Éditions Garnier, 2020), Material and Visual Poetics: The Italian and Belgian Neo-Avant-Garde Art of Publishing (Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 2019). Attualmente, lavora alla redazione della monografia Marcel Broodthaers. Il Bestiario (Quodlibet, 2023).

Published

15-09-2019

How to Cite

Minuto, M. E. (2019). Marcel Broodthaers: the artist of hidden anagrams. Elephant & Castle, (20). Retrieved from https://elephantandcastle.unibg.it/index.php/eac/article/view/335

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Articoli