Trait d'union - Éric Duyckaerts
Trait d'union (Hyphen) is a twelve-mosaic path (approximately 90 x 60 cms each mosaic).
Stones and pieces of enamel sculpted with a technique Palladium, traditionally used in Ravenna
Fond of mosaic: venitian traditional blue enamels and natural stones (azurite and blue marble)
Motives: golden venitian enamels containing gold leaves.
Geographic situation: the twelve mosaics are disseminated along four buildings over the campus Rive Gauche de ,l'Université Paris Diderot. It was requested as a part of the 1% on art.
In Trait d'union, Éric Duyckaerts, creates a link between different University buildings in the area off Grands Moulins; the interlace motive become longer and it's transformed in a series of mosaics labeling the buildings at the same time in a prestigious (high tradition mosaics), savant (these interlaces have rich and complex forms) and childish way (they remind us of a string game).
Each of the nine mosaics declines a version of a borromean knot, the subject of research of the mathematician Pierre Soury, and favourite form of the psychanalyst Jacques Lacan. In its simplest version, this knot is formed by three interlaced rings, inseparable one from the others. As the name of the mosaic suggests, Trait d’union, these curls could be read as a metaphor of the interlacing of different kinds of knowledge, one of the artist’s favourite themes.
Eric Duyckaerts
Born in 1953 in Liege (Belgium), lives and works in Nice
Eric Duyckaerts’ work articulates with humour plastic arts and academic knowledge, such as laws or mathematical logic. The curl and the interlace are privileged motives of his work, motives he obtains from psychanalyst Jacques Lacan. A polyvalent artist, he can make a sculpture or record videos in which he presents his analysis with ease. Being an expert in Rhetoric as well as on the subjects he deals with, he has for instance held a performance conference during a whole night, in Nuit Blanche (Sleepless Night) 2009 at l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, interlacing multiple kinds of knowledge and disciplines. Author of several publications, he has also represented Belgium during Venice Biennale in 2007. Currently, Eric Duyckaerts teaches at Villa Arson (Nice).
