Artworks

NACH SONNENSCHEIN KOMMT REGEN

Morandi bridge #16

A worldscape with the drowning of the genius of liberty amidst the inequities and absurdities of the present outdated late capitalist modern economic system. Jan Frederik De Cock painted this new, modern version of shipwreck series in watercolour, as an homage to his nearest vantage point of the Mediterranean Sea in Genova from where he lives in the Turin mountains. While travelling there to study the ‘Morandi bridge Disaster’, antiquities as well as the work of Old Masters such as Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574), Jan Wildens (1586-1653), the great monumental Morandi Bridge had collapsed and fell down. A ‘natura morta’ in concrete beton wounded and murdered hundreds of passengers, men and woman, locals.

In stark contrast with the 16 -17 century Europeans who could call on the celebration of ingenuity and tradition to validate their own, the present Genua residents have to live on hope of what the surveillance capitalist system is providing them, while looking out for them, to prevent the next old bridge from crashing down on their heads. As a member of the European independent “thinking-big” elite, I take part in making this world a better place through producing culture for and with the people. An arch that brings high arts to the masses and folktales to the intellectual without the search engine of Silicon Valley, California.

These picture-puzzle drowning drawings are a challenge for you to see on which side of the overpass you value to be. To be brave and resist the short way home, or to leave with the ark.

Technique

van Gogh watercolour, Golden acryl, Lyra Rembrandt aquarelle pencil, Staedler Lumocolor permanent glasochrom, Casper David colour pencil, Arches cylinder mould watercolour paper 800 g/m2. Signed on the recto.

Artist frame in Finnish spruce.

H.82 cm / W. 66 cm / D. 4 cm.

Provenance Collezione Fondazione Jan De Cock.

Studio Torino, Flemish-Italian Stereoscopic Company, Manufacturers and Publishers Bruges-Ivrea. Collection & courtesy of the artist

About 2020