Narcisse Tordoir

A hunger for pictorial and formal experimentation informs the eclectic practice of Narcisse Tordoir (1954). He engages with the temporary and spatial context in which he is rooted and responds with aesthetic somersaults to the troubled relationship between the eye and the image, these days generally mediated by a screen, taking a critical view of a world full of violence and inequality. Tordoir cobbles together a ‘persona’, a portrait of the artist and also the human being searching for answers in a fragmented reality through various forms of collaboration and appropriation.

The selection of artworks in this exhibition spans four decades and brings together monumental installations with early paintings and painterly wall sculptures with digital creations. Time Without Future is no straightforward retrospective. Instead, it offers an expressive overview of important moments in Tordoir’s boisterous career. The exhibition is a reflection on the elasticity of time: an occasion to look at and think about what has passed, about reality as crystallized in images and objects, and to look ahead to what is to come.

Additionally, the special presentation LABOR AND PRODUCTION: 1987-1998, compiled by Guy Châtel in conjunction with Adriaan Verwée, showcases Tordoir’s maquettes and offers a special glimpse into the artistic process that drives him.