Jacques Charlier, the artist who sews paintings

For the official opening of the ball celebrating the most flamboyant plumes selected by La Pièce, let’s discover the artist Jacques Charlier. Born in Liège in 1939, Jacques Charlier is a Belgian pioneer of conceptual art. He is a rather complex figure belonging to the so-called “avant-garde” movement. Also nicknamed the “art pirate,” he hates art. And above all, the art world. He denounces capitalism; he criticizes galleries, American artists, and everyone who has entered into a commercial logic... La Pièce Paris does not go quite as far in its critical approach, but I find that we have a lot in common with pop art.

I discover Jacques Charlier as I am leaving the studio, very late, for an appointment with the pediatrician. While wrestling with a trash can left in the middle of the tiny sidewalk, blocking the “Tank” stroller, I find myself face-to-face with a tutorial titled “how to repair your canvas yourself”? In a video from the Lara Vincy gallery, a woman is sewing back together a painting by Louis Fontana worth several thousand euros with her Singer machine, using zigzag stitches. The pediatrician will have to wait.

I enter the gallery. And I do indeed discover, on one side, Lucio Fontana’s paintings and, right next to them, his repaired reproduction. The series is called “repaired paintings.” I take out my phone, take a photo, and hurry away.

On the way, I call our friend and mentor Nicolas Smirnoff. He explains that in the history of contemporary art, Lucio Fontana is THE interplanetary reference in modern art. This guy did paint hundreds of monochrome canvases, then took a box cutter and, just like that, with one sudden slash, tore the canvas right down the middle.

So when Jacques Charlier decides to sew the painting back together, I understand the artist’s audacity and his (Belgian) humor. Here I learn that Jacques Charlier plays with other popular references from art history and offers an offbeat reading of a great painting from the history of art. His critical and irreverent flamboyance nevertheless earned him censorship at the 2009 Venice Biennale.

Ultimately, when we think about the artist and his connection with La Pièce, it may be the zigzag stitch used to repair a work of art, but above all it is the use of sewing as a way of thinking, rebelling, and inventing. Sewing your own clothes means distinguishing yourself from the crowd, freeing yourself from the fashion market and mass consumption, and proudly wearing the result of your work. Don’t wait any longer to get started#lapieceparis.