Michel Deylius Tekst in steen

 

Expositie Microkosmos 17 juni - 15 oktober 2023

Op deze expositie toon ik een beeld uit 2010 met de titel Z.T. (aanvankelijk Zonder Titel, maar later met de toevoeging van zoutblokken veranderd in De Zouttaal).
Over dit beeld schrijft de curator:

The De Zout Taal / Zonder Titel (2010) is a stone sculpture that opens up towards the sky in the shape of a boat covered in calcarious skin. In the indentation on the top are blocks of salt that are open to air, wind, and rain - elements that slowly break them down and send them dripping down the rock. Salt is a healthy component in goats’ and sheeps’ diets and farmers typically provide salt blocks for them to supplement their nutrition. The sculpture is at once visual and mineral with the resident sheep and goats in mind.

As an artist that works with sculpture and language, Michiel Deylius is interested in the form and meaning of the tongue. In Zout Taal it is presented as a sculptural figure as well as providing a place for the tongues of sheep and goats to lick nutritious salt. The title of this work references a practice in Tibet of collecting salt from a sacred lake. In the 1997 film The Salt Men of Tibet, four protagonists travel for 90 days to reach a salt lake from which they mine this compound. Along their journey they pass a stone that resembles a goat, after this point they only speak the “salt language.”

Vanwege de dubbele betekenis van het woord Tongue (taal én tong) laat ik de Nederlandse vertaling aan de lezer.

Opening: zaterdag 17 juni om 15.00 uur