L’UNIVERSITÉ DU TRAVAIL (THE UNIVERSITY OF WORK)

The first artist to be invited for a solo exhibition at the BPS22, David Evrard (born in Liege, 1970) developed a specific project inspired by the history of the Hainaut Province’s Department for Cultural Affairs (DGAC) and the creation of the University of Work. Created in 1921, as the ​‘eight hour law’ was approved, the DGAC organised diverse social activities as a pre­cau­tion­ary measure, including artistic education, theatre companies and musical fanfares.

From this starting point, David Evrard stuck to images established as ​‘artistic models’, images which became visual archetypes of the condition of the worker. This included in particular images of workers by Constantin Meunier, Pierre Paulus or Antoine Bourlard, which were acquired by the Hainaut Province, reproduced and widely dis­sem­i­nat­ed. These images carried the aesthetic values inter­nalised by the population, to the point of being perceived today as components of an identity model. From this historical data, the artist developed an examination of themes such as the creation aesthetic taste, fiction as a means of con­struc­tion reality, archiving as a process of identity building. This examination was given shape through instal­la­tions, photographs, videos or ancient artwork and objects from the era that the artist used to create his exhibition.

Exhibition Curator: Pierre-Olivier Rollin