PROLOGUE - LA VIE D'UNE OEUVRE D'ART

This series of films was shown in the summer of 2010 in the exhibition ’New monuments’ in the Middelheim museum in Antwerp. Angel Vergara set up a tent and a bar. The movies were shown in the tent. In each of these movies, images of lions and lionesses are combined with media images of Dutch- and French-speaking politicians, journalists and media personalities. On the soundtrack lions roaring can be sporadically heard while the artist traces the movie images with gestures like painting. By moving his brush across the cinematic images, he is suggesting that recorded reality embodies the pallet with which he is ’painting’. By combining media images with others from nature documentary, Vergara offers a particular perspective on political life in Belgium and the domination of the media at a time when community tensions were running high. At the same time, with the montage of images of a nature documentary, the artist is referring to the screenings taking place in a park.