Porcocrates

Bronze artwork symbolizing the turn of the millennium.

Since it is a design for a public work of art, it should be understandable or at least recognizable and interpretable for the general public. That's why the artist designed something figurative. An abstract-symbolic work of art provokes vandalism because of misunderstanding, simply because the work of art then seems too elitist, too abstract for the ordinary man.

The figure itself is a doll, because it doesn't make much sense to elaborate a realistic figure, let alone a portrait, because it's not about someone specific. According to the artist, there is no stereotypical figure or there can be no image of the average person. A large-format doll represents man and says something more about contemporary culture, about the fake, the reproducible, the plastic, the 'toys'. As a result, the artist also glorifies the love for the unreal of the people. It is therefore a reference to folk art and kitsch, a doll that everyone knows, a piggy bank or other pig figurines that one has on the windowsill or chimney. As a result, the artist thinks to release emotions in all kinds of areas in people, because it is recognizable. One can like it because one also has it in the living room or bedroom. But here the work tilts, which is obviously the intention. The increase in scale (1m80) and use of materials make for an alienating, unprecedented thing. The artist wanted to combine bronze with polyester, which seems more like a contradiction. Bronze stands for the traditional, imperishable. Polyester, on the other hand, stands for the new, the fast, the unreal. By playing these materials off against each other, the artist does not think that she symbolically portrays the step towards the new millennium or at least does not represent a one-line thought. The future is in the image itself through the shape, color, matter and material. The concept is a contemporary solution that is perhaps one step ahead of accepted public art.

But in order not to present it too conceptually, because what you see is ultimately what it is all about, this figure walks forward by looking behind him with a pig that precedes him. The pig is a link to the problems surrounding the animal edibles industry or even more to the whole environmental problem but in a cheerful and humorous way without "doom" thought. After all, Fin-de siècle is over. The color red is therefore there to make everything rosier and brighter, which is good for the street scene of the municipality of Neerpelt. For the art connoisseur there is a link with the work 'Pornocrates' by Félicien Rops, at the time of the fin-de siècle of the 19th century, where a half-walks past the whole of history with a pig in front on a leash. It said something more about the then ruling society.

The artwork is by Caroline Coolen and was placed in 2000.

Gemeente Pelt