Thierry De Cordier Passe-montagne

De Cordier might best be described as a non-academic thinker who makes things. His œuvre includes, but is not limited to, photographs, drawings, placards, paintings, sculptures, assemblages and bricolages. These ‘objects’ and ‘non-objects’, as he calls them, can be viewed as representations of his thinking. They visualize his ideas and, as such, are illustrative of them. Simply put, his œuvre is a philosophy expressed in images. De Cordier’s worldview leans heavily towards Albert Camus’ concept of Absurdism, which describes the futility of searching for significance in an incomprehensible universe, devoid of either God or meaning. In other words, people merely exist. Or, as De Cordier says: ‘Inutile, l’homme est là à être là inutilement…’ [Useless, man is there just being there uselessly…].

Thierry De Cordier (b. 1954, Ronse, Belgium) currently lives and works in Ostend, Belgium. A large room dedicated to his work was included in the exhibition The Encyclopaedic Palace at the Venice Biennale (2013). Solo exhibitions include Iconotextures at Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels (2016); Landschappen at BOZAR, Brussels (2012); and Drawings at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2004-2005). He represented Belgium at the Venice Biennale in 1997.