Walter Swennen in SUSPECTS

From 22 May, the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles presents SUSPECTS – Van Gogh, Tricksters & Co., an exhibition devoted to artists who, following Vincent van Gogh, have chosen dissidence over conformity and excess over restraint. Inspired by the anthropological figure of the ‘trickster’ — a mocking and subversive character found in the myths of every civilization — the exhibition brings together the works of 33 disruptive artists. Through their work, art is allowed to fulfill one of its primary functions in our modern society: to destabilize convictions, to reconsider what seems to be received knowledge, to broaden our awareness, and to shatter conventions. Such an attitude, as it has persisted from the late twentieth century to the present day, is at the heart of this exhibition.