Charline Mahy

Carl's mother · Painter · co-creator of the Truc-Troc

"My father passed on his creativity to me, my mother the taste for culture," Carl De Moncharline told Le Soir in 2003. Charline Mahy, a painter, imagined with sculptor Mon De Rijck the very first Truc-Troc, presented as a world first at Château Malou in 1975.

Chapters

• Curriculum

  The key dates of Charline Mahy's journey, year by year.

  6 milestone(s) · Open the chapter
• The Truc-Troc, 1975: a world first

  On 14 June 1975, Château Malou in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert hosted the first Truc-Troc, an artistic concept imagined by two artists: Charline Mahy and Mon De Rijck. The principle: barter an original artwork for an object or a service - a holiday, a camera, a television, an oriental rug, records... Anything could be accepted, except money.

  Open the chapter
• Colour on concrete

  Mural, "Itinéraire secret d'un point de couleur à travers l'espace" (Secret itinerary of a dot of colour through space), 1978, acrylic on concrete, about 102 sq m, Louvain-en-Woluwe (UCL), Brussels. The work unfolds as a long horizontal band running across the façade and following its structure: the painting does not decorate the wall, it reinterprets its architecture.

  Open the chapter
• Passing it on

  "I owe them everything: my father passed on his creativity to me, my mother the taste for culture," Carl says. It was as a tribute to his artist parents that he chose his name: De Moncharline, a contraction of Mon De Rijck and Charline Mahy.

  Open the chapter
• Mécénat Démocratique: art for all

  Even before the Truc-Troc, Charline Mahy and Mon De Rijck were involved in Mécénat Démocratique, a non-profit founded to make art accessible to the general public. Their flyer "Art belongs to you" offered a 25 F support card: by purchasing it, the art lover supported Belgian artists and could receive a painting or sculpture at home.

  Open the chapter
• Contact Jeunes, March-April 1971: a Charline collage in the F.G.T.B. magazine

  Issue 2 of Contact Jeunes, the F.G.T.B. monthly for Cadets and Young Trade Unionists, reproduces a full-page collage kindly authorised by Mécénat Démocratique. The family archives identify it as one of Charline Mahy's earliest collages; the magazine itself credits the association and does not name the artist.

  Open the chapter
• 

  Archives

  Documents and photographs from Charline Mahy's family archives.

  21 document(s) · Open the chapter

• Press

  Press articles related to this portrait and to Carl's family heritage.

  21 article(s) · Read the article