Japan for a nude - the truc troc at Château Malou

Sales Japan for a nude Returning to barter means laying the foundations for an upheaval of society. The artist sets the example. Imagination is demanded of an artist, none of the buyer. A cheque, whose amount can vary from 5,000 F to a million, removes any impulse of human contact or dialogue. For the speculator, the authenticity of a quoted signature is enough; the quality of the painting lies in the investment it embodies. On that basis, a safe would be more rational than the picture rail of a salon. The wealthy American who, fifteen years ago, exchanged a gold ingot for an "idea" of a painting by Yves Klein - the avant-garde artist who coated nude models in blue and then rolled them across canvas - embodies the extreme end of a speculation for which every artistic product is a stock-market value. To react against this aberration, the Galerie de Prêts d'œuvres d'art - 900 works in stock, 300 known names - organised the truc troc operation at Château Malou in Woluwe. Around 200 artists, expressing every facet of research and using the most unexpected techniques and materials - among them Rik Poot, Somville, Dock, Gheyssens, Bailleux, Peter Celie, Marchoul, Vic Gentils, Strebelle and so on - exhibit works that can be exchanged. Yes, exchanged for anything likely to appeal to the artist. This return to barter, the oldest and most natural of all forms of trade, changed the behaviour of art lovers from the opening night onwards. Instead of downing drinks and holding forth about Cap Martin in May or the Spanish maid, the public examined each painting, each object, each sculpture very attentively. And asked themselves: "What can I offer the artist that will satisfy them and make them favour me?" For the first time, it was a matter of being approved by the creator. Removing money put the art lover in the position of a pupil about to face an examiner. The ultimate alternative At first, there were fears that people would scrape out their attics. Admittedly, some naive visitors offered "leftovers", but... Very quickly the public understood that the bait could not be a cast-off. And so, after three weeks, every artist without exception had received barter offers. Offers that did not lack originality, even humour, and at times an ingenious provocation. What was offered, among other things? A trip for two to Japan, a stay in Corsica, a Skoda car, a state-of-the-art vacuum cleaner, a course of 40 physiotherapy sessions, a six-month account at a grocery store, jewellery, a colour television, and so on. Lola Bobesco, one of our most sensitive musical performers, offered a violin. Eddy Merckx, a bicycle inevitably carrying a halo of glory. An art lover fond of fresh air offered an unlimited stay in the countryside. As for the painter-sculptor Claude Rahir, who uses a glue as rare as it is expensive to set stones into his work, he was offered 20 kilos of that basic ingredient. Ah, if barter spread to every sector, how imagination would come back to power across social classes! As for tax officials, they would face the harshest of alternatives: mass suicide or unemployment which, according to some, is also a profession. [Caption] Château Malou in Woluwe. Until mid-September. [Photo caption] THE TRUC TROC IN WOLUWE. A certain ingenious provocation.