Fumée

Copyright artist(s) and courtesy argos

Artist(s)

Year

1987

Duration

00:00:47

Installation

Original format

S8

Color

col.

Color system

PAL

Availability

Collection
Vergara filmed smoke. However, he did not indicate where the smoke was coming from. During filming, only the smoke itself was caught on screen, against the background of a blue sky. The motif of smoke can be interpreted as a reference to the works of René Magritte and Marcel Broodthaers. Vergara locates himself here on a familiar path in Belgium’s recent art history, characterised by the works of Magritte and Broodthaers, and also briefly summarised by the latter as "La pipe de Magritte est le moule de la fumée". The smoke filmed by Vergara does not seem to be coming from someone smoking, but from a factory. In this way Vergara is indicating his own position on that ’Belgian’ path. As becomes clear in the continuation of the ’Peintures filmiques’, the artist is adding a social component.