AU KALM
BVD BAUDOUIN 19
15-24 FEBRUARY 2024
@sentimentalbathroom
Four photos on instagram
that catch my eye
(maybe because I know
the artist personally)
Images of a small, narrow room
ending in a slender window
with a wooden frame
A light bulb in the ceiling
bare white walls
and high up
on the right-hand side
a line of exposed bricks
In the room
Three sculptural objects
that appear to be
solitary armrests
One larger (80 cm?)
and two smaller ones (60 cm?)
A mix of wood and foam
with checked fabrics for
those entitled
Armrest (Country style (Olive))
Armrest (Country style)
and plain green for
Armrest (Olive Green)
The visual strength of the tiles
is reinforced by the way
the stretched fabric
is pleated
around the foam
Tiles like Buren's lines
satisfactory neuronal signals
To refresh the interiors
of contemporary art
that has often despised
the feminine and bourgeois
signs of domesticity
On a socle
stacks of pastel-coloured soaps
lavender, olive, pink, clay
like models of buildings
with transparent mini humans
and a tree
A clean, neat universe
but not a modernist cleanliness
Like Le Corbusier in his fight against tuberculosis
(so well analysed in Beatriz Colomina's book
X-Ray architecture)
but a warm comfortable
cleanliness
that smells good
like hands washed
before sitting down for dinner
Instagram doesn't let me
look out the window
I imagine the
Boulevard Baudouin
and the cold buildings
of the Gare du Nord
with their sharp corners
and I appreciate
all the more
Ívar Glói's cosiness that doesn't
stay inside
but invests the outside
collective cushioning
architecture as an armchair
in the countryside
Roshan Di Puppo