Plate II from the portfolio Vulcanologies 

Curator: Oh, this piece grabs me! "Plate II from the portfolio Vulcanologies" by Pierre Alechinsky… it's like looking into a dream – two different dreams stacked on top of each other. There’s something…explosive about it, you know? Editor: It's definitely striking. My first thought goes to its historical context. Alechinsky's abstract expressionism, mixed with figuration… How much do we see Cold War anxiety surfacing in his contemporaries during that time? Curator: Hmm, perhaps. I feel a more primal read: the top reminds me of landscape transforming by molten fire, and the bottom, full of white scribbled characters and forms—almost otherworldly creatures waking up below a sky on fire. Is that orange sunset a warning? Editor: It's certainly evocative! And thinking of the orange, which brings ideas of industry and power—are those ‘figures’ really just victims in an industrial landscape? White, without the colour and power to define themself? Curator: I wouldn't see them only as victims. There's energy there, you know? In those quick lines and playful forms, there’s a feeling like everything's possible, even in the face of what appears to be chaos looming. The volcano above, so to speak, looks also more organic than mechanical! Editor: An organic chaos, but isn't there something politically potent in creating your own visual vocabulary, in not playing by the rules? Refusing definition could also be a reclamation of freedom, rather than defeat. I believe the figures are anything but random! Curator: True, Alechinsky does challenge us. Maybe these aren’t passive figures at all, maybe they’re in revolt! I think the real beauty lies in the ambiguity itself—in the back and forth. This is exactly the power of his graphic work, it invites us to imagine… Editor: Precisely, it’s art as active participation. By not prescribing a single reading, Alechinsky invites us to engage with the art, history, and perhaps most importantly, ourselves! Thanks to you for this.