Abstractions sur le Thème des Nations

"I never look at an artwork as something definitive, with a fixed meaning, eliciting nothing more than a reaction of potential admiration. An artwork is a proposal that can inspire to create." Pierre Bismuth in Metropolis M.

Abstractions sur le Thème des Nations comprises a group of 20 detachable flags that refer to the global refugee crisis. Each flag consists of two superimposed flags: one represents a country of origin of migrants, the other a possible host country. The resulting "inter/national flags" are no longer national emblems but entirely new images. In this work, Bismuth questions the teetering position of the nation-state and the rifts in international power relations. It also reflects a place: Brussels, the city where the artist has been living since the 1990s and where migration and multiculturalism are at the heart of an ongoing debate.

Pierre Bismuth first worked with flags in 2019 for the series Abstractions, a group of flags displayed on the Münsterplatz during Art Basel. The work continued to evolve, spawning new variations linked to political, economic and social issues from the past and present. Staged in different contexts and settings, the flags become pictorial works that evoke the art history of the 20th century.