Black Screen, BLACKOUT Broodthears in De Morgen + From the KNARREVIK

Black Screen, BLACKOUT Broodthaers in De Morgen was created with a picture from artist Marcel Broodthaers' Les animaux de la ferme (1974), taken from a special edition of the Belgian newspaper De Morgen. Over this famous image of cows and car brands, Willem Oorebeek projects a clip from a commercial, showing a woman using a mouth exerciser in the now-defunct "Metroshop" in the De Brouckère metro station.

Like Freud BLACKOUT, this work is part of Oorebeek's BLACKOUT series, which he started around the turn of the millennium. In these works, he applies a thin layer of ink to found printed matter, allowing the original image to shine through. By using this method, Oorebeek appropriates images he finds interesting or expressive. The extra layer strips the material of its original function and gives it a new meaning and autonomy. The result is a blackened surface, where the underlying motifs or texts shimmer through in enigmatic ways, depending on the reflection of the light, the position of the viewer, or the interplay of colours. Both the context and the active role of the viewer are key in the perception of the BLACKOUT works.