Strategy of Non-Cooperation VI

"There are no stray dogs in Brussels, but there are alley cats, pigeons, parakeets, rats; even foxes are starting to turn up. They have become the thugs of the town and we refer to them with words like 'nuisance', 'pests' or 'invasive'." Aline Bouvy, 2022.

Strategy of Non-Cooperation VI is a life-size relief of two dogs mating. With their uninhibited and feral pose, they disrupt the exhibition space. Aline Bouvy is alluding to the bad reputation of stray dogs and other street animals, like cats, pigeons or rats. They are considered the vermin of the city and we would rather be rid of them. At the same time, however, the title refers to the inherent appeal of the life and freedom these animals enjoy. On the street, they do not have to “cooperate”, escaping all forms of human domination.

Both the subject and the materials of the piece evoke the aesthetics of the grotesque. This literary genre from the Middle Ages was studied extensively by the writer and philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin. During the Second World War, Bakhtin wrote a dissertation on the 16th century writer François Rabelais, connecting medieval folklore to the popular culture of his day. In this paper, Bakhtin shows how the absurd and the grotesque enable the temporary rejection of hierarchies and norms. In her creative process, Aline Bouvy is similarly intrigued by what is deemed ugly, dirty and discarded.

The Strategy of Non-Cooperation series also points to the phenomenon of cruising, hanging around public places in search of fleeting sexual encounters. This is a recurring theme in Bouvy's work.