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Too Dirty for Venice, Charlier Gets a Rousing Welcome in Brussels

By Mitchell Martin

Published: June 18, 2009
BRUSSELS— It stands to reason that a city whose most famous statue depicts a little boy relieving himself into a fountain would welcome an exhibition of genital art with open arms.

Jacques Charlier’s “100 Sexes d’Artistes” is a graphical — though only sometimes graphic — series of prints showing the artist's interpretations of the “procreative organs,” according to curator Enrico Lunghi, of important figures in art. Subjects in the series, which was started in 1973, include Francis Bacon, who is portrayed as a bit of a garden slug, to a jack-in-the-box for Andy Warhol.

The original plan was to exhibit the works at the Venice Biennale, with each poster making one appearance somewhere around the city. Charlier, who is from Liège, was representing Francophone Belgium, which supported his plan. But neither the fair nor the municipality were into it, according to Charlier, the former for fear of offending the artists whose nether regions were his subjects, the latter for fear of offending “the shared sense of public decency.” Charlier said he contacted many of the artists, and they told him they were not offended, but that didn't help his case.

He still brought his works to Venice, showing them in the end on a boat moored near the Giardini, the central showplace for the biannual art festival.

Brussels is apparently more free-wheeling. The Palais des Beaux Arts will exhibit the posters from this week until Sept. 13. In addition, Brussels will place the works in more than 25 locations around town, and those will be up until Nov. 22.

According to Charlier’s Web site, other cities European cities are joining in, with displays this month in Antwerp and Namur in Belgium; Belgrade; Bergen, Norway; Linz, Austria; Luxembourg; and Metz, France.

Those not planning to be in one of those cities or just too lazy to go outside can see all of the posters on Charlier’s site in the form of a quiz. Guess the gonads, and it’ll tell you if you got the right artist.

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