If I Can’t Dance and Gevaert Éditions are pleased to announce the publication of the book The Soliloquy of the Broom by Olivier Foulon. On the occasion of this publication, two screenings of the 16mm film The Soliloquy of the Broom will take place at Cinéma Arenberg in Brussels.

The Soliloquy of the Broom focuses on the concept of masquerade in relation to painting. Central to this work is the portrait Jo, the Beautiful Irish Girl painted by Gustave Courbet in 1865 in Trouville. It shows a lady named Jo, mistress and model of the artist James Whistler, looking at herself and her hair in a mirror. Due to great demand Gustave Courbet copied the painting several times.

The four versions belong nowadays to the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, the National Museum of Stockholm and to a private collector. Olivier Foulon brought the four paintings together with the help of 16mm film and visualizes not only early forms of mass production in art, but works with the concept of a model that is used as a template for a painting which itself then becomes the model for another painting. Olivier Foulon’s artistic work shows arrangements through which art history can be renegotiated and interpreted anew.

The publication The Soliloquy of the Broom is part of Edition III – Masquerade (2008-2010). Published by Gevaert Éditions. Produced by If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution. ISBN: 978-2-930619-00-2.