“Gustave Courbet painted three copies of one portrait. Olivier Foulon adds another one via the medium of film.”

Writer/artist Maria Barnas’ introduction to her essay on Foulon’s work in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad is a short but adequate summary of The Soliloquy of the Broom. This multifaceted work, commissioned as part of Edition III – Masquerade, has since its ‘release’ in 2008 has featured in installations, screenings and lecture performances. It leads back to a world wide journey undertaken by Olivier Foulon and camera woman Martina Radwan in the summer of 2008, tracking four paintings by Gustave Courbet with the title Jo, The Beautiful Irish Girl (1865) and filming the individual paintings for two minutes on 16mm film, subsequently editing them into one work.