Walter Swennen, A screening of La Langue Rouge ( The Crimson Tongue), Sunday, 3 February, 2019
Walter Swennen, still from La Langue Rouge, a film by Violaine de Villers.
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ReadingRoom is thrilled to present our first Sunday Salon, a screening of LA LANGUE ROUGE (The Crimson Tongue) a film by Violaine de Villers.

Belgian artist Walter Swennen invites us into his workshop for a thoughtful but playful dialogue between the movements of his mind and the matter of his works, between a way of being and a way of painting.

Born just post-war, Swennen has been producing a polymorphous and inventive body of work since the 80s, characterised by its independence and its radical experimentation. When words fail and meanings get muddled, painting steps up, making light of the arbitrariness of images and words.

Swennen moves from Brussels to New York, and helped by the film’s director and a team of curators of contemporary art, he speaks to his paintings, and they speak back. We are drawn into this painter-philosopher’s wacky world, in which Buster Keaton bumps into Titian, Krazy Cat rides a Dadaesque hobbyhorse, Mickey Mouse puts ears on Mallarmé, and Boris Vian jams with Thelonious Monk. Swennen is a master of not taking himself too seriously, while talking seriously about his art. With impish precision, this film prods and probes a great Belgian oddball artist.

With thanks to Marie Kervyn, and YC Aligator Film.

ReadingRoom Sunday Salons will take place approximately once a month on a Sunday morning or afternoon. The salons will include film screenings, readings, and casual conversations, that are an extension of the gallery program.

Where: ReadingRoom, Rooms 4 & 5, Level 6, The Nicholas Building

When: Sunday 3 February, 11am–1pm

Seating will be limited, so registration is essential via office@areadingroom.com