— Fanfare, Calme et Volupté | 2007
Koen Theys

In FANFARE, CALME ET VOLUPTÉ, Koen Theys presents an image of musicians and majorettes in their elaborate public regalia, caught in a peculiar state of repose. Each figure clutches a brass instrument, yet their collective slumber holds them in stasis, suspending their typical energy. Time itself seems paused in this tableau vivant, where even the slightest stir of a resting majorette becomes a charged, almost monumental gesture, intensifying the tension between stillness and the meticulously composed, picturesque scene. A smaller screen provides a full view of the scene, while a larger screen offers intimate close-ups, drawing the viewer into the fragmented details of this suspended moment.

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The title FANFARE, CALME ET VOLUPTÉ wittily references Baudelaire's famous refrain from L'invitation au voyage, a poem from Les Fleurs du Mal (1857), which muses, "Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté, Luxe, calme et volupté" ("There, all is order and beauty, luxury, calm, and sensuousness"). Baudelaire's words evoke an escapist vision of exotic luxury and tranquility, a fantasy of sensual repose far removed from reality. This line also inspired Henri Matisse’s painting Luxe, calme et volupté (1904), which sought to capture a paradisiacal harmony. However, in Theys’s interpretation, the serene, languid allure of Baudelaire's verse is tinged with irony as he brings together the ceremonious aesthetic of a traditional fanfare with a sense of inaction and disconnection.

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Theys’s composition is not an attempt to revive nostalgic forms for their own sake but rather uses the tension between traditional imagery and contemporary visual expectations to probe deeper cultural conflicts. In Fanfare, Calme & Volupté, the drowsy fanfare troupe becomes a reflection on art and spectacle, subverting the expectations of performance to underscore themes of inertia, suspended purpose, and the friction between collective ritual and individual withdrawal. In doing so, Theys dissects and recontextualises historical genres to shed light on the paradoxes within contemporary art and society.