Projet de toilettes pour le Musée de Mönchengladbach
1969
Installation, variable dimensions .
Materials: mixed media
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp.
Originally, Robert Filliou designed his Projet de toilettes for a museum in Mönchengladbach. However, because it became realised there, in 1979 the artist donated it to the Gordon Matta-Clark Foundation in Antwerp, and as such it came to be part of the collection that served as basis for the M HKA’s birth. His Projet de toilettes thus became one of the first works to be realised at M HKA. It consists of three doors that lead to three toilet stalls. The artist invites the visitor to choose a door – marked men, women or artists – and to go inside. Filliou saw an artist in everyone, and each toilet (including the “artist’s toilet”) was free for all to use. With some humor and irony, Filliou wanted to counter the myth of artist as exalted creator of beauty. With something as banal and everyday as a project for toilets, the artist lifts the barrier between art and life. Here, he literally fashions art for everyone.