Belgian architecture-artist

Koen Deprez

1989

Executions of Time

An avid fan of 1970s science-fiction movies, Koen Deprez is fascinated by the way in which the protagonists often travel through time using supersonic crafts. Yet these excursions generally take the characters to undefined 'pre-historic' lands dominated by animal-like and mythological creatures, or apes. The filmmakers, adhering to hazy images of the past, rarely took the opportunity to develop supersonic, improved human beings. Perhaps, thought Koen Deprez, this nostalgic undercurrent is born of a latent fear about a potential clash between two irreconcilable civilisations? He depicts the encounters between different epochs, which always result in violent executions, in a series of three collages. In one, a Russian Soviet missile is activated. Once used to attack hostile territories, the craft is held under fire. Executions of Time depicts playful anachronistic scenarios: twentieth-century armaments and military equipment travel back in time to the eighteenth century.

Collage, 45 x 29 x 2 cm

Collage, 45 x 29 x 2 cm

Collage, 45 x 29 x 2 cm

Collage, 45 x 29 x 2 cm