| Julien Friedler | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Julien Friedler |
| Born | 13 November 1950 Brussels, Belgium |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Field | Litterature, Painting, Sculpture, Drawing |
| Movement | Be art |
| Works | The Demoiselles revisited,[1] In Quest[2] |
Julien Friedler, born in 1950 in Bruxelles, a writer and contemporary artist, is the leading figure in the visual art movement known as be art.
He spent his childhood and adolescence in Brussels. He earns university degrees in philosophy at La Sorbonne and ethnography at the Université Libre of Brussels. He then follows a cursus in psychoanalysis in Paris, adhers to post-structuralist theories of Jacques Lacan, while starting a personal psychoanalysis with Lacan. He has wide interests and subsequently also trained in jewelery design. In the nineties, he established the "La Moire"[3] in Brussels, an institute which promotes an interdisciplinary approach within the psychoanalytic field. He aimed to break through the constraints of classical psychoanalysis but encountered considerable resistance and ultimately finds himself obliged to leave the psychoanalytical milieu.[4]
In 1994, Friedler starts his artistic career. Self-taught but armed with significant insight into the human character and a fascination for the unknown, he starts painting. He hold awareness and understanding of the chain of events of the second half of the 20th century and, through his art, confronts postmodern contemporary society. He emerges as a charismatic visionary taking a holistic approach while creating an organic microcosm, the World of Boz.
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During his career, he writes numerous articles and books which find both wide and critical acclaim in the specialized press.[5] In 2003, he set out to write a book which is not a regular scientific discourse but a literary work of truly epic proportion entitled "Book of Boz". The Book of Boz is simultaneously a novel and a work of poetry and prose written for its most part as a dialogue. The story unfolds in the 20th century, in the present and in a fictitious future. The main characters are three clowns: Jack Balance, the scribe himself and the Mirror Man.[6]
Some paintings are built up in a neo-expressionist style. Others have a shamanic stick figures who glow with inner energy or are lined with quasi primitive symbols that resemble Egyptian hieroglyphs; in particular, "The Word of Angels" depicts Friedler's self-conceived language whereby the artist refers to primeval myths that honor the connection between the supernatural and the profane as a theme,.[7] The youth language of graffiti also appears in some works.[8]
Biographical connotations are frequent and often ambiguous. In order to gain access into Friedler's work, it is necessary to understand some of the significant events in the artist's history and life such as the Shoah and May 1968. The artist's visual work takes a central place in the Book of Boz and the content forces him to ultimately present his art to a wider audience and correspondingly also confront the contemporary international art scene.[9]
In 2008, Friedler created a contemporary art association called Spirit of Boz[10] which coordinates the Be Boz Be Art programme[11] consisting of a portfolio of cultural and artistic projects conceived upfront as art "for and by the masses". The association is a platform on which Friedler operates instead of the art scene and in doing so makes art accessible for a wide audience, where art is least expected or entirely out of place. In that context, art is used as a vehicle for improving social cohesion.