Interview with artist Willy Van Den Dorpe about his ‘denkerke’
For 15 years now, the well-known red statue ‘The Thinker in All State’ has had a prominent place on our campus in Etterbeek. In the meantime, it has become the mascot of the VUB and, with its criticism of rationality, it symbolises the free enquiry inherent in our university. We talked to sculptor, artist and painter Willy Van Den Dorpe about his life and thinking, about what inspires him and, of course, about his ‘denkerke’, as he affectionately calls the statue.
Are you also 'a denkerke' and looking for inspiration? Then the VUB is the place to be! #FindYourPurpose - #TheWorldNeedsYou
Van Den Dorpe does not like thinking and even less the spotlights. Yet in his hoarse voice you can hear the longing for light. For the beauty of real nature. For the authentic human being who is independent of what a culture, the norms of a religion or what laws tell him to do.
He welcomes us in Ghent, in the stately bourgeois home of a friend, among old paintings and antiques. "I love beautiful, old things," says the former furniture designer, art restorer and antique dealer. We meet a modest, engaging and sensitive man, who has not lost his youthful restlessness. A somewhat detached man too. Because unlike his thinker, who has found a home on our campus, Van Den Dorpe has always remained a wanderer. Over the years, he has lived in India, Portugal, Spain, Morocco and Brussels, among other places, where he claims to have experienced the best period of his life. At the moment he lives in Bali. He is not married (anymore) and has no children.
"I made the sculpture in 1997 for De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam and found inspiration in Rodin. Afterwards it has led a life of its own, especially along chapels. The Thinker has always been a challenging man".
"THE THINKER HAS ALWAYS BEEN A CHALLENGING LITTLE MAN" - WILLY VAN DEN DORPE
How did you come up with the idea for The Thinker?
"I didn't ask myself any questions at the time. It was Willem Elias who gave the sculpture its name and then shaped the story of the thinker. I only made it. The sculpture then started to make its own plan. Originally, it stood on a large cube and had a roof in the shape of a pyramid. The weather vanes were added later, when I saw that it could stand high in the wind.
What do you want to say with it?
"I let things speak for themselves. The thinker goes everywhere and in all states to fight for freedom. Thinking is a late invention of man and does not stimulate freedom. On the contrary. People are rational rather than free. What has rationality brought us? Law, wars, fundamentalism, nuclear weapons, borders. Unfreedom".
"THE THINKER TAKES UP HIS FIGHT FOR FREEDOM EVERYWHERE AND IN ALL STATES." - WILLY VAN DEN DORPE
Yet the thinker did not arise by accident. Why this great urge for freedom?
"Imagine doing the same thing over and over again with the same woman all your life? Or that you live in the same place all your life? Or that I would make the same kind of art all my life? Life is a chain: your history, your roots, your education. They determine who you are. I don't know why I make my works of art. Only when they are created I find it interesting, because then I learn something about myself".
LIFE IS A CHAIN: YOUR HISTORY, YOUR ROOTS, YOUR UPBRINGING. THEY DETERMINE WHO YOU ARE. - WILLY VAN DEN DORPE
Van Den Dorpe was born in 1942 somewhere between Ellezelles and Opbrakel, on what would later become the language border, as the second of three children. His father was a garden architect, his mother made clothes. He saw how his grandfather was shot dead at the liberation. "I was very small but I remember that day well. We were waving and shouting at the British tanks when my grandfather, who was standing next to me, was shot. I never really knew by whom and why. We didn't talk about it at home. But that blood... I won't forget it".
You come from a liberal family.
"I went to school with the fathers until I was five. I was brought up rationally. Too. My mother was good, but very Catholic. I was barely 26 when she died. My father, on the other hand, was strictly anti-Catholic. An aggressive man. I try not to behave too rationally. Then I think badly of myself. If I can be emotional, that's what I do.”
"IF I CAN BE EMOTIONAL, THAT’S WHAT I DO" - WILLY VAN DEN DORPE
"At home and at school we spoke Dutch. But father could not speak Dutch. That bilingualism was actually a problem. Because you had to choose. And actually I don't want to do that. Nothing is black or white, but grey. Only it is not accepted to think grey".
NOTHING IS BLACK OR WHITE, BUT GREY. ONLY IT IS NOT ACCEPTED TO THINK GREY" - WILLY VAN DEN DORPE
Where do you find peace?
"In the East. There is less thinking there. When I was 16, I immersed myself in Buddhism. Shortly afterwards I went to India for the first time. Many did at that time. As a result, I am now trying to unlearn everything I have ever learned. As a Buddhist you can do what you want. You are who you are. You are never tested to see if you are clever enough. Here you always have to be something more, you learn from childhood what you must and must not do. For me, freedom should be simple".
AS A BUDDHIST YOU CAN DO WHAT YOU WANT. YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE" - WILLY VAN DEN DORPE
Finally, what do you wish for The Thinker?
A female counterpart. That would be nice. A blue one. Women are everything to me, they are smarter than men. Women don't have to think rationally, because they already know what it is about, without thinking.
Are you also 'a denkerke' and looking for inspiration? Then the VUB is the place to be! #FindYourPurpose - #TheWorldNeedsYou