Sculptures in Corten steel and oxidised bronze (1976)
Felix Roulin’s work of art in Thieffry station is representative of his work in the 1970s: the pillars, which look like they are growing out of the ground, break open the floor. The pillars themselves then crack open and tear and in the surfaces and spaces where they break through between the dark, rough, transformed material, extremely realistic-looking body parts appear: backs, thighs, feet... The Corten steel and the oxidised bronze in which this work was carried out are not, however, the materials which Roulin uses most frequently. Above all the artist wanted to construct a work of art that can be touched, which the passengers can move around, or, if need be, sit on. The pipes which stick out of the ground refer to the industrialised world and give the impression that they extend infinitely under the ground.
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FÉLIX ROULIN (Dinant, 1931)
His beginnings as a young sculptor were in a non-figurative style that was in full expansion at the time. Later on, non-figurative sculptures built on the basis of beams and cubic forms and compared with architecture, progressively took on more importance in his works. We could say that these creations are the never-ending theatre of modern society: the contest between the display of life and oppression, between the need for freedom and constraints, between vitality and organisation, like bodies enclosed in the masses which are trying to break free. The period of neo-realism, hyperrealism and photo realism influenced his work in this later phase. From the 1970s his beams and columns break open and through these cracks we can see parts of human bodies, like hands, chests, heads and faces. These body parts are surprisingly realistic.
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