Michèle Matyn
(c)image: M HKA
The sculpture Bilpannen (translates as Thigh Tiles) comes out of a performance ritual Matyn made together with six other women, who all together form the “14 thighs”. They produced the tiles by shaping clay over their thighs, before baking them in an oven. This method of making tiles has origins in pre-industrial tile-making techniques by women in rural regions of Europe. The tiles use the physiognomy of the woman’s body to create protective structures.
“One of my most recent performances, ‘Bilpannen’ (Tigh-Tiles), was initiated after my partner remarked that a little shed was roofed with tiles from the town of Boom. Supposedly the women of Boom used to make those tiles with their tighs; those authentic tiles hace a very specific shape. So it was something really close and seemingly banal, but I found it unbelievable. It is wonderful that the female body was a mold for something so efficient and functional as a roof tile. For the performance we obviously used clay from the region of Boom.” - Michèle Matyn, 2014
