In SUPERDEMOCRACY the pirate flag floats among other flags, diverting this
symbol of the nation-states into a plurality of individual proposals. Thierry
Verbeke’s flag is made of a patchwork of black cloth, of course marked with the
skull with the crossed bones of the famous Jolly Roger.
With this
work, the artist blurs two sociocultural references by associating them: the
first, that of patchwork, traditionally associated with a typically feminine
mode of expression, a classic notably in working-class women’s leisure
associations (2); and the second, that of the historic-mythical piracy, which
recalls, after the writings of the celebrated English historian Christopher
Hill, that piracy can also be understood as an ‘inverted world’; an attempt to
establish a more egalitarian counter-society than that in which sailors lived, a
hope of establishing what was at the time a democratic utopia (Eleutheria,
Libertalia, etc.). The work thus links two systems of social organizations,
leading to fruitful exchanges between them, generating questions which, the
artist hopes, can lead to ‘collective awareness’.
(2) In Belgium, these were
associations like Vie Féminine, Les Femmes Prévoyantes Socialistes,
closely linked to political parties.
