Paul De Vree

1972

Print, 12 x (98 x 98 cm).
Materials: photo emulsion, canvas

Collection: Private Collection, Antwerp.

In some of his works an existentialist philosophy is apparent: in the collection *Maskers* (published by Subvers Press, Ijmuiden, 1973) for instance, he takes a critical look at the problem of freedom, without however taking a stand. In this collection the ‘playing of a role’ in human behaviour is a central theme, the (social) masquerade, which comes down to not acknowledging one’s freedom or that of others. He introduces the collection like this: “With regards to interhuman relations the mask symbolizes fictitious riddle of the gaze. They say L’enfer, c’est les autres, but to these others each of us belongs”. De Vree refers to Sartre’s huis-clos-mentality. In the play of this name the characters are in turn each other’s executioner and victim in a never ending cycle of psychic torture consisting of being in the power of each other’s gaze. The dialectic of this situation, the fossilisation by the other’s gaze is ‘hell’. In *Maskers* De Vree tries to visualize the condemnation one is confronted with when renouncing out of free will one’s responsibility through lie, evasion and hypocrisy, not accepting real life circumstances in their furthest consequences, but plays a role and keeps alive an illusion for himself and the others in order to identify with it, while the other does not go into it or when things reach their real climax. According to De Vree conflict is inherent of the human condition: in so far as the human being gives in to the fear of life justification in freedom, it becomes hell.