Pierre Lionel Matte

European Rorschach

Painted MDF board. Size; approx. 1.5 x 3 m. 2007


The starting point for this work is the classic Rorschach-shape used in psychoanalysis to uncover both mental suppressions and unconscious projections.  In  this work a symmetric shape is made of the image-map  of Northern Africa/Middle-East  and  Europe;  Europe is “tilted on its back”, moved  off the centre and mirrored:  Northern Africa creates  an dominating  central form whereas  Europe seems to dissolve into geographical fragments.

The outlined  geographical  regions  are  based on the historical  connections and influences  between  European  and Islamic culture; through the Ottoman empire and the Moors. The works deals with both a collective ( European)  denial of this historical  cultural  dependence  and the actual  projection of  an enemy-image;   Europe is no longer the natural “centre of the map.”

An arabesque-decoration  is painted into the black surface of the Rorschach;  the decoration consists of different Islamic patterns from different historical and geographical  areas