"Simply put, it can be said that 'Mankind' is the central theme of Marc De Corte's images. If one were to leave it at that, however, this would be an unauthorized simplification.
This statement can be illustrated by the following image: Marc's images are like looking at the water surface in which man is reflected. Marc De Corte doesn't stop there, he doesn't stay on the surface of the water, but dives into the depths, causing the image to tremble, distort and take on a different shape. The theater of the apparition is broken. The mask bursts and reveals fragments of the inner man.
How are these images "constructed"?
In the very tangible works, the absence of a background is not a loss, but it enhances the power of the image. The language of the performance is dynamic, nervous and erratic. The narrow, surreal color spectrum and the diffused light reinforce this impression. This denial of a clearly defined background removes the depicted figures from any notion of time and space. They seem to float in thin air. The background here acts as the whimsical and shadowy bune that the depicted figures need and through which they acquire their intensity.
The contrast is carefully balanced: a fruitful limiting lies in the emphatic emphasis on speaking parts of human physiognomy, usually the eyelids as a mirror of the soul, or the mouth. They stand in contrast to their environment and refer to Marc de Corte's psychologized view of man. The focus on specific anatomical parts also narrows the view of the viewer. An intensive dialogue is established between looking and being watched. A look into the soul of a stranger who is so familiar to us, man as such. As spectators we seem to be chance witnesses of events that are familiar to us from everyday life, but of which we know that behind the fassade lies a deeper undefined reality.
In this contrast of revealing and hiding lies the source of a certain field of tension in the images shown. The feeling of being in a very fragile state and the fear of disturbing a certain balance strikes. This cannon remains intact: Marc De Corte does not need tricks: he is able to create simple representations of complex movements that in their essence are reminiscent of cartoons. We become witnesses of ourselves here as spectators."
Oliver Czarnetta - Doctor of Art History - Master in Fine Arts