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Pierre Boogaerts
 From May 5th 1975 to June 26th 1975
Références : plantation / jaune bananier

"The ‘Banana-Tree Yellow’ Reference
... so the concern is not with bananas or banana-trees as such, not with the ‘real nature’ of fruits or trees.
Merely I point out an image.
‘Banana-tree’ conjures up the image ‘tree’ – nature, verticality, growth –; the image ‘south’ – exoticism, far-away, freedom –; and ‘yellow’ – banana-tree = banana = yellow.
‘Banana-tree yellow’ combines therefore nature, verticality, growth, exoticism and freedom with the characteristics of the colour yellow : light, warmth and a certain kind of space.
The reference is not to an image of nature (the banana-tree) but to a mental construction (collective conscious) – let’s call it a ‘synthetic image’.
Labelling an object ‘banana-tree yellow’ aims at revealing the impact of the image (reference) on the object, as well as the impact of the image on the object’s environment – potentialization of the image.
The reference is there to project the ‘synthetic image’ on the object and to project its action on the environment.
The object (the visual) is developed (photography) by the reference (the mental construction).
... not to build a world, a mythology but to reveal the non-natural (the artificial) as natural (biological) through the intervention of the synthetic image. (*)
Try to render the integration (efficient use) of man and nature at the same time evident (the area of the mind : sight) and biological (sensory area : attitude). (*)
To show the human content of nature in ‘developing’ the natural content of man.
(*) to clarify :
There is no question of imitating nature. Imitation would only be imposing the synthetic on the natural, i.e., destroying the natural. Rather, it is a matter of ‘developing’ the homogeneity of the environment – synthetic / nature – (‘all the constitutiong elements of a homogeneous substance are of the same nature’ – Dictionary).
Finally, to affirm that the ‘human’ extends into the synthetic as well as into the natural."
- Pierre Boogaerts, August 1974
- Internal document (Optica)