In his installations, photographs, drawings and films, Alain Declercq explores the structures of power and the forms of oppression that they engender – security schizophrenia, surveillance and media manipulation. Declercq’s  technique of inversion transforms him into an image hunter, an instigator of dysfunction, a turner of tables and general troublemaker.

To achieve his aims, he is ready to put himself on the line, without that bulletproof jacket, constantly exposing himself in shadowing, infiltration, investigation or manipulation. Declercq has managed to transpose the spy novel into the field of the visual arts – for espionage is very much the issue here.

Declercq’s critical vision of our world thwarts our quotidian and goads our certainties. Between real danger and absurd contrariness, the artist’s apparent paranoia amuses, disturbs or sets teeth on edge.

Jeanne Susplugas is an artist and a curator.