Louis De Cordier

Louis De Cordier, who lives off the grid 
in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in southern Spain, continues, from there, both his practice as an artist and his involvement in, if not his initiation of, a range of projects pertaining to a marked interest in the transition movement, albeit, in his own, more profane and applied manner. One such project, developed at this new location, is to build a ‘cultural ark’, a library that comprises books and other records on self-sufficiency, agriculture, socio-economics, as well as materials on culture and art. Also referred to as the ‘lifeboat’ project, it focuses on local, communal cooperation without cutting ties to global society at large. Distancing itself from a more or less naive belief in autarkic models, the aim is a statement about current memes, such as societal collapse, peak oil, solar cycles, the failure and breakdown of the capitalist financial systems, the Occupy movement – and this using what are effectively, non-protest, constructive tactics. This project was preceded by a range of others, for instance, the expedition project centred on the labyrinth of Egypt.
Another slant – for several years, De Cordier works mostly linking to his prior studies in architecture and philosophy, as well
 an awareness of peak oil and climate change.