Ex Cathedra (Archéologie d’une voix)

Door Christophe Muylaert, 2026

70cm x 70cm

Ex Cathedra (Archéologie d’une voix) consists of three elements: a plate depicting Pope John Paul II, a copper bell, and the clapper of that bell cast in transparent resin. The clapper has been removed from the instrument and preserved beneath it like a fossil. While the bell retains its form and recognizability, it is rendered inoperative: the mechanism that enables its voice has been extracted and archived. The installation approaches authority not as a personal attribute, but as a structure. The plate functions as image (representation), the bell as carrier (instrument), and the clapper as operative element (mechanism). By separating these components, the work exposes how “voice” emerges from a configuration of objects, rituals, and material conditions. The work resonates with Michel Foucault’s analysis of power as a network of relations articulated through discourse, practices, and institutions. Rather than locating power in a single source, Foucault describes how it operates through concrete dispositifs. The title refers both to ex cathedra, where authority appears self-evident, and to an archaeological approach that reveals the conditions of enunciation. What remains is not a statement, but a system—suspended and made legible.

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