It was in Amsterdam, as part of a residency at the Rijksakademie, that Delmotte shot Bike. I had been able,” explains , a few months earlier, via a curator who wanted to surprise me, to view some rare works by Bas Jan Ader in the reserves of the Stedelijk Museum. It was an old U-Matic cassette on which several Super-8 films had been recorded. The image was shaky and very blurred. For me, this session was a revelation, in particular for the attitude, the strange position of this artist, visà- vis official culture. There was, among other things, a video entitled Fall II – Bas Jan Ader – 1970, in which he dropped his bicycle into the water of a canal – in the same Amsterdam, where I myself was, at that very moment… – and sank into it, disappearing into the murky water. I have completed several works based on this piece”. In Waterbike filmet- for example, a person walks down a canal, walking underwater, feeling the bottom to find a bicycle which he extracts and straddles to ride and disappear in an uncertain urban context. With Bike, in addition to paying homage to Bas Jan Ader (1942-1975), Messieurs Delmotte questions the status of the artist: the bike moves forward without a rider, like a performance without a protagonist, as if the work could follow its course, without the intervention of its creator. (Pierre Henrion)