Ludovic Beillard & Victor Delestre at Island

Artists: Ludovic Beillard, Victor Delestre

Exhibition title: Une belle nuit

Venue: Island, Brussels, Belgium

Date: February 20 – March 20, 2021

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Island, Brussels

Come to think of it, you felt your skin getting young, getting old, stretching and softening. By the time this
happened you were no longer beneath it.
You were no longer your skin, your poor skin, your parody of integument.

You read the date written on your smartphone.
You rewind the thread of time,
You leave yourself.

You review everything, it feels like a break-in.
You fast forward through it all.
Flashes.
You see everything again, it blinds you.

You experience a loss of lift.
It’s not coherent. You stumble.
All while remembering you forget.

Materials are not what they should be, forms have lost their meaning.
Has the outside already started to wither? Have the walls of the house already started to decay? Had a party not
been seized as an opportunity to move things around?

Everything is a little off, badly lit on purpose,
Like a film that shows you the dead.
You remember.
Memory unravels, it is reborn, then dies again.
You wobble like a puppet.

Whilst you thought you were dancing something cracked.
Do children still see the light of day as you did?
Are they still playing hide and seek behind the furniture?
Do their fire trucks still melt so easily in the chimney?

You’re confused. A whole world has come in with a crash and you weren’t there to welcome it.
With a speed that you have failed to experience.
Like all things, you have spent your time crumbling, coagulating, vitrifying yourself.
Twisting in all directions trying to preserve a memory.
What’s called a memory should bear its real name: “succubus”.

Colours have faded, energy has run out.
An old memory is simulated.
You want to slip into the lie a little longer,
You want to believe in it just for a little while,
You want to grab hold of every moment that seems happy to you, until nothingness.

You have lost your skin, lost your shape,
Yet you’re still that good old struggling carcass,
Unsure whether it is floating or fallin

The lights are dazzling.
Nothing else matters.
As far as you know, nothing ever happened.
Nothing precedes this moment.

You have taken a long time to remember
Awakening presents nothing more than shapeless illusions,
Leftovers of attire taken seriously
Your case history has taken its time as even the smallest machine measures you.

-Julien Journoux

Ludovic Beillard (b. 1982 in France) lives and works in Brussels. He is graduated from DNSEP – École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux and l’ERG in Brussels. His work has been recently shown in various galeries and institutions such as at Etablissement d’en Face, Brussels (BE) and the Center For Contemporary Art Futura, Prague (CZ), Pierre Poumet, Bordeaux (FR), 15 Orient, New York (US), Komplot, Bruxelles (BE), Polignano a Mare (IT), Chabram, Touzac; L’Annexe, Paris (FR), Rectangle, Bruxelles (BE), Capsule, Rennes (FR), Alimentation générale, Bruxelles; Deborah Bowmann, Bruxelles (BE), Cneai Paris (FR), Emily Harvey Foundation, New York; San Francisco Art Institute (US), CAPC Bordeaux (FR).

Victor Delestre (b. 1989 in France) lives and works in Brussels. He is graduated from DNSEP – École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. He completed a Master at the Dirty Art Department, Sandberg Institute (MA Program of Rietveld Academie), Amsterdam. He co-founded the artist-run-space Deborah Bowmann in 2014. He also has experiences as an intervenant in different art schools such as Goldsmiths College (London), Kask (Gent), École des Beaux arts de Dunkerque, Bruxelles and Bordeaux.

His work has been recently shown in various galeries and institutions such as at the MKG Hambourg (DE), Centre d’art Passages, Troyes (FR), Vordemberge Gildewart Prize 2020, Den Hague (NL), Everyday Gallery, Anvers (BE), Festival de l’Estran, Trégastel; MRAC Sérignan; FRAC MÉCA, Bordeaux (FR), Conradi Gallery, Cologne (DE), Project space Saloon, Bruxelles (BE), 19ème Prix Fondation d’entreprise Ricard cur. by Anne-Claire Schmitz (FR), Chamber, New-York City (US),, La Panacée, Montpellier; CAPC, Bordeaux; Cneai Paris (FR), Emily Harvey Foundation, New York; San Francisco Art Institute (US) and of course at Deborah Bowmann Amsterdam and Brussels (NL & BE).

Ludovic Beillard, La nuit, les étoiles, 2021, wood. Photos © Marie Béney

Ludovic Beillard, Escalier et Acouphènes, exhibition view, Island 2021. Photos © Marie Béney

Ludovic Beillard, Escaliers, 2021, wood. Photos © Marie Béney & Mia Bindner

Ludovic Beillard, Acouphènes, 2021, wood marquetry. Photos © Marie Béney & Mia Bindner

Ludovic Beillard and Victor Delestre, exhibition view, 2021. Photos © Marie Béney & Mia Bindner

Victor Delestre, Les couloir du temps : (La mode), (Géo), and (New York), 2021, assembled media, wood, moquette, metal, mirror, plastic, diod lamps, sand, paper, ceramic, and power cable. Photos © Marie Béney & Mia Bindner

Victor Delestre, Les couloir du temps : (La mode), 2021, assembled media, wood, moquette, metal, mirror, plastic, diod lamps, synthetic textile and wool, power cable. Photos © Marie Béney & Mia Bindner

Victor Delestre, Les couloir du temps : (Géo), 2021, assembled media, wood, moquette, plastic, diod lamps, sand, paper, ceramic, and power cable. Photos © Marie Béney

Victor Delestre, Les couloir du temps : (New York), 2021, assembled media, wood, moquette, plastic, diod lamps, pistaches, paper, metal, ceramic, and power cable. Photos © Marie Béney

Victor Delestre, Les couloir du temps : (New York), 2021, assembled media, wood, moquette, plastic, diod lamps, pistaches, paper, metal, ceramic, and power cable. Photos © Marie Béney & Mia Bindner

Victor Delestre, Machine, 2021, wood, lamp, diod lamps, metal, coffee pump, plastic, microcontroller and power cable. Photos © Marie Béney & Mia Bindner

Victor Delestre, Les couloir du temps : (Géo), 2021, assembled media, wood, moquette, plastic, diod lamps, sand, paper, ceramic, and power cable. Photos © Marie Béney & Mia Bindner