Martin Belou at Bernier/Eliades Gallery

Artist: Martin Belou

Exhibition title: Canicula

Venue: Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

Date: September 3 – December 19, 2020

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Brussels

The Bernier/Eliades Gallery is pleased to present “Canicula” the solo exhibition of French artist Martin Belou on the 3rd of September coinciding with the Brussels Gallery Weekend from 11:00 to 21:00.

The etymology of the Latin word ‘Canicula’ served as a starting point for this installation by Martin Belou. In Hellenistic astrology, canicula or ‘small dog’ was associated with Sirius, the brightest star at the firmament and part of the constellation Canis Major. The star can be observed from the Northern Hemisphere from mid-July to mid-September, when it disappears again. Its presence coincides with the warmest and driest period of the year, having a significant impact on nature, agriculture, society and the human body. Just like the Ancient Greeks, the artist looks to the stars to understand the earthly disasters. This act renders him humble and therefore capable of depicting the unthinkable.

Martin Belou does not rely on big gestures or moralizing messages. Instead, he creates an installation from which the human figure has disappeared. What remains is a landscape plagued by heat and drought, inhabited by plants and animals and marked by the traces they have left behind.

Canicula is Martin Belou’s debut at Bernier/Eliades Gallery in Brussels. The exhibition has been conceived, produced and will be presented amidst a pandemic that put an end to the absolutism of the human species. While precariousness gapes like an open wound that can no longer be ignored, the establishment keeps speculating about how to return to the pre-Covid world. At the same time, another slow but persistent kind of pandemic keeps unfolding in the background – the climate crisis. Against this background, Canicula appears as a timely observation.

Sirius rises late in the dark, liquid sky
On summer nights, star of stars,
Orion’s Dog they call it, brightest
Of all, but an evil portent, bringing heat
And fevers to suffering humanity.
(Homer – Iliad)

Text by Louise Osieka.

Martin Belou (1986, L’Union) lives and works between Marseille and Brussels. Recent solo exhibitions and projects include Foyer at sans Titre, Paris (2020); Pas de fumée sans feu at La Tôlerie, Clermont-Ferrand (2019); Garde Fou at Bastide Projects, Marseille (2019); Objects, Love and Patterns at CIAP Kunstverein, Hasselt (2018); River Scene as part as the Billboard Series of Artlead in Gent (2017) and ‘Théâtre Américain’ at Levy-Delval in Brussels (2017). At this moment Belou prepares a project for Kunsthal Gent (2020).

Martin Belou has participated in numerous group exhibitions, such as Futur, ancien, fugitif – Une scène française , Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2019); Natural Capital , Bozar Brussels (2017); Feed me with your kiss, Confort Moderne, Poitiers (2017); RUN RUN RUN, the art center of Villa Arson, in Nice (2016), Les fausses dents du prince , Deborah Bowmann, Brussels (2016), and Friendly Faces , Johannes Vogt, New York (2015) . In 2018 Belou was invited by fashion designer J.W. Anderson to create a set design for his runway at London Fashion Week. He participated in residency programs at Triangle in Marseille, Aguas Del Dià in Mexico, Europalia in Indonesia and CAC Parc Saint-Léger in Pougues -les-Eaux. Martin Belou graduated in 2009 from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art of Clermont Métropole.