Poor Paintings by Béatrice Balcou
23.01-06.04.25
Béatrice Balcou continues the work she began several years ago in collaboration with art restorers, repeating their gestures with a focus on works that have been damaged and restored. In doing so, she gains a sensitive and scientific insight into their materiality, intimacy, and life beyond their simple representation. In a society characterised by unbridled consumerism which also affects art, the act of taking time to observe, describe, detail, go over, and make do with what is already there is a political act. The exhibition highlights restorative gestures and embodied knowledge: the mastery of craft and the clever processes that accompany it, and the intense pleasure experienced through this care, and by carrying out or observing manual action.
This exhibition is part of the Suite programme, at the initiative of the Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap), with the support of the Académie des beaux-arts. With the support of the French Embassy in Belgium and the Institut français. As part of EXTRA, a program that supports French contemporary creation in Belgium.
