Foyer

About

Martin Belou envisions his work as a space in itself; he uses the term "object-world". The “Foyer” presented at Sans titre (2016) - produced specially for the gallery space as part of his second solo exhibition in France - acts as the annex to an environment conceived several months ago for the Palais de Tokyo (Paris, FR) in the exhibition Futur, ancien, fugitif(2019), or, more directly, to that which he produced in Objects, Love and Patterns(2018) at CIAP Kunstverein (Hasselt, BE). With each exhibition, the public is led to discover a new extension, built from an alloy of organic elements and styled or mottled shapes that lie between the field of sculpture and the standard industrial object.

The foyer - or hearth - is the place where the fire is found, but also the hypocentre, the headquarters in a context of family or community. It is represented physically in the gallery by the lamp surrounded by a brass firewall, like a central point from which the rays emitted by a source of light and heat diverge. The incandescence here comes from a sodium vapor bulb, the same found in street lights and other public lighting - but also, in some specific cases, in indoor plant growing. Almost impossible to look at with the naked eye, this light generates a change in sensory perception and allows the artist to split the space - and to visualise the moment of the exhibition - in two stages and two states: sunrise, which gradually becomes the campfire of a dwelling. Belou wishes to lead the visitor in a mysterious procession where certain imagined or space-related stories resurface as the journey proceeds.

Martin Belou was born in 1986 in L’Union. He lives and works between Marseille and Brussels. He recently participated in residency programs at Triangle in Marseille, Aguas Del Dià in Mexico, EUROPALIA in Indonesia and the CAC Parc Saint-Léger in Pougues-les-Eaux. Martin Belou graduated in 2009 from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Artof Clermont Métropole. 

 His work has been presented in solo exhibitions at La Tôlerie in Clermont-Ferrand (2019), at Bastide Projects in Marseille (2019), at CIAP Kunstverein in Hasselt (2018) and at Levy-Delval in Brussels (2017). Martin Belou has participated in numerous group exhibitions, such as this year’s 'Futur, ancien, fugitif - Une scène française' at the Palais de Tokyo (2019), BOZAR in Brussels in the exhibition 'Natural Capital (Model Alam)' (2017), at Confort Moderne in Poitiers in 'Feed me with your kiss' (2017), at the art center of Villa Arson in Nice in 'RUN RUN RUN' (2016), at Deborah Bowmann in Brussels in 'Les fausses dents du prince ' (2016), and also in New York at Johannes Vogt in the exhibition 'Friendly Faces' (2015).