BELLUCCI – CHRISTIAN BERST

Galleries — Wed, 26 May 2021 10:19:57 +0000

5 years after its first exhibition dedicated to Franco Bellucci, the gallery presents as beautiful as… # 2, a new solo show honoring the recently deceased artist. Struck by a significant delay in psychic development, deprived of the ability to speak, Franco Bellucci tirelessly assembled various objects gleaned during his daily walks. This ritual gradually contributed to alleviating his rage and channeling his strength into a creative movement that made him a major figure in Italian art brut, exhibited in particular at the Maison Rouge and the Palais de Tokyo, in Paris and at Galila’s POC. and at the Trinkhall Museum.

If, in Franco Bellucci’s work, the idea of reconstruction – or even that of fixing, so dear Kader Attia – imposes itself in the first place, it cannot suffice once we are familiar with how he made his works. Indeed, how could we not be taken by Bellucci’s immutable ritual, holding the objects that he ties, twists, kneads, bruises and recomposes against his stomach.

If we consider for a moment that the stomach is understood in certain Oriental and Greek philosophies to be the seat of the soul or, at the very least, of the epithumia – desire – we see the amount of vital, primordial energy that could animate these creations. If, in addition, this operation is devoid of all discourse, of all words, but is done at the rhythm of a guttural scansion, of the hoarse breath of Bellucci, one cannot help but draw a parallel with certain shamanistic rituals.

Contrary to Judith Scott, a spider-like weaver of cocoons intended to hide objects, or Pascal Tassini, exploring the proliferating possibilities of knots, Franco Belluci reveals, sublimes, and resuscitates. By creating chimera, he metaphorizes his battle against fragmentation all the while giving his objects an absolute power of recreation. “As beautiful as the unexpected encounter, on a dissection table, of a sewing machine and an umbrella” (Count of Lautréamont, The Songs of Maldoror).

Galerie Christian Berst – Paris 3

Galleries — Wed, 26 May 2021 09:51:42 +0000

By presenting the contemporary art brut, the gallery christian berst implies that it cannot be confined neither in a period of time nor in a geographical perimeter not even in a formal spectrum. What is at stake here is rather the notion of individual mythology, dear to Harald Szeemann.

Since 2005, the gallery christian berst art brut – internationally recognized as a reference in its field – has been putting its passion at the service of creators off the beaten track, whether they are “classics” already consecrated by museums and collections or contemporary discoveries promised to the recognition of the art world.

The gallery distinguishes itself as much by its exhibitions, its participation in international art fairs as by its publications – more than 70 bilingual catalogues to date – or its conferences, screenings and other cultural events that tend to bring an ever wider public into the intricacies of Art Brut.

Several artists represented by the gallery have recently joined prestigious public collections (MNAM-Pompidou, MoMA, Metropolitan Art Museum, …) and about fifteen of them were included in the selection for the 2013 Venice Biennale, while Luboš Plný and Dan Miller, defended by the gallery for 10 years, were selected for the 2017 Venice Biennale.

In 2014 and 2015, Christian Berst was part of the critical college of the Salon d’art contemporain de Montrouge. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Comité professionnel des galeries d’art (CPGA) from 2013 to 2019 and secretary general of the Friends of the Bibliothèque nationale de France from 2014 to 2019.

In 2016, the gallery also became part of the collective MAP Metropolitan Art Paris, while Christian Berst curated two museum exhibitions: Art Brut: A Story Of Individual Mythologies, at the Oliva Creative Factory, Sao Joao de Madeira (Portugal) and Brut Now: Art Brut in the Age of New Technologies at the Belfort Museums (catalogue published by the Presses du Réel).

In October 2020, on the occasion of its 15th anniversary, the gallery opened a second space, The Bridge. This bridge between art brut and other categories of art allows guest curators, 7 times a year, to express their own vision of this fruitful dialogue.

In May 2022, Christian Berst will co-direct, with Raphaël Koenig, the Cerisy colloquium devoted to art brut.

Galleries in Paris » Franco Bellucci

BELLUCCI – CHRISTIAN BERST

Galerie Christian Berst – Paris 3