Valérie Belin, L'incertaine beauté du monde, a retrospective, MUba Tourcoing, France

 

Front view of the Museum MUba in the city of Tourcoing, north of France

Inside view of the exhibition

Valérie Belin (born 1964) is a French artist, a photographer. A retrospective of her work, from the 90's to her most actual Series of photography, is presented by the MUba, Museum of Beaux Arts Eugène Leroy in the city of Tourcoing, North of France. Valerie Belin is one of the curators of this exhibition. Her work is largely exhibited worldwide and presented in many collections of National Museums like the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the MoMA in New York or the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Even I rarely ever seen any exhibition from this artist, the first photography of Valérie Belin I saw was during a visit in the Big Apple, especially to the MoMA, in 2010.

Photography of Valérie Belin exhibited in the MoMA (2010)

I remember this woman's portrait, close to perfection in search of a balance between human and object. 

I wanted to know more about this artist and that exhibition to the MUba is perfect to dive into her world made of human's portrait and reflexion about materiality of our actual world.

Here is some pictures to dive into her world of photography

(all photos by the author)

Same photo as above from the Série Mannequins, 2003 

From the Série Modern Royals, 2020

From the Série Chips, 2004

From the Série Voitures , 1998

Maybe we can notice with this two Series Chips and Voitures some Pop Art references to Andy Wahrol with his Iconic Campbell Soup and Car Crash. 

From the Série Métisses II, 2008

General view and a singular pink observer.

From the Série Transsexuels, 2001

From the Serie Mariées Marocaines, 2000

One of her first Serie, Bodybuilders I, 1999

Inside the exhibition you can watch a very interesting video showing Valérie Belin talking about her working process and photography.

Here is some words of the artist that I noticed and can really give you some details about her philosophy of art:

"The models are disincarnated"

"I don't photograph people but some existences"

"Is photography an art with a female dimension ?"

"We all have a part of male and female"

 You can read more informations on her website with a podcast (in French) about this exhibition.

Behind the surface of Valérie Belin's photography full of details and surgical precision there's a fascinating way of approaching actual art, maybe like a mirror of our humanity ?

From the Serie Black-Eyed Susan I, 2010

The exhibition is open til August 27th.

Thanks for your visit on my blog,

Enjoy and Share !

Vincent Delrue, artist.