Euro Neu Mode

Stéphane Abitbol, Jean-Baptiste Janisset, Villard & Brossard

Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium

Words by Céline Mathieu

May 16 – June 16, 2020

In the second space of the gallery, it feels like you glide underwater, like entering a padded room. Spacious, the presentation allows for all surfaces to unfold. Simon Brossard & Julie Villard’s pieces are so visceral and unreal. This is what an object in science fiction would look like when you turn it inside out. Using moulds, the pieces curve, fit and follow the shape of an unknown entity. The duo’s thorough craft and explicit attention for surfaces, is shared by the other artists in the space.
As gatekeepers, two of Jean-Baptiste Janisset’s thin metallic sheet sculptures, line the hallway. Like curious fingers, the material traces and lines its original. On the left wall, Stéphane Abitbol’s paintings continue on tactility; scratching the surface of pictorial illusion and canvas. Burning and layering, he too seems to push his fingers into the surface of things.