Michel François
For his upcoming exhibition, Michel François presents a new body of work that transforms simple mechanical gestures into images of rhythm and transience. Fixed oil sticks are pressed against a fast rotating sheet of sandpaper, depositing pigment in shifting intensities. Through motion and friction, circular traces emerge, evoking the slow transitions of a sunset—where time, light, and repetition converge in a quiet meditation on transformation.
Shown alongside are The Yawning Stones, created in collaboration with artist Douglas Eynon. These sculptures subtly blur the boundaries between human and natural, illusion and reality. Through delicate and labour-intensive indentations, ordinary stones are animated into yawning figures that are at once humorous and uncanny.
Michel François (b. 1956, Saint-Trond, Belgium) lives and works in Brussels. In 1999, he represented Belgium at the 48th Venice Biennale with Ann Veronica Janssens. Recent museum exhibitions include Contre Nature, BOZAR, Brussels (2023); Panopticon, Yarat Contemporary Art Centre, Baku (2022); Pièce à conviction, Middelheim Museum, Antwerp (2016); Nineteen thousand posters. 1994-2016, Mac’s Grand Hornu (2011) and Frac île- de-France (2016); Plans d’évasion, SMAK, Ghent and Iac Vileurbanne (2009-10); Salon Intermédiaire, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2002); La Plante en nous, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2000); Kunsthalle Bern (2000). In 2005, François presented his first exhibition with Xavier Hufkens, marking the beginning of a long-term collaboration that has continued for over two decades.
