L'incertaine Beauté du Monde

This monograph offers, through around thirty series, a journey through Valérie Belin's work from the 1990s to the present day. Breaking away from chronological order, a play of correspondences unfolds between the artist's various color and black-and-white series, which interact, evolve, and question our relationship with beauty, artifice, and the impermanence of things.

From capturing the image to the process of retouching, the photographer creates through successive touches and layers, akin to a painter playing with the ambiguity between the living and the artificial. The individuals depicted, whether they are models, transsexuals, clown figures, or Michael Jackson look-alikes, are mostly in a transitional state towards "the desire to transform into images," as specified by Valérie Belin, while her objects, such as vintage cars or other damaged items, her engines or collection dresses, appear animated, sublimated by the lens. The result is images of strong aesthetic and evocative power that embody both "the drama and beauty of the world," as emphasized by Sébastien Gokalp in his text. This publication accompanies the artist's retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Tourcoing, the MUba Eugène Leroy, from March 17 to August 27, 2023.