La belle revue

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—» Visual Arts in Clermont-Ferrand: Coming Together and Cooperating
by Émilie d’Ornano

On the national scale, many artists’ workshops and entities dedicated to the visual arts have a fragile economy. It has become essential to imagine new schemas of cooperation and mutualisation,…

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—» Cosmology of Living Things and Mutants
by Pedro Morais

While many of today’s researchers are not reflecting “on” elements of the living world, but through the lens of their agency – the mushroom for Anna Tsing or lichen for…

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—» The Bastille Art Centre
by Isabelle Henrion

The Bastille Art Centre in Grenoble is a place with somewhat paradoxical visibility.

Perched atop the Fort de la Bastille, an emblematic tourist spot in the city, it is…

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—» In the mirror of La Salle de Bains
by Raphaël Brunel

1.
It’s a foggy December morning. To alleviate a splitting headache, I drink cup after cup of coffee at the counter of Le Bastringue. The person I’m meeting is late…

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—» La Centrale: Choosing Distance
by Carin Klonowski

An art space whose name you think you’ve heard before. A big space, with a waxed concrete floor, why not on old industrial premises. You haven’t got it all wrong,…

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—» Periphery of the Night –
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
by Lillian Davies

“It’s a little like the inside of my brain”¹, artist and filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul explains, describing his most recent exhibition, Periphery of the Night at the institution…

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—» My
Jean-Charles de Quillacq
by Simon Feydieu

Checkers

The attraction to a mirror is variable; it refers to our degree of narcissism, voyeurism, or simply the fascination that all optical effects can produce – such…

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—» Introduction
by Pietro Della Giustina

After the “Global terroir” of La belle revue #8, dedicated to Cape Town, South Africa, we continue our investigation into the African continent with Nigeria’s largest city: Lagos. Thanks to…

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—» The Underground Lagos Artmosphere: Nigerian Artists Taking On the Challenge
by Iheanyi Onwuegbucha

Lagos is Africa’s most populous city and the centre of creative enterprise in Nigeria. The city is home to about twenty million people, and in addition to being the economic…

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—» Beholding Lagos through the Eyes and Hands of its Artists
by Roli O’tsemaye

If you have ever lived in Lagos, you would agree that some of its most striking features are the speed with which the city moves, the swarming population it contains,…

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—» The Ordinary is Radical for the Youth of Lagos: Emerging Artists Painting Realistic, Everyday Black Life
by Ayodeji Rotinwa

On a warm late November evening in 2020, Lagos staked its claim in an ongoing revolution. The rest of the (art) world was, of course, still reeling, and had been…

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—» Introduction
by Julie Portier

Let’s provide some context: when the committee of La belle revue got together last summer, after the confinement that we’d already agreed to call – in a curious mixture of…

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—» Hollywood Zombies
interview with Laurent Le Deunff
by Julie Portier

I immediately thought of Laurent Le Deunff to discuss the figure of the zombie in film. I know that he is a fan and I have often seen…

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—» The Zombie is the Transfiguration of the Human Experience of Dehumanisation
Interview with Joseph Tonda
by Sophie Lapalu

Joseph Tonda is a sociologist and anthropologist; he teaches at Omar Bongo University in Libreville and regularly lectures at the EHESS in Paris. While his research is about Central Africa,…

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—» Virality and Counter-Virality of Zombification
by Benoît Lamy de La Chapelle

‘The idea of a world where human life might be artificially prolonged has a nightmare quality.’¹

During the most recent Lyon Biennale (2019), a member of the editorial…

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—» Zombie Melancholy
Zombies Don’t Forget, They’re A Form of Memory
Interview with Josèfa Ntjam
by Marie Bechetoille

Marie Bechetoille: Zombies now play a major role in Western fictions, particularly in film and television series, but also in the visual arts. Artists use them to represent desires for…

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—» Auditory Necromancy
Interview with the ALMARE Collective
by Pietro Della Giustina

Pietro Della Giustina: In the mythological and religious tradition of Haitian Voodoo, the spirit of a deceased person can be summoned from the realm of the dead by a necromancer,…

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—» @Ravisius Textor or Ravisius Textor
by Carin Klonowski

7 November 2020, I arrive @ravisius_textor¹ to attend the opening of the exhibition Ce que savent nos mains [What Our Hands Know], reflecting Yoan Sorin’s residency at the…

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—» Cénozoé, An Installation by Marie Dechavanne
by Pauline Lisowski

The encounter with a site, sometimes in transition, between city and nature, guides Marie Dechavanne in her creative process. She sees the discovery of materials and her interest in the…

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—» Margot Pietri – The Joy of Getting Your Hands on Lost Techniques
by Henri Guette

Beyond a potential signature, graffiti attests to communication, as a geographic or temporal indication designed for a reader or a minimal piece of information destined to enter the fabric of…

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—» Damien Fragnon – One Laboratory Can Hide Another
by Romain Noël

Several months ago, I hit the road to go see Damien Fragnon’s exhibition Les falaises traversent nos mains [Cliffs Traverse Our Hands]. Several minutes after my arrival, a stranger approached…

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—» Innsmouth by Pierre Unal-Brunet – The Dark Edge of the Woods
by Camille Azaïs

‘Western civilization literally cleared its space in the midst of forests,’ writes Robert Harrison. ‘A sylvan fringe of darkness defined the limits of its cultivation, the margins of its…

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—» Anna Holveck – The Music of the Milieu
by Raphaël Brunel

Early December, Thiers. In front of the Usine du May, the deafening roar of the waterfall.

With a background in the fine arts, singing, and electro-acoustic composition, Anna Holveck…