Benoît Platéus

BIO | SELECTED WORKS

Benoît Platéus is born in 1972 in Liège, Belgium and currently lives and works in Brussels. In his work he investigates and plays with the spaces and relationships between mediums, exploring abstraction in form and content. 

Benoît Platéus’ oeuvre, consisting of paintings, collages, objects and videos, revolves around the photographic image and its appropriation. The set of sculptures shown in Automatic are a direct reference to the photography of an era when photographs still needed developing. The jugs filled with urethane are named after the specific product used, for example: KODAK Flexicolor or Fujihunt Bleach.

To investigate the relationship between the original and its copy in ‘the age of mechanical reproduction’ (cfr. Walter Benjamin), Platéus reproduces and manipulates the photographic image endlessly. Beautiful examples are his paintings ‘Une goutte d’amour’ and ‘L’homme blessé’ Both are part of the series Behind the Scenes, in which the artist painted in acrylic on the back of movie posters. With Platéus, the final image is always the result of a series of experiments performed with ‘little or no direct human control’. Hence ‘automatic’. But instead of turning to mechanical devices, the artist often employs his own body to imitate the automated mechanical processes. A member of the generation that witnessed the digital revolution and the explosion of the image, Platéus fully embraces the creative possibilities of analogue and digital technologies in order to wrestle the question of the original, which he deforms, saturates, disfigures, dazzles, enlarges, erases or reverses. As a result, his images are always transitive. Reproduced endlessly but never identically, they highlight the poetic force of the accident, of the trace, of imperfection.This remarkable artistic practice, which relies as much on the heavy artillery of cinema as on simple automatic drawings, seems to probe a certain sense of the beyond. From the interstitial spaces of the city to the meanders of the psyche, Platéus sets out in search of new forms of representation that bear witness to another reality, still fragmented and always in a state of becoming.

His work has been exhibited at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Mu.ZEE, Ostend; Karma, New York; Almine Rech, London; Galerie Albert Baronian, Brussels; Annarumma Gallery, Naples; and Galerie Jeanroch Dard, Paris, among others. He is included in several museum collections around the world, including the Fond National d’Art Contemporain, France and the Musée d’Ixelles, Belgium.

Most recently (2019) he has had his first museum retrospective at the WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels, which was accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog and later traveled to Bonner Kunstverein in Germany.

CV

Benoît Platéus
Born in 1972
Lives and works in Brussels

Solo exhibitions

2020
“Ombres d’hommes bâclés à la six-quatre-deux” , Sauvage, Düsseldorf (Germany)

2019
“One Inch Off” ,Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (Germany)
“One Inch Off”, WIELS, Brussels (Belgium)
“Scissors, hangers and other batteries”, Signs & Symbols, New York (USA)

2018
“Schrank”, Bozar, Brussels (Belgium)
Alex”, Billboard Series #13:, Artlead, Ghent (Belgium)

2017
“Telephone Poles”, galerie Albert Baronian, Brussels (Belgium)

2016
Johannes Vogt gallery, New York (USA)

2016
“BTS”, Skibum MacArthur, Los Angeles (USA)

2015
“Behind the Scenes”, Annarumma gallery, Napoli (Italy)

2014
“Homecoming”, galerie Jeanroch Dard, Paris (France)
Art Brussels, Solo show galerie Albert Baronian, Brussels (Belgium)
“Lobby Cards”, JAP, vitrines Rivoli, Brussels (Belgium)
“Michael”, A 4 hands works with David De Tscharner, Etablissement d’en face, Brussels (Belgium)

2013
Rectangle, Brussels (Belgium)

2012
Galerie Albert Baronian, Brussels (Belgium)
“Broccoli & Steel”, Benedengalerie, Kortrijk (Belgium)
“Backpages”, HighLight gallery, San Francisco, Etats-Unis (USA)
“Les vestibules du ciel”, Espace 251 Nord, Liège (Belgium)

2008 
Galerie Baronian_Francey, Brussels (Belgium)

2007
Galerie Aline Vidal, Paris (France)

2006
Iconoscope, Montpelier (France) 
Kunst Nu, SMAK, Ghent (Belgium)
Project room, Galerie Baronian_Francey, Brussels (Belgium)

2004
La chapelle du Genêteil, Château-Gonthier (France)
Galerie Baronian_Francey, Brussels (Belgium)
Galerie Aline Vidal, Paris (France)

2002
Art Brussels, “One Man Show”, Galerie Baronian_Francey, Brussels (Belgium)

2001
Galerie Aline Vidal, Paris (France)
Espace 251 Nord, Liege (Belgium)
La Librairie de la Fondation pour l’Architecture, CIVA, Brussels (Belgium)

1999
Galerie Aline Vidal, Paris (France)

Two person exhibitions

2016 “Sea Level”, Almine Rech, London (UK)
2012 BERNADET - PLATÉUS, 8 rue Saint-Bon, Paris (France)
2011 BERNADET - PLATÉUS, Middlemarch, Brussels (Belgium)
2011 BERNADET - PLATÉUS, Karma, New York (USA)

Selected group exhibitions 

2020
“Don’t be frightened, Mr Gould is here”,  Meessen De Clercq gallery, Brussels (Belgium)
“‘ɔːtəˈmatɪk’ (automatic)”, Barbé Urbain, Ghent (Belgium)

2019
“Artistes & Allies II”, Signs and Symbols, New York (USA)
“Scripts, scraps and tracks”, Les Tanneries, Amilly (France)

2018
“Operational Aesthetics”,  Civa, Brussels (Belgium)
“Present”, Museum Van Buuren, Brussels (Belgium)

2017
“Oh les beaux jours!”, Biennale de LLN, Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium)
“Résurgences”, Espace 251 Nord, Liège (Belgium)
“20 Years, NICC”, LLS, Antwerp (Belgium)

2016
“Indiscipline”, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (France)
“A Stay in the Paphos Loop”, Offspace, New York (USA)
“Summer Fling – The Barn Show”, East Hampton, New York (USA)
“Inside-out”, Berthold Pott Gallery, Köln (Germany)
“Aujourd’hui je dis oui”, Galeria da Boavista, Lisbon (Portugal)
“Not Really Really”, Fondation Frédéric de Goldschmidt, Brussels (Belgium)

2015
“Episode 19: FRIENDLY FACES ”, Johannes Vogt Gallery, New York (USA)
The Third Act”, Neochrome, Torino (Italy)
“Atopolis”, Manège de Sury, Mons (Belgium)
“Vibrant Matter” Kiosk, Ghent (Belgium)
“A Belgian Politician”, Marion de Cannière Art Space, Antwerp (Belgium)
“Si tu veux voir le monde, ferme tes yeux: Part 2”, Argos, Brussels (Belgium)
“En route-preview”, The Cabin, Los Angeles (USA)
“En route”, Marfa Book Co, Marfa, Texas (USA)
“How to drape the concrete”, Galerie Jeanroch Dard, Brussels (Belgium)
“Accidental Colors”, BIN, Turnhout (Belgium)
“Louise 186”, Brussels (Belgium)
“First summer”, Galerie Yoko Uhoda, Liège (Belgium)

2014
“24/7” Monte Carlo, Miami Beach (USA)
“Ritornando a Gand”, CIAC, Ghent (Belgium)
“Neighbours Vol. 1”, Studio Manor Grunewald, Ghent (Belgium)
“To the happy few”, Galerie Jeanroch Dard, Paris (France)
“Richard Parker”, Michael Thibault gallery, Los Angeles (USA)
“Trailers for the future”, Galerie Yoko Uhoda, Liège (Belgium)
“Summer”, Galerie Jeanroch Dard, Paris (France)
“Fata Morgana”, Ikob, Eupen (Belgium)
“Albert Baronian gallery 40th anniversary”, CAB, Brussels (Belgium)
“Le mur”, Works from the Collection of Antoine de Galbert, La maison rouge, Paris (France)

2013
“Conversation piece”, Mu.ZEE, Ostend (Belgium)
“For Your Loving”, Galerie Jeanroch Dard, Paris (France)
“Kopioitu”, SIC - Helsinki, Komplot – Brussels (Belgium)
“Celluloid Brushes”, Ludlow 88, New York (USA)
“Violins without Violins”, Island, Brussels (Belgium)

2012
“KARMA, pop-up store”, White flags, Saint-Louis (USA)
“Campo Campo, OUI OUI !!!!”, Antwerp (Belgium)
“Artists Print”, Komplot, Brussels (Belgium)
“Celluloid Brushes”, Isabella Bortolozzi Gallery, Berlin (Germany)

2011
“Pole gry”, Zacheta gallery, Warsaw (Poland)
“Celluloid Brushes”, Etablissement d’en face, Brussels (Belgium)
Fondation Hippocrène, Paris (France)

2010
“Prix Fenand Baudin 2009”, Délégation Walonie-Bruxelles, Paris (France) et tournée française: Valence, Nancy, Besançon, Amiens (France)
“The state of things”, Mamoc, Beijing (China)
“Changez!”, 21Rosendaal, Enschede (Netherlands)

2009 
“I love benelux”, Galerie Virgil De Voledere, New York (USA)
“The state of things”, Europalia Chine, Bozar, Brussels (Belgium)
“Jeugdzonde. Over opus één en opus min één”, LLS 387, Antwerp (Belgium)
“Jeugdzonde. Over opus één en opus min één”, HEDAH, Maastricht (Netherlands)
“T-Tris”, BPS 22, Charleroi (Belgium)
“Prix Fernand Baudin”, Wiels, Brussels (Belgium)
“Dialogic Park I”, Béton salon, Paris (France)

2008
“Un-scene”, Wiels, Brussels (Belgium)
“Déformalisme”, Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris (France)
“Face-it”, Galerie Alice Day, Brussels (Belgium)

2007
“EASTinternational”, Norwich gallery/nsad, Norwich (UK)
“Urban connexions”, Centre d’art de Chamarande, Chamarande (France)
“Vanaf Nu !”, LLS387, Antwerp (Belgium)
“MULTI/PLIER”, Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Brussels (Belgium)
L’Observatoire - maison Grégoire, Brussels (Belgium)

2006
“Science-fiction”, Galerie Aline Vidal, Paris (France)
“Freestate”, Militair hospital, Ostend (Belgium)
“Images publiques”, Liège (Belgium)
“Wunderkammer”, Musée d’Ansembourg, Liège (Belgium)
“Chers amis”, Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Bignan (France)
“Family Affairs“, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (Belgium)

2005
“Publish and Be Damned”, independent publishing fair, London (UK)
“Ici et là”, Galerie commune, Tourcoing (France)
“Brussels South Airport”, Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna (Austria)

2004
“Le proche et le lointain”, Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Bignan (France)
“La collection de la Province de Hainaut”, BPS 22, Charleroi (Belgium)
“Eblouissements”, Musée du jeu de Paume, Paris (France)

2003
Contemporary and Modern Art museum, Liège (Belgium)
“Fables de l’identité”, the collection of NSM Vie/ABN AMRO, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris (France)
Prix de la jeune peinture, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (Belgium)
“Coconutour”, CRAC Sète (France)

2002
“ACT”, Espace BBL, Brussels (Belgium)
“La salle de cinema”, 17th festival of European short films in Brest, Centre d’Art La Passerelle, Brest (France)
“Paysage – l’image, la vision, l’imagination”, Museum of Modern and Contemporary art, Strasbourg (France)
“Régine et ses copines”, Bourse du travail et Art 3, Valence (France)

2001
“Instants Fragiles”, Passage de Retz, Paris (France)
“Les réserves sortent de leur reserve”, Galerie Aline Vidal, Paris (France)
“Ici et maintenant, Belgian system”, Tour et Taxis, Brussels (Belgium)
“On peut tout faire entrer en soi”, Les témoins Oculistes, Brussels (Belgium)
“Les brigades du tigre, carte blanche à People Day”, 13 quai Voltaire, Caisse des dépôts et consignations, Paris (France)
“La trahison des images, Portraits de scène”, Palazzo franchetti, 49e Biennale de Venise - A Latere, Venice (Italy)
“Fabbrica”, la Plate-Forme, Musée Portuaire de Dunkerque, Dunkerque (France)
“Positionen der peripherie 1”, La collection d’art de la province du Hainaut, IKOB, Eupen (Belgium)
“Artists and Friends”, La lettre volée, Brussels (Belgium)
“The Deadline Show”, A voir, Brussels (Belgium) 
“Ferveurs, proposition collective”, Les Subsistances, Lyon (France)

2000
“Desseins d’hiver et de glace”, Galerie Aline Vidal, Paris (France)
“Archives de XXe siècle”, in “Métamorphoses”, Brussels 2000, Archives de la Ville de Bruxelles, Brussels (Belgium)
Marres, Centrum beeldende kunst, Maastricht (Netherlands)
“Pièces à conviction”, Espace 251 Nord, Liège (Belgium)
“La conscience du Monde”, 3e biennale de Louvain-la-Neuve, Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium)
“L’art au foyer, Oeuvres de collections particulieres”, les Témoins oculistes, Brussels (Belgium)

1999
“Soldes Monstres”, Galerie Aline Vidal, Paris (France)
“En attendant l’année dernière, Archives Actives”, Off-48e Biennale de Venise, Venice (Italy)
“Quand soufflent les vents du sud”, Espace BBL et Musée d’Art Wallon, Liège (Belgium)
“Umwelt/Umfeldt, Art et Environnement”, Antichambres du Palais  des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (Belgium)
“Pierre Gerard: Fausse collection”, Galerie Nadja Vilenne, Liège (Belgium)

1998
“51 Club Liège St Lambert”, Museum of Modern and Contemporary art, Liège (Belgium)
“Jonge kunst uit Wallonïe”, VMHK, Ghent (Belgium)
Erg, Brussels (Belgium)
“Extra Vergine”, Galerie Nuova Icona, Venice (Italy)
“Bureau augmenté”, NICC, Antwerp (Belgium)

1997
“HEDAH op lokatie”, Kruisherenklooster, Maastricht (Netherlands)

1995
“51 Club Liège St Lambert”, Museum of Modern and Contemporary art, Liège (Belgium)

Publication/artist books

One Inch Off, Koenig Book London, 2019
FAN OF, Bunk Club, 2016
Michael, David de tTriangle Books, 2014
Parties de voyant, MER paper kunsthalle, 2012
If there is a chance – JB  Kodak Flexicolor fixer, Karma publication, 2011.
Open, Les presses du réel, 2008
Rêves, Keymouse edition, 2008
Lithium, Editions Camomille, Camille von Scholz, 2009
One inch off, self published fanzine, 10 issues 2004-2009
Mémoire d’un névropathe - Bootleg version, Cockerill print, 2009
Foto magazin, Risotto reverse illluminati, 2009