Éric du Bellay

ÉRIC DU BELLAY (Chatenay Malabry, France, 1980)
"Hommage à Blow up de Michelangelo Antonioni", 2020.
Digital print on Hahnemühle paper. Copy 1/10. Limited edition.
Certificate of authenticity enclosed.
Signed, titled and justified on the back.
Measurements: 50 x 33,5 cm; 53 x 36,3 cm (frame).

The artist himself describes this work as follows "Blow-Up (1966) by Michelangelo Antonioni was one of the first auteur films, a pure work of art, that I had the opportunity to see. I was too young to understand it in its entirety, but its images had a profound impact on me and were engraved in my memory forever. Thus began my journey in photography: I wanted to capture what moved me around me, to capture in images those fragments of the world. Eventually, I discovered the power of film, when I first encountered an 8mm camera. In my forties I returned to photography with the Corps Vibrants project in Paris, where each session was an exploration and a pact of absolute trust with my models. This particular session was with a couple, Léa and Thibaut: she, a dancer and actress; he, a musician. They gave themselves without reserve. This scene, in particular, moves me. It is daring. The image shows the clothed man, seemingly dominant over the naked woman. However, to me it represents something different: pure love and surrender. In every relationship there is a subtle power struggle, and this can be reversed at any moment."

Éric du Bellay took up photography at the age of 15. He unveiled his own black and white photos. From the beginning, his work focused on faces and bodies, as if he wanted to preserve the trace of the living. He left photography to pursue a career as a filmmaker. He made six short films in France and Iceland, and his first feature film, Menina Casilda, was shot in Madrid in 2021. He returned to photography in 2019 with his project Corps Vibrants, nudes made in studio in Paris, followed by his second project, Libertad, started in Madrid in 2021 as a response to the Pandemic restrictions. Influenced by the works of Marina Abramovic, Ren Hang, and Ryan McGinley, he explores representations of nude bodies in motion.