Baptiste Debombourg: in the eye of the storm

In his first solo exhibition in Belgium the French artist Baptiste Debombourg presents a small but impressive selection from his oeuvre. Lot 10 is showing a handful of works from a number of different series. Each series, however, displays a similar sensitivity and aesthetic. The highlight of the show is a sculpture in wood entitled Iris, in which Debombourg uses planks to create a circular structure that seems to have partially sunk into the ground. The circular form suggests a sort of movement: an engulfing maelstrom or swirling force. And that idea of energy – and aggression – can also be seen in the other works on display. One canvas depicts an angel from a Dürer engraving. The image is meticulously built up by staples fastened to the canvas. The action and aggressiveness of the act of stapling contrast with the sense of precision, the shiny texture, and the religious scene. Debombourg reworks Dürer’s engravings (gravures in French) under an apposite neologism, “aggravures” (a staple, in French, is an agrafe). In a reworking of a fragment of another work by Dürer, depicting the Virgin Mary, the structure of staples seems to refer to the Crucifixion or to the crown of thorns in the Bible. The same theme of aggression is also present in a sculpture entitled Cesium IV, a title that refers to a chemical substance (“caesium” in British English) that breaks down cells. Debombourg presents a deformed mirror, as if it had been damaged by caesium, so that it looks like a primitive mask or a cubist mirror. Which is not unrelated to the fact that cubism borrowed heavily from tribal art. Further on in the exhibition, Debombourg has reworked the famous La Redoute catalogue so that it looks like a fossil – you can just make out the name of the catalogue on the spine. This show may present work from a variety of series, but it adds up to a coherent and convincing whole.

Baptiste Debombourg: Iris > 17/1, do/je/Th > za/sa/Sa 12.30 > 19.00 & na afspr./sur rdv./by appointment, LOT 10, rue Lanfraystraat 15, Elsene/Ixelles, 02-647.74.59, www.lot10.eu