Exhibitions
Michel François places photography at the center of his sculptural universe
Photography takes a leading role in Michel François's new solo exhibition at Galería Mascota in Mexico City. The show proposes a specific approach to a facet of his career that, although closely linked to his sculptural and installation work, gains autonomy here as an artistic language.
François's practice unfolds across various media —sculpture, installation, video, and photography— through which he explores the possibilities of material transformation, the relationships between objects and space, and the unstable balances created between strength and fragility. Through seemingly minimal gestures, accumulations, and alterations of everyday elements, the artist manages to change our perception of what we recognize as familiar.
A jump in Cuba.
Born in 1956 in Sint-Truiden (Belgium) and based in Brussels, Michel François has built a career since the 1980s marked by freedom of experimentation and the absence of rigid boundaries between disciplines. Although he fundamentally defines himself as a sculptor, his production goes beyond this territory to establish connections between image, object, body, and architecture. His interest in materials, both natural and industrial, allows him to work with everyday elements that, through small interventions, acquire new meanings and alter our relationship with the environment.
In his creative universe, photography does not function merely as a record of a prior reality but as a space for construction and thought. The images establish relationships with objects, document transformations, and generate new readings about the physical presence of things. This dimension is especially significant in a career where the boundary between three-dimensional and two-dimensional remains constantly open. The image can acquire sculptural qualities and sculpture can behave like an image, creating a dialogue that invites reconsideration of the limits of both languages.
His international recognition was consolidated with his participation in Documenta IX in Kassel, in 1992, and at the São Paulo Biennial in 1994. In 1999 he represented Belgium at the 48th Venice Biennale alongside Ann Veronica Janssens, with whom he maintains a long-lasting artistic relationship. He has also presented projects at institutions such as BOZAR in Brussels, SMAK in Ghent, and the Institut d'Art Contemporain in Villeurbanne.
The exhibition at Galería Mascota therefore offers an opportunity to approach François’s research from a perspective focused on photography and discover how his sculptural thinking finds new possibilities in the image. The show can be visited from October 28 to December 13, 2026, at the gallery space located at Valladolid Street 33, in the Roma Norte neighborhood of Mexico City.
Galería Mascota's presence at MIRA Art Fair Paris, from November 12 to 15, also expands the international projection of a gallery that participates in the networks of exchange and dissemination of contemporary art.
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