Artists

Marcel Bascoulard, Hélène Delprat, Mimosa Echard, Bernard Schultze, Deborah Turbeville, Ceija Stojka, Claude Viallat, ÉRIC BAUDART, STÉPHANE COUTURIER, ANITA MOLINERO, LEO ORTA, Toufan Hosseiny, Michel Journiac, Bina Baitel, Amandine Guruceaga, Lisa Ijeoma, KRJST Studio, Anne Marie Maes, Ursula Schul

Press release

The Galerie Christophe Gaillard Brussels is pleased to present Claude Viallat – Unravelled, a two-part project that explores how materials, patterns, and objects transform our perception of the everyday.
The guiding thread of this proposal, Claude Viallat (FR, 1936), cofounder of the Support/Surface group, has for more than fifty years challenged the hierarchies between art and craft, between fine art and reclaimed textiles, between the object and its support. His work, both radical and sensitive, resonates here with that of contemporary artists who, each in their own way, transform the ordinary into a space of reflection, emancipation, or poetry.
This exhibition also marks the gallery’s first participation in MAD Parcours, a Brussels event that highlights design, art, and fashion in a vibrant dialogue with contemporary artistic practices.

Wired-up (Ground Floor)

Wired-up celebrates textile art as a force of resistance, transmission, and liberation.
Textile is one of humanity’s oldest crafts — a utilitarian art that became a vehicle of identity, narrative, and memory. Yet in many cultures, it long remained relegated to the status of “manual labor” or “women’s pastime,” despite its immense technical, collective, and expressive richness.
As early as the 1970s, the Fiber Arts movement was already calling for full recognition of this aesthetic, often perceived as “feminine” or “minor.” Around the same time, Claude Viallat broke away from traditional painting formats: he abandoned the stretcher frame, worked on found fabrics — tablecloths, tents, parasols — and applied a repetitive, obsessive form that would become his signature.
This abstract motif, often compared to a “bean,” became a liberating gesture and a way of giving voice to the support itself.
Wired-up highlights the echoes between this approach and that of contemporary artists whose textile or material practices explore political, ecological, intimate, and collective issues alike.

Featuring:
Eric Baudart (FR, 1972), Amandine Guruceaga (FR, 1989), Toufan Hosseiny (BE, 1988), Lisa Ijeoma (BE, 1996), KRJST Studio (BE, Justine de Moriamé, 1986 & Erika Schillebeeckx, 1988), Anne Marie Maes (BE, 1955), Ceija Stojka (AT, 1933–2013), and Claude Viallat (FR, 1936).
All of them, through thread, fabric, or material, explore powerful forms of expression imbued with memory and emotion.

Elevating the Everyday – Art, Design, and Fashion in Transformation (First Floor)

The second part of Claude Viallat – Unravelled poses a simple question: What happens to an everyday object when it enters the realm of art? Does it remain itself, or become something entirely different?

From Duchamp’s Urinal to Koons’ Balloon Dog, to Warhol’s Soup Can, ordinary objects change status and meaning as soon as they are removed from their original context and placed within the artistic frame. This transformation can also be seen in design and fashion — think of Balenciaga’s Potato Chips Bag by Demna, Louis Vuitton’s Paint Can Bag, or the iconic Birkin Bag, which evolved from a functional accessory into a fetish object.

Although absent from the exhibition, such examples feed the reflection that leads back to Claude Viallat. Once again, he shows the way. By repurposing humble materials — papers, worn fabrics, discarded supports — he elevates the ordinary to the level of pictorial matter. Detached from their primary function, these materials find new life: the fabric’s history and texture become integral to the artwork itself.

Around him, several artists represented by the gallery also examine this boundary between function and fiction, each transforming the everyday in their own way:
Bina Baitel (FR, 1977), Marcel Bascoulard (FR, 1913–1978), Eric Baudart (FR, 1972), Stéphane Couturier (FR, 1957), Hélène Delprat (FR, 1957), Julien Des Monstiers (FR, 1983), Mimosa Echard (FR, 1986), Michel Journiac(FR, 1935–1995), Anita Molinero (FR, 1953), Leo Orta (FR, 1993), Bernard Schultze (PL, 1915–2005), Ursula Schultze-Bluhm (DE, 1921–1999), Deborah Turbeville (US, 1932–2013), and Claude Viallat (FR, 1936).

These artists invite us to look differently — for sometimes, it is enough to repurpose an object, or shift our gaze, for it to lose its banality and reveal its full power.

(translated from French by exhibitionary)