Les Yeux Rouges
Julie Villard et Simon Brossard
with Hans Bellmer

curated by Exo Exo
Galerie!, Paris
September 10 – 26, 2020

press release


Les Yeux Rouges, 2020
Exhibition view, Galerie!, Paris

Les Yeux Rouges, 2020
Exhibition view, Galerie!, Paris

Les Yeux Rouges, 2020
Exhibition view, Galerie!, Paris

Les Yeux Rouges, 2020
Exhibition view, Galerie!, Paris

Les Yeux Rouges, 2020
Exhibition view, Galerie!, Paris

Les Yeux Rouges, 2020
Exhibition view, Galerie!, Paris

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, Lonely Toon, 2019
Resin, metal, polyurethane paint

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, Lonely Toon, detail, 2019
Resin, metal, polyurethane paint

Les Yeux Rouges, 2020
Exhibition view, Galerie!, Paris

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, Pleasure box II, 2020
Resin, metal, plastic, polyurethane paint

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, Pleasure box II, 2020
Resin, metal, plastic, polyurethane paint

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, Pleasure box II, 2020
Resin, metal, plastic, polyurethane paint

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, Pleasure box II, detail, 2020
Resin, metal, plastic, polyurethane paint

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, Pleasure box II, detail, 2020
Resin, metal, plastic, polyurethane paint

Hans Bellmer, Sans titre, circa 1961
Pencil on paper. 22 x 16,7 cm

Hans Bellmer, Sans titre, circa 1961
Pencil on paper. 22 x 16,7 cm

Hans Bellmer, Sans titre, circa 1961
Pencil on paper. 22 x 16,7 cm

Hans Bellmer, Sans titre, circa 1961
Pencil on paper. 22 x 16,7 cm

Hans Bellmer, Sans titre, circa 1961
Pencil on paper. 22 x 16,7 cm

Hans Bellmer, Sans titre, circa 1961
Pencil on paper. 22 x 16,7 cm

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, detail, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, detail, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, detail, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, detail, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, detail, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, detail, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, detail, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, detail, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, detail, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable

Julie Villard & Simon Brossard, It’s Fantastic II, detail, 2020
Resin, metal, glass, polyurethane paint, stainless, alcohol. Dimensions variable


Hans Bellmer est né en 1902 dans l’actuelle Pologne. Julie Villard et Simon Brossard en 1992 et 1994 en France. Entre ces deux rivages, la traversée est géographique, temporelle, elle entraîne des mutations matérielles et des révolutions sociales, des changements d’habitudes. Rien n’est identique sur ces deux rives à l’échelle du groupe comme à l’échelle de l’individu.

Entre les échanges épistolaires sur la poupée grandeur nature qu’Oskar Kokoschka voulait se faire fabriquer pour le consoler de sa rupture amoureuse et l’imagerie gastronomique, l’esthétique post-industrielle et les références aux cartoons et au cinéma des années 80, la dérive est vertigineuse. Pourtant, de ces deux berges jaillit un désir glouton pour les délices du corps, une érotisation de l’anatomie - humaine ou pas d’ailleurs - à partir de formes toujours étirées, courbées, brutalisées, fétichisées et perverties.

Les bêtes ou plantes exotiques de Julie Villard et Simon Brossard dévoilent leurs appétit carnivores en même temps que leurs orifices, leurs bouches, leurs yeux ou leurs mamelles, dans une explosion anatomique. Le bar aux reflets couleur pétrole accompagne cette ivresse. On a faim comme on a soif. Autour, les anamorphoses humaines ou organiques de Bellmer nous rappellent que quand on a faim et soif, la mort n’est jamais loin. Asséchées mais voraces, les créatures à l’œuvre ici cherchent à vampiriser d’autres espèces dans un désir insatiable d’hybridation. Les yeux rouges, fatigués, continuer à nager pour rejoindre l’autre rive.

— Elisa Rigoulet


Hans Bellmer was born in 1902 in what is now Poland. Julie Villard and Simon Brossard in 1992 and 1994 in France. The crossing between these two shores is geographical, temporal, it involves material mutations and social revolutions, and a change of habits. On these two shores, at the collective scale as at the individual scale, nothing is the same.

The drift between the gastronomic imagery, post-industrial aesthetics and references to cartoons and cinema from the 80s and the epistolary exchanges concerning the life-size doll that Oskar Kokoschka wanted to have made to console him after his break-up is vertiginous. Yet from these two banks springs a greedy desire for the pleasures of the body, an eroticization of the anatomy - human or otherwise - from forms that are constantly stretched, curved, brutalized, fetishized and perverted.
In an anatomical explosion, Julie Villard and Simon Brossard’s exotic animals and plants simultaneously reveal their carnivorous appetites, their orifices, their mouths, their eyes or their udders. The bar with petroleum-colored reflections accompanies this intoxication. We are hungry as we are thirsty. All around, Bellmer’s human or organic anamorphoses remind us that when we are hungry and thirsty, death is never far away. Dry but voracious, the creatures at work here seek to vampirize other species in an insatiable desire for hybridization. Red eyes, tired, continue swimming to reach the other shore.

— translation Cecilia Granara