Since the late 1990s, Camille Belony has used a varied practice of sculpture and design to explore the
complex relation between art, life and death.
Explaining: “Conceptualizing and deconceptualizing means moving from a concept to its
reification (embodied concept)
The most important thing in my eyes, is the ability of amazement, an emotion which goes
directly to the soul, I call upon people’s perceptiveness.
I love to combine or perfect feminine and masculine polarity, my creations have a concept (beauty
and provocation) a striking physiognomy.
My sculptures have a manufactured appearance; however, I do not believe in perfection,
which is inaccessible, but always feel a moral commitment towards onlookers, to allow them
to participate in the abstraction for as long as possible.
I do not want them to be distracted by something that is not pertinent, such as a defect. What I
strive for, is for my work to direct onlookers towards a celebration of themselves… to put them
in touch with the very essence of their own potential.
Art can be life-changing and expand your horizons. It can bring a feeling of immensity to life. This
is one of the things that my artistic creations try to help people understand”.
His first work, Fusion, was completed in 1996. Thereafter came the creation of
Ambivalence in 1997, the fruit of his study of coexistence within a subject, demonstrating
opposing emotional forces, which won him the Plume Lorraine first prize at his first
exhibition in Dombasle in 1998; he also created Nine Months.
These three creations earned him the Stanislas award at the centenary celebration of the
Nancy School in 1999.
Inspired by his readings of Freud, he created Unconscious in 1997 and Sublimation in 2007.
His social breakdown in 1999 gave rise to Ecstasy, his perspective on the expression of
suffering, similar to that of pleasure, which was awarded the silver medal at the Salon des
Arts Plastiques de Béziers in 2006.
In 2005, he created Osmosis, casting his perspective on the pureness of the interaction
between horserider and horse.
In the same year, Camille Belony completed three works on golf – the finish, that precise
movement where the body resembles a spiral. A first work, representational in nature:
Grandis; followed by two, more abstract versions: Volubilys and Lys. The latter was selected
by organisers of the Côtes d’Armor Bretagne Open as the official trophy from 2009 to 2015.
To the 23cm and 46cm versions of the work, an imposing 2.40m version has just been added,
exhibited for two consecutive seasons at the Pléneuf-Val-André golf course.
His work Ecstasy spent the summer of 2011 at the Château de Comper Lake, in the
Brocéliande 56 Forest, where it blends into the whimsical and historic world of The Arthurian
Centre.
In June 2011, Osmosis was selected to participate in the first event of the Arts et Haras
travelling exhibition, which made its way across France in 2011 and 2012, making stops at the
main French National Stud Farms.
In 2012, his immersion in the equestrian world sparked the creation of Arrow of Pegasus, a
study on the very essence of the horse, symbolised by three powerful jets.
A release of pent up emotion rouses his desire for monumental works, the basis for the
creation of Lys 4.40 (2013/2014), and in particular Transcendence (2014/2016), with the latter
evoking the idea of surpassing oneself.
His first kinetic work Transcendence is being exhibited in Dinard (Brittany) between land and sea, over the summer-autumn 2017. There it reveals its angelic form, windswept by Aeolus.
In 2019, the city of Pulnoy acquired his sculpture Lys 4.60 meters, with the support from the Fondation du Patrimoine and the Métropole du Grand Nancy.
CAMILLE BELONY 