les drapiers - centre d'art contemporain

From September 14 to October 26, 2024, Les Drapiers presents the first solo exhibition by young artist Émilien Neu. Émilien Neu (°1996), a French-born artist living in Brussels, graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, from which he was awarded the Prix d'Excellence de la Ville de Bruxelles and the Horlait- Dapsens scholarship in 2023. Fascinated by thread since childhood, he has made textiles, and tapestry in particular, his preferred means of artistic expression. Temporality and the involvement of the body (and mind) in the work are among the artist's fundamental reflections. Weaving is a long creative process, cadenced by the repetitive gestures of interweaving threads. The artist questions and confronts the logic of productivity and the cult of speed that our society promotes. The great freedom with which Émilien Neu approaches this highly constraining technique lends his works a fluidity of materials, shapes and motifs that is also found in his paintings depicting organic, sometimes dreamlike, sometimes aquatic worlds. In addition, her work is characterized by a meticulous attention to detail, which is particularly evident in her use of color, whether in small formats or monumental works. Each interlacing of threads is a gesture of link and connection with his life experiences and the questions that are close to his heart. He offers the public an up-to-date look at the traditional tapestry technique through an innovative approach, contemporary themes and iconography.