July 7th, 2023

In French, the word "lamentable" is both a pejorative adjective and an allusion to complaints. The English word "lamentation" shares its root, referring to expressions of sorrow, grief, generic discontent. Benjamin Husson's artworks might be lamentable in all of these ways. Pepper mirrors this multiplicity. It is an ingredient, a tool for professional criers, a food pejoration for some. With pepper, one finds a violence that is not gratuitous, reminiscent of those scenes of animal rape and slaughter depicted in Ensor's La Gourmandise: men eat and puke to no limit while, at their back, a painting shows the suffering of pigs that'll end on their plate. A significant cycle.

BENJAMIN HUSSON (FR, °1986) lives and works in Brussels. Holder of a Master's degree in Fine Arts from the Erba-Rennes (FR, 2010) and a Master's degree in visual arts HES-SO, European Art Ensemble, from the écal in Lausanne (CH, 2013), he completed his education during a residency in De Ateliers in Amsterdam, starting the same year. His work was most recently exhibited in Brest, France (Bassin Caresse) and London, UK (Sundy). In the last few years he has focused on the well-known Brussels project-spaces scene, with some of his works featured at The Tail, The Agprognostic Temple, Superdeals, Brasserie Atlas, Chateau Nour and others. Outside Brussels, he was exhibited in Shanghai (Offshore) Geneva (Darse, Piano Nobile, Muro/ studio Sylvie Fleury), Lausanne (Musée des Beaux-Arts), Frankfurt (Basis), Paris (Treize, DOC, bibliothèque Kandinsky-Centre Pompidou), Amsterdam (De Ateliers). Husson's upcoming exhibition will take place at Circuit in Lausanne in September 2023.

James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (1860 – 1949), best known as JAMES ENSOR, was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for most of his life. He was associated with the artistic group Les XX.