The second installment of thematic exhibitions devoted to the subjects that drive us as human beings, and which follows on from the exhibition « Love is Louder » in 2024 (and more specifically its first chapter devoted to romantic and intimate love), is an exhibition centered on the theme of beauty. If loving and being loved lies at the heart of our existence, beauty is intimately linked to notions of desirability and seduction, giving it an equally important place in our lives. Appearance can become a time-consuming concern, whose importance has exploded with the advent of selfie culture. Beauty is a relational force that can be emancipatory, but it also has a darker side, passing judgment based on body shape, youth, and the hypersexualization of the body, predominantly the female body.
Presented in parallel with the exhibition « La beauté et la laideur à la Renaissance », which examines the concept of beauty during the Renaissance, this exhibition of photographic and film works will analyze how beauty is perceived today, its influence on attitudes, and our understanding of the body and the self. After examining contemporary beauty ideals, the exhibition will take a critical look at the power of the cosmetics industry and the commodification of the body, as well as the radical physical transformations made possible in the twenty-first century, whether through cosmetic surgery or digital technology. The exhibition will attempt to reorient the notion of beauty, away from a patriarchal and heteronormative Western ideal, and to propose new concepts, ideals, bodies, and identities of beauty.
The choice to focus on works made using a lens is a statement in itself.
Since the invention of the camera nearly 200 years ago, photography and cinema have been considered essential media for documenting reality and observing the world and its inhabitants. They have been important tools for promoting fashion, beauty products and cosmetics, through billboards, magazines, television and, today, social media. Image culture seems to be at its peak: it not only entered every household through television and magazines, but today it reaches us via our phones, even in unexpected situations, such as the workplace. Who could have imagined that the number of cosmetic surgeries would explode after Covid? Yet the endless Zoom meetings, with the unflattering image reflected back by our computer screens, also contributed—as Sontag wrote—to the “considerable promotion of the value attached to appearances” brought about by the omnipresence of images in our society today.
The exhibition does not aim to provide a chronological overview of cultural changes and attitudes toward beauty. Different themes will be developed in a temporal perspective beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a period when, in the West, women’s liberation movements challenged patriarchal social values and the role of women, bringing essential changes in various sectors as well as in the representation of the female body and female beauty.
BOZAR : Picture Perfect – Beauty through a contemporary lens
Opening: 05 March 2025
7 March – 16 August 2026
Center of Fine Arts, Brussels
Circuit Ravenstein
Rue Ravenstein 23
1000 Brussels, Belgium
https://www.bozar.be/en
