Texts by Alexia Struye

Trésor(s)

Hand-cut photo-collage on printed wood panels. 89x148cm. 2025.

The Adoration of the Magi was painted around 1510 by Hieronymus Bosch. This exceptional triptych depicts the Epiphany, the moment when the Kings offer their gifts to the newborn Jesus. There are four versions of this work, shown in Madrid (Prado Museum), New York (Metropolitan Museum), Philadelphia (Museum of Art) and... Anderlecht! This painting is part of the collections of the Erasmus House and is considered one of the 100 treasures of Brussels museums.

François has created a contemporary version of Hieronymus Bosch's work. He invited 20 local residents, representing the diversity of Anderlecht, to portray the characters in the painting. The models wear present-day outfits, all featuring a colour dear to the people of Anderlecht: purple. The setting of the painting is identically reproduced on wooden panels and the new characters are inserted manually into the setting using the photo-collage technique.

Trésor(s) aims to bring an exceptional masterpiece back to life and raise awareness of Anderlecht's heritage. The artwork also becomes a metaphor for the meeting of peoples, highlighting the multicultural daily life of Anderlecht and therefore bringing an artistic ode to the cultures and inhabitants of the municipality.

Lest not forget a confidently feminist approach: the work does not fail to redress the gender balance and transforms kings into queens!

François’ fascination for Bosch lies in the fact that the painter does not paint what he sees, but what he imagines he sees: he transforms the world, making it fantastic. He paints the madness of the world, the suffering with humour, the pain with lightness. He mixes opposites, linking flesh and spirit, parodying religion, while offering truly religious works. He offers paintings that are as complex and detailed as life itself. Nothing is ever black or white with Bosch, but always a funny shade of grey (or pink).

For François, being able to study a Bosch painting so closely, in such detail, getting to really know it to offer a contemporary reading of it was an incredible privilege.

Watteau (revealed)

Hand-cut photo-collage on original bookplates. Series of 6: Les Fausses Confidences (15x12cm), La Double Inconstance (12.5x15cm), Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard (15x20cm), Arlequin Poli par l'Amour (15x11.5cm), La Dispute (15x12cm) and L'Île des Esclaves (13.5x 20cm). 2024. 

Watteau (revealed) speaks to Pierre de Marivaux more than it does to Jean-Antoine Watteau.

Marivaux is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century. His work was noted for its keen observation and literary skill. His work showed the first signs of what is now called "marivaudage,"; the flirtatious bantering tone characteristic of Marivaux's dialogues. In general, Marivaux's subject matter is the so-called "metaphysic of love-making."

Jean-Antoine Watteau was one of the most influential French painters of the early 18th century. He painted numerous scenes with Commedia dell’Arte characters and also invented a type of painting known as Fête Galante: small cabinet pictures which explored the psychology of love, usually in landscape settings.

François sees through these prudish depictions and humorously reinterprets what these scenes were all about: lust, pleasure and sexual desire. The urge to do so goes back to his teens where, as an adolescent troubled by his senses and questioning his identity, Francois performed Marivaux scenes while studying drama at the Conservatoire de Verviers. He was led to interpret the thrill of love in the refined language of the 18th century. It was contradictory but nevertheless exhilarating; a silk gag on his transgressive desires, a restraint on his carnal urges.

He now uses the visual language of Watteau and combines it with Marivaux’ titles unveiling what they really hide: lustful desires! The titles, associated with his collages, add a fresh symbolic layer, opening up the possibility of new interpretations and readings of the images.

The Happy series

Hand-cut photo-collage of analogue photographs (19.5x13cm each). 2005 to present day. 

François considers his birthday the ideal marker of time. Like a memento mori, the Happy series are a reminder of mortality, but above all an homage to aging. 

Each birthday marks another year passed, each collage carries traces of the passage of time: from youth to contracting HIV; from the years of new love to the toll fatherhood and aging took on his body.

Every collage of assembled body parts creates a new whole. By rebuilding his body, Francois creates an image of the way he sees himself, wants to be seen or wants to be. He takes possession of his own image, no longer undergoing his body, but magnifying it. Manually creating an illusion of reality with analogue, non-retouched photographs.

This ongoing series of self-portraits started on May 3, 2005 at age 26.

Mission N.I.B.*

Black and white analogue photographs. Series of 8: Grand Place (2005), Atomium (2006), Basilica (2007), Royal Palace (2008), Tour & Taxis (2009), Bourse (2010), Cathedral (2011) and Flagey (2013). 30x45cm each. 

The passing of time often plays a role in François' work and this is certainly the case in Mission N.I.B. 

What started as a gift to a friend on her birthday - a portrait of her and a nude model naked on Grand Place - became a yearly tradition. For eight years, on the same day and before the crack of dawn, each time with a different man, some public rules were broken for the pleasure of doing so, but mostly for the beauty of the gesture - a celebration of bodies, sensuality and freedom.

Every session was both a true happening and a well prepared secret mission: scout the location, decide on the exact shot, the positions repeated like choreography, not forgetting the place to get (un)dressed!

The results highlight the beauty of iconic buildings, symbols of Brussels, with a fine touch of surrealism: naked people in the city. This series champions two of Francois’ favourite subjects: Brussels and nudity.

* Naked in Brussels

Nativity

Hand-cut photo-collage on painted analogue photographs. Series of 3: The Holy Family, The Shepherds and The Kings. 30x45cm each. 2005. 

Just as Ensor or Breughel used reinterpreted bible scenes to depict daily life and their intimate surroundings, François created a triptych of the Nativity scene in his beloved Brussels.

Using his trademark analogue and hand-cut collage technique, he combined black and white studio photography and a colour photo taken on site. To accentuate the disparity of the scene, and add a hint of surrealism, François coloured the sky red, leaving the viewer with the question: is this real?

This series is a link between the city and its citizens, connecting stories of the past and contemporary life. The first image references The Holy Family. Standing in front of the “Petit Chateau”, a reception centre for political refugees, the image creates a clear parallel with Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus fleeing to escape persecution. They would find sanctuary here in a contemporary retelling. The second image represents The Shepherds seen in front of the Farm in Park Maximilien, a tiny rural farm in Brussels’ city centre. In the third image, The Kings are seen standing in front of the Great Mosque of Brussels. They are described as coming from the east, which nowadays is equivalent to a large part of the Middle East, hence the choice of the Mosque.