‘Picture Perfect’ at Bozar: Exhibition, beauty market and rooftop celebration on 21 July

Before the thought-provoking and playful exhibition Picture Perfect at Bozar enters its final weeks, see the show at a discounted price and enjoy a special Beauty Market in the Brussels arts centre on Belgium’s national holiday.

A Celebration of Beauty on 21 July

With the purchase of an exhibition ticket (50% off, free for under 18s), visitors can access multiple activities at the Beauty Market set up in the Rotonde Suzanne Bertouille.

They include life drawing workshop (in collaboration with Palazzo Brussels), colour analysis sessions, personalised nail art with Kelali Nails and hairstyling workshops for textured hair. The celebration concludes in style on Bozar's rooftop, until 23.00.

‘Picture Perfect. Beauty through a contemporary lens’ until 16 August

Opened in the spring, Bozar’s second thematic exhibition focusing on what motivates us as humans is more than a challenge of Western beauty standards. It serves as a manifesto for critical reflection on the aesthetic norms that govern society.

Picture Perfect is a group show by 65 contemporary Belgian and international artists that focuses on lens-based works from 1968 to the present day: photos, videos, films and games. As the title suggests, this highlights the exhibition’s premise about both the image we want to show of ourselves and the images that are forced on us.

“The choice of lens-based media artworks in the exhibition emphasiqes the strong link between beauty and photography,” says curator Christel Tsilibaris. “Now central to our daily existence and always close at hand in our smartphones, the camera has led the way in enhancing appearances and creating unachievable goals.”

Among a roll call of famous names such as such as Rineke Dijkstra, Cindy Sherman, Pipilotti Rist and Ana Mendieta, there are many lesser-known artists. The focus is on how each one either confronts and tears down established stereotypes of beauty, or reclaim it via a new visual language that embraces the fullness of human experience, including diversity, aging and queerness.

Photography naturally occupies a central place in the exhibition. In the first section, Dijkstra’s beach portrait of a teenage girl (pictured above), part of an acclaimed series, captures the adolescent’s awkwardness and vulnerability while assuming a classic Venus-like pose. Meanwhile the vacant expression of young girls dolled up for US beauty pageants is an indictment of the weight of local cultural norms on children.

In another series, Eleanor Antin revisits her 197 landmark feminist work recording her daily weight loss by recreating the ‘Carving’ work by photographing her octogenarian body in a similar pose and crash diet. The original title referred to the traditional process of Greek sculptors who sought their ideal form by chipping away a block of marble. The updated series reinforcing notions of how aging as well as femininity are imposed on women.

A video work by Laure Cottin Stefanelli shows Belgian body-builder Jennifer preparing and performing for a competition; long close up images of her muscular physique equally challenging preconceptions of feminine beauty.

Photographer Zed Nelson illustrates how Western beauty standards have influenced other parts of the world in a series that underlines the pursuit for uniformity in physical attributes (pictured above).

Okhai Oijekere’s studio portraits of Nigerian women’s elaborate hairstyles reveals the importance of heritage and tradition in female and male identities (pictured above).

A performative video by William Cobbing is an arresting sight as the artist repeatedly slices away at the clay that encases his head to slowly reveal dripping colours; there is a repulsion from the viewer as he manipulates his appearance that echoes a primeval relationship with the body.

In addition to showing aesthetic norms and mechanisms of seduction, the exhibition explores the influence of advertising on our perception of Western beauty. This profit-fuelled industry continues to shape the beauty market. Artists are among the most powerful critiques of this commercial objectification of women’s bodies.

After the onslaught of these advertising images, Maria Tsagkari’s participatory artwork #Loveshots provides a space for reflection, as does a reading room filled with feminists tomes that can be browsed.

In a final section, Haley Morris-Cafiero presents photographs that recount her response to body-shaming. After an onslaught of hateful comments to a previous series of self-portraits, she turned the tables by assuming the likeness of individual bullies from their profile pictures and adorning an item of clothing emblazoned with their comments.

For Zoe Gray, director of exhibitions at Bozar, the show’s theme is one that speaks to everyone. If there is a strong female focus that is a result of more women artists making works about beauty than men. “I think that the exhibition succeeds in bringing different voices because there are also works about aging and fragility and that’s relevant to us all.”

The exhibition concludes with Bozar Arcade, which offers free access to artistic video games. They continue the exploration of beauty, aging and self-acceptance, notably through Short Memories by Brussels-based developer Guillaume Pauli.

Photos: Sylvie Fleury Current Issues (July/August 95) ©Courtesy the artist and Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg; Atone with NatureFrom the series Facade Objects, 2015, Archival Inkjet print, Courtesy the artist and greengrassi, London; ©Sandra Lazzarini; photo by Rineke Dijkstra ©The Bulletin; Zed Nelson, Elham and her mother, Rhinoplasty ‘nose job’ operation, Tehran, Iran,  series ‘Love Me’; J.D. ‘Okhai Oijekere Suku Sesema from the series Hairstyles 1977, Courtesy Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris; William Cobbing, Will.je.suis 2020, video, Courtesy the artist; Picture Perfect exhibition view ©photo by Yannick SAS