On the facade of De Garage, you can see the second poster in the PLAKT series. In Michel François’ Savon Femelle, a hand touches the inside of a soap sculpture. PLAKT is a collaboration with artlead, presenting the work of 12 artists in various cities across Belgium.

The original photograph was taken in 1991. Today, 35 years later, in a time when physical touch has become highly charged, the work gains a new layer of meaning.

Michel François claims no recognizable signature style. Instead, he creates a web of shifting connections between his works and each new exhibition. His conceptual practice includes sculpture, video, photography, printed matter, painting, and installation. The titles of his solo exhibitions often reflect his interest in contemporary reality, office environments, domestic spaces, surveillance, psychology, and the police state. Some examples are State of Being, Urban Placarding, Expanded Bureau, Déjà vu, Theatre of Operations, and Pieces of Evidence. The meanings in his work accumulate over time and vary depending on their placement in space or context. Similar to the Arte Povera artists, François employs a great economy of means to transform seemingly simple objects and materials, or traces of past events, into powerful carriers of meaning. His work can be seen as an exploration of cause and effect and the ways in which simple gestures can change the status of an object or have significant consequences.

Michel François (b. 1956, Sint-Truiden, Belgium) lives and works in Brussels. In 1999, he represented Belgium together with Ann Veronica Janssens at the 48th Venice Biennale. Recent museum exhibitions include Contre Nature, BOZAR, Brussels (2023); Panopticon, Yarat Contemporary Art Centre, Baku (2022); Pièce à conviction, Middelheim Museum, Antwerp (2016); Nineteen Thousand Posters. 1994 – 2016, Mac’s Grand-Hornu (2011) and Frac Île-de-France (2016); Plans d’évasion, S.M.A.K., Ghent and IAC Villeurbanne (2009 – 10); Salon Intermédiaire, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2002); La Plante en nous, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2000); and Kunsthalle Bern (2000). In 2005, François presented his first exhibition with Xavier Hufkens, marking the beginning of a long-term collaboration that has continued for more than two decades.

artlead invited 12 artists to create poster designs that, like concert or theater posters, are displayed in public spaces. The French artist Valérian Goalec decided not to create an image, but a carrier: a roughly welded steel frame inspired by the advertising panels of the Paris metro. Since such heavy frames cannot simply be placed in public spaces, artlead collaborates with several cultural institutions outside the major cities. The images for PLAKT were created by Céline Mathieu, Michel François, Camille Orso, Peter Downsbrough, Shervin/e Sheikh Rezaei, Aline Bouvy, Geert Goiris, Tine Guns, Mekhitar Garabedian, Gerard Herman, and Katja Mater. The frame is a work by Valérian Goalec. PLAKT is a project by artlead, in collaboration with IKOB, Eupen; CC Strombeek; De Warande, Turnhout; Kunsthal Mechelen; NW — Aalst; De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam; Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, Deurle; Abby, Kortrijk; and C‑mine, Genk.