ARTIFICIAL PARADISE

29/11/2025 - 12/02/2026

Gallery Fifty One Too 
Hofstraat 2 
 
2000 Antwerpen

www.gallery51.com   

 

Gallery FIFTY-ONE and FIFTY-ONE TOO are pleased to unveil the new exhibition by Bruno V. Roels, titled Artificial Paradise (Photographs & Artefacts). This exhibition invites the viewer to immerse themselves in a world where art, the search for meaning, and sensory exploration converge. The title of the exhibition is inspired by Charles Baudelaire's essay Les Paradis Artificiels (1860) which examines the complex relationship between substances and creation, while raising questions about inspiration and ecstasy, whether natural or induced.

Through this series, Roels revisits Baudelaire's reflection on paradise, continuing the quest for these "artificial paradises"; spaces created by man, far removed from nature, where the search for inspiration and ecstasy takes on an ephemeral yet timeless form. For the artist, paradise is neither a geographical place nor a mere spiritual concept: it is a pursuit, a constant interrogation. In his works, he explores several facets of this elusive concept. First, as a historical idea: paradise as a mythical place that may have existed in the past, an Eden lost, referenced in ancient texts like The Epic of Gilgamesh. Next, it takes on a religious dimension, as a state of well-being or transcendental consciousness, a place one enters after death as a reward for a virtuous life.