From 10 September to 14 November 2026, La Verrière in Brussels will host Elle/Terre/Chaude, the first solo exhibition in Belgium dedicated to the French artist duo Île/Mer/Froid, formed by Hugo Lemaire and Boris Geoffroy.
Curated by Joël Riff and presented by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, the exhibition brings together sculptures, ceramics, woodworks and textiles in an immersive display that places material, gesture and landscape at the centre of the artistic experience. For the occasion, Île/Mer/Froid will unveil a significant body of new works, conceived specifically for La Verrière, alongside around fifty pieces arranged in a dense and layered installation.
The name Île/Mer/Froid evokes an insular, wintry atmosphere, while also suggesting a playful chain of poetic associations. The duo’s practice is rooted in a shared, four-handed process developed over more than a decade: one artist begins a gesture, the other continues it. From this collaborative rhythm emerge massive, tactile forms, often animated by a subtle visual humour and a strong connection to craft, folk culture and rural imagination.
Wood, stoneware, linen, stone and pigments become the vocabulary of a practice shaped by place. The works seem to grow out of the landscape surrounding the artists’ studio in the Aveyron region of France, where they live and work in a farmhouse partly converted into a sawmill and workshop. After years of a nomadic practice that took them from Rome to La Borne, Sète and Brest, Île/Mer/Froid has developed a language in which experimentation, manual skill and the memory of materials coexist.
At La Verrière, their work enters into dialogue with pieces by ceramicist Richard Dewar, sculptors Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel, photographer Marianne Marić and painter Julien Meert. The exhibition is further enriched by an original text commissioned from Philippe Godderidge, ceramicist, writer and key figure in the contemporary ceramics scene.
Opened in 2000, La Verrière is one of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès’ four exhibition spaces. With this new project, the Foundation continues its commitment to contemporary creation, inviting artists to engage directly with the space and to produce new works.
The exhibition will open on Wednesday, 9 September 2026, from 6 pm to 9 pm, and will be open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 6 pm, at La Verrière, Boulevard de Waterloo 50, Brussels. Admission is free.
