SEXUAL MICROBES: A CONTAMINATED LOVE STORY
Martin Berteloodt is a French multimedia artist based in Tokyo, Japan. As previously introduced, Berteloodt is known for his distinctive dark and surrealist style that examines themes of sexuality and trauma. His work is littered with unsanitary images moulded with beauty; intertwining grotesque and allure and often instilling emotions of chaos, irrationality and anxiety.
Through leather craft, photography, and film, Berteloodt has conceived a phantasmal and uncomfortable otherworldly universe. These themes are subsumed into his newest dark dreamscape, Sexual Microbes. In this Gata exclusive, we are exported to an unsettling and transgressive planet wherein the “microscopic structure of sensuality and so-called deranged thoughts are investigated.”
We sat down with Martin to gain further insight into his creations and process. Scroll down for the Sexual Microbes editorial and interview.
“This project's goal was to investigate the microscopic structure of sensuality and so-called deranged thoughts. The idea struck me at 3 a.m. when I discovered a cockroach in my bed. After the nausea, came the paranoia, and I began hallucinating cockroaches in my apartment. While this is not an uncommon event, it made me realize the parallels between your body's reaction to an unwelcome insect and unwelcome feelings. Once in a while, I will imagine my emotions as cockroaches, trying to get into my mind and make a mess uninvited, and you can try as hard as you want to get rid of them, but there is a point when it becomes out of your control. While looking at this work, try to remind yourself that you are analyzing disruptive thoughts (microbes) through a microscope; another way for me once again to make the abstract, concrete.”
Martin Berteloodt on Sexual Microbes
HELLO MARTIN! Can you please introduce yourself to the Gata Audience?
I am a Tokyo-based French Visual Artist, who grew up at the Belgian border until I was 17. I have since been living in Japan after I left my hometown in order to build up a stronger career for myself and to search for creative inputs.
How did you begin your career as an artist?
While working as a model for a few years both in Osaka and Tokyo, I started holding a strong interest for photography, even though I did not really act on it due to a lack of proper inspiration. I first started by taking portrait photography, and then decided that I should base my artwork around my mood and reflections instead of trying to simply capture a “beautiful” visual. So to answer the question properly, my career as an artist started as my view of the world deteriorated and it was the only way for me to externalize my thoughts in stillness instead of pushing them away.
Your work contains many themes some may define as sexual or transgressive, what draws you to this genre? Do you align yourself with these themes?
More than a sexual connotation, desire and longing are some of the most intense feelings I have ever experienced. The themes of sexuality and desire shown in my work purely reflect my own experiences and try to depict my love and hatred for them.
How did you first enter the world of creating within this genre?
I first started with leather-craft, as I had a kindred relationship with the world of BDSM, and the rest simply followed.
2021
You work with various mediums, such as digital art, painting, photography, and sculpting, is there any specific medium you enjoy working with the most? Why?
I don’t really see my work as a multitude of mediums, since most of them are intertwined by the result. However, if I had to pick the part of the process I enjoy the most, I would say it is photography, as that is when I feel the closest with my models, and when all the communication is being made.
Burning Memories, 2021
What’s your favourite piece that you’ve made thus far?
My favourite piece is the collection of “burning memories” which is a sequence of hand-edited photos going all the way from April of 2021 until now. While it does not seem like a major part of my work, it is by far my most personal and emotional one.
Apart from art, you also work as a model, have you ever become the subject of your own works? (If you haven’t would you ever in the future?)
I have not, but I am thinking more and more about putting myself at the centre of a future collection. I feel like I’ll have to think about it more properly.
How do you decide the subjects of your work?
Most of the time, I shoot with people I feel a strong bond with or people that I feel I know well. Due to the themes of my artwork being very personal, I need to attach it to someone I hold in my heart. It is not always the case, but I would say it is for the majority of them.
What message are you trying to portray with what you create?
There is no message, as I do not try to convince or explain myself to anyone. I only wish to visualize my inner thoughts and materialize abstract feelings.
Cocooned, 2022
Tell us about something you’re currently working on or what you hope to do in the future?
I’ve recently been trying to rethink the Japanese nouvelle vague (translation note: new wave) genre and bring to it a touch of modernity and intimacy.
Lastly, GATA loves cinema, Is there any movie that has influenced your career?
The movie that probably made my childhood is “La Cité des Enfants Perdus” by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It is about an older man who thrives through the dreams of children and has them kidnapped in order to feed his desires.
But in the realm of nouvelle vague, I would say “The face of another”. I think it is better to be seen than described, so I won’t say too much about it.
Words by Jasmina Mitrovic