When Martin Belou was invited by Brussels-based artist run space Hekla to prepare an exhibition at SPACE, he was struck by both the atypical layout of this former apartment and the symbolic power of its surroundings, dominated by the collegiate church of Saint-Barthélemy. Focusing on ritual practices and forms that cut across periods and cultures, he designed a scenographic ensemble, a pagan temple that declines the vocabulary of the sacred: candlesticks, receptacles, plant and animal sculptures… under the leadership of large faceless figures acting as priests. The materials selected (plaster, metal, fabrics, reclaimed organic elements, etc.) combine formal purity with irregular or porous workmanship, distinguished by their patina and lived-in quality. Many objects refer to ex-votos, sculpted anatomical elements offered to saints or divinities to ask for healing from illness or to thank them for a granted wish. Physical fragility is evoked here by deformed limbs, covered with pustules or mold. But their excrescences also evoke the organic vitality inherent in plant representations and tribal-style cougourds forming cups or sex covers (a leitmotif also present in the artist’s photographic work). Martin Belou also sculpts breasts and vulvas, symbols of fertility, drawing on the most ancestral traditions, those that give rise to both artistic and ritual practices. The relationship with the body is exacerbated in the second piece, where viewers are invited to undress in order to undergo a purification ritual in which, after climbing a few steps, they can immerse themselves in hot water in a metal vat. This device was conceived as part of a workshop the artist led in October 2015 for students at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. The proximity of the famous brass baptismal font of the collegiate church of Saint-Barthélemy inspired him to rework the concept in a contemporary variation, blending Christian baptism and wellness culture. The courtyard features two monumental hands, borrowed from lambda representations of yogic points, each referring to a different part of the body. Now on display, they too will be given a patina by the passage of time.