Demi-monde is the intriguing title for Mathieu Beausejour’s recent solo exhibition at Galerie Bradley Ertaskiran. The term, derived from Alexandre Dumas’ 1855 play, refers to a group of women on the margins of society, who receive support from moneyed lovers. Over time, the term has come to refer to what we might now call a sub-culture or a world that is a covert part of the larger world. Considering the underground space where we experience this work, it is a moniker charged with associations from the outset.

To visit the exhibition from Bradley Ertaskiran’s main first-floor exhibition space we are directed toward “the Bunker,” which acts as the gallery’s second exhibition space. Descending a staircase, we pass through two tight spaces and enter a largish rough-hewn room. The walls are unfinished stone and cement, there are no windows and the dampness indicates we are subterranean. Arriving in the first of two tight spaces, three luscious photo works, Bonsoir I, II and III (2022) welcome us. These appear to be composed of super-imposed body fragments and are mounted on an immense mirror in which we, the viewers, are obviously reflected. In the second, even tighter space, there is a stack of apparently leftover cardboard boxes titled Empilé (2022), many of which contain roughly taped and glue-gunned “interiors” set up within them. An abrupt shift from the seduction of the first three works, this piece is crudely constructed, referring – seemingly – to the netherworld spaces of loading docks or nightclub backrooms.

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