Yet he had done everything in the right order and followed the "classic" route to becoming a painter, unlike others on whom the profession of artist fell into their lap thanks to providence and life's imagination. Not so Jean-Christophe Belaud. He's not a self-taught artist with an atypical background. He always wanted to be an artist, and graduated in plastic arts from the University of Saint-Etienne, starting to make a living from his painting in 2006.

The big turning point came in 2009. He didn't know it at the time, but he was about to become a carpet sculptor, an artist with a unique, innovative and much admired technique!

It's May, Sunday and raining. Jean-Christophe has just moved to Brussels, is bored and comes across a piece of carpet he brought back from his old Parisian apartment. An amusing idea crosses his mind: to turn it into a warrior's mask. A cutter, a stapler, some glue and his childhood dream is realized. In no time at all, he's also figured out how to add volume to his work.

Since then, Jean-Christophe has continued to develop and refine his technique. He starts with a wooden base or just a metal leg and builds his structure from the inside out, never sketching beforehand and never really knowing where he's going. Somewhere between the influence of primitive art, sacred geometry and science fiction, Jean-Christophe has built himself a very singular universe, with a technique and material that are equally unprecedented. No wonder, then, that his work is exhibited on TV shows and in high-end decorating magazines, and is regularly the subject of articles in the press.

As well as originality and technical virtuosity, we are left with elements that speak to us, that we understand. Jean-Christophe likes to mix the symbols we all know: hearts, stars, hands and so on. The proportions are harmoniously respected according to the golden ratio, and the carpet, a poor material, brings us back to a familiar proximity between us and the subject.

That's where his talent lies: combining innovation, harmony and simplicity.