Above: Detail of one assemblage found in glass display cases of “Les Vitrines de Bernard Belluc” at MIAM – Museum of Modest Arts in Sete.
Maybe you first need to cue up a little Felliniesque background music for this post. MIAM – Musee International des Arts Modestes has its own hymn or anthem, composed and performed by Pascal Comelade (1955-) and General Alcozar, to celebrate the opening of the museum in 2000.
“At the turn of the 1980s, the notion of Modest Arts was coined by Herve Di Rosa to designate a set of objects that elude all classifications and do not belong to Great Art. Popular figures, Action Figures, amateur paintings, devotional objects, tourist objects, advertising signs, body arts, video game imagery, from here or elsewhere, these abandoned or downgraded productions challenge us and form the labile territory of the Modest Arts, a dynamic space with shifting borders, capable of constantly renewing itself.” The Modest Arts, MIAM website
Bernard Belluc (1949-) once had a problem. His obsessive passion for collecting filled his abode to a critical bursting-at-the-seams stage. Artist Herve Di Rosa (1959-) considered Belluc’s problem as art, so the pair teamed up and hatched a rescue plan: MIAM. They came across a former wine cellar as the home for modest art and enlisted architect Patrick Bouchain (1945-) for the recycling project.
In addition to galleries to house work by other artists, a roomful of glass showcases accommodate a portion of Belluc’s thematically organized collections.
Summary: Compulsive accumulator, I collected in abundance, small plastics, small boxes, small papers, the ephemeral material of previous decades…. I concluded that there was a story to scratch for a pioneering shrink, a new land to explore, which I baptized: ‘The Land of Objectotherapy,’ a vast territory where the sight of the triggering object, outbid by an overdose effect caused by the profusion of the material gathered and linked to traumatic affects, could, by means of a violent return, refer to repressed representations, and consequently would help the patient in his research work…. I was on the way to freeing myself from the tyrannical grip of objects…. I had become aware that it was no longer important to me to possess the objects directly attached to my experience, as was the case in the early days of my quests.”
“L’Objecto-Thérapie,” Bernard Belluc
Above: Details of a few window displays in the installation “Les Vitrines de Bernard Belluc,” 2000.
But beyond his suffering and the cruelty of the world, even if the heart is heavy and the ghosts full of tears, in this in-between world, the colors remain bright, soft or acidic, thus radiating a formidable combative energy tinged with humor and a rare poetic elegance…. With representations of oneself at all ages as if to resist the deadly nature of the disease…. Adrien Fregosi leaves us a powerful and anti-establishment work of crazy poetry served here by a scenography of great delicacy.”
“Adrien’s Memory,” Editorial Board, The Rolling Stone, April 14, 2026
Cancer felled Adrien Fregosi (1980-2024), a creative Swiss artist who lived in Sete the final decade of his life. Works by the self-taught artist reflect influences from comics, skateboarding and punk cultures, and non-traditional fanzines. In tribute, MIAM assembled a solo exhibition in memory of the artist. “Adrien Fregosi – The Means at Hand” will run until March 2027.
Above: Works by Adrien Fregosi included in “Adrien Fregosi – The Means at Hand.”
…a political manifesto that defends the pleasure of experience, playing and imagination; away from preconceptions or what is considered ‘serious’ or ‘elevated.’”
“About Untitled Schack Up With by Bruno Peinado,” ADN Galeria
The lost-and-found appearance of multi-media creations by Bruno Peinado (1970-) makes his work an ideal match for MIAM. Sometime working in partnership with his young daughters sparks his installations with a youthful freshness often lacking in art.
My logic is that of creolization, of crossbreeding. The world is a collision of images. I have the idea of breaking purity.”
Bruno Peinado, The Creation Notebook podcast on Radio France, April 30, 2018
Above: “Schack Up With, et Toujours a la Colle,” installation by Bruno Peinado and two of his daughters, Josephine and Simone Peinado-Barre, 2014-2026.
And then, there’s the underground comic-zine Weirdo, founded by Robert Crumb (1943-), the artist who introduced my generation to such shockingly unforgettable characters as Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural.
In 1981, amidst a seismic shift to the right in the country, Robert Crumb responded by unleashing the savagely irreverent and satirical Weirdo onto the great multitude…. It was an irreverent, outrageous, often politically-incorrect, and taboo-challenging anthology that showcased Crumb’s finest ― and most controversial ― material. It was gut-busting, hysterical, and frequently offensive. But, most of all, it was FUNNY!”
“Weirdo Magazine,” Last Gasp Publications
His work became so valuable that Crumb was able to purchase a house in the countryside near Montpellier.
Above: Serigraphs of Weirdo Magazine covers by Robert Crumb.
Sete itself is known for its port and as a resort blessed with an abundance of fresh oysters and mussels. Easy to reach by train, the city is only 25 miles south of Montpellier.
Above: Snapshots of Sete.
Back to objectotherapy for curing an obsessive compulsion to acquire. Belloc is anything but divorced from his collections. By reservation, he conducts a personal tour of his windows on one Saturday a month. Would love to hear his explanations. If you ever go, please ask him if he rearranges items often or subtly incorporates more recent acquisitions into the display cases. Has he truly stopped collecting, or is his house brimming over once again?
If I ever get around to editing photographs from this ongoing trip, you will see that former “outsider” art, or art brut, is now “in” in France.
Postcards from Barton Springs 