Overview
Charles Pétillon
“Balloons are surprisingly captivating no matter how many or few are used, pointing our attention towards something usually unnoticed.” - Charles Pétillon
Born in 1973, Charles Pétillon is a self-taught photographer who began his creative journey in the world of commercial photography before making a decisive transition into the art world. Since 2009, he has developed a poetic and visually distinctive body of work that explores the complex relationship between humans and their environment through his iconic balloon clusters. With his striking large-scale installations and atmospheric photography, Pétillon has created a visual language that is both delicate and powerful, inviting viewers to pause, reflect, and reimagine the world around them.
 
Known for transforming ordinary or overlooked locations into surreal landscapes, he brings art into the everyday, blurring the line between reality and imagination. Among his most iconic projects are the monumental balloon installations at London’s Covent Garden in 2015 and Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2020, where his work mesmerized both art lovers and passersby alike. He has been exhibited in galleries and cultural institutions across the globe, including the renowned Maison de la Photographie in Lille, continuing to captivate audiences and using his art as a powerful tool for reflection on the nature of space, time, and human existence.
 
 
Pétillon’s signature subjects, the white balloon clusters, are installed like paint, marking with white, globulous strikes the carefully chosen settings of his pieces. These emblematic clouds of balloons flood urban, industrial and natural settings, drawing attention to places we often overlook. Almost like whips, the pristine cloud-like formations evoke memories, interactions, or scars left by humans in these abysmal locations. His intent is not to explain or rationalize these interactions, but to signal them through an intuitive, conceptual approach. On top of playing with space, his photographs also take on a note on temporality. His white balloons can be seen as both literal and as a temporal metaphor, creating a sense of suspension, an open, unfinished state that invites the anticipation of what comes next. 
 
There is a dreamlike quality to Pétillon’s work, reminiscent of surrealism, where the familiar becomes strange and the invisible becomes visible. This surreal edge is not merely aesthetic; it taps into something deeper, prompting the viewer to see the world not as it is, but as it might be. His compositions evoke reverie and introspection, encouraging audiences to slow down and engage with time and space in a new and meaningful way.
 
 
Far from being static, Pétillon’s art emphasizes movement, transition, and the passage of time. His installations often incorporate sound or interactive lighting, adding layers of sensory experience that heighten the viewer’s immersion. His photographs, though still, retain a sense of suspended motion, as if the moment captured is just one beat in an unfolding narrative.
 
With MACADAM, Pétillon ventures into a new realm of production, reimagining his temporary installations and photographs through the lens of sculpture. This evolution completes a kind of creative cycle. What was once ephemeral and site-specific, existing only in a particular moment and place, is now given new permanence and physicality through sculptural form. These new works do not simply replicate his past creations; they offer a fresh perspective, breathing new life into familiar motifs. The fleeting becomes lasting, and the story of his art continues, one medium flowing seamlessly into the next.
And more to be announced...
 
Works
Videos
Biography
Charles Pétillon

2025

Solo Show - Danysn - Paris

 

2023

Up In The Air - Group show - Hélène Bailly Gallery - Paris

 

2022

Rainbow - Group show - Analix Forever Gallery - Chêne-Bourg - Switzerland

Modulations Domestiques - Solo show - Danysz Gallery - Paris

 

2021

On The Air - Group show - Sinkka Museum - Kerava - Finland

Invasions - Solo show - La Cidrerie - Beuzeville - France

Diazepam - Installation - La Cidrerie - Beuzeville - France

Le Doute - Installation - Abbaye de la Fontaine Guérard - France

Disruption - Installation - Amfreville sur Iton - France

Point de vue - Installation - Times Art Museum - Chengdu - China

Point de vue - Installation - Times Art Museum - Beijing - China

 

2020

Le Phare - Permanent installation - Charles De Gaulle Paris Airport

Sea Pieces - Group show -Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation - Berlin

L'Air Du Temps - Group show - Galerie Graf - Paris

Confluences - Solo show Photos & Installations - Collegiale Saint Pierre Le Puellier - Orléans

Sea Pieces - Group show - Art Muesum Alkersum - Germany

 

2019

Watch This Space - Group show - Installation - Lazinc Gallery - London

Diazepam - Installation - Opéra National de Bordeaux

Non Visible - Installation - Ambassade de France - Tokyo

 

2018

Stigmates - Solo show & Installation - Danysz Gallery - Shanghai

Mouvement Perpetuel - Installation - Power Long Museum - Shanghai

The Cloud - Permanent installation - Vanke Times Center Beijing

200 Litofhairhour - Permanent installation - Morpheus Hotel City of Dreams - Macau

Sous les Étoiles Gallery - Group exhibition - New York 

 

2017

Baguette Magique - Installation - La Condition Publique - Roubaix 

 

2016

Solo Show -Magda Danysz Gallery - Paris

Paris Photo 2016 - Paris

Distorsion - Solo show & Installation - Magda Danysz Gallery Shanghai

Magda Danysz Gallery - London

Colette - Paris 

 

2015

Maison de la Photographie - Lille

Pop-Up Gallery - Royal Opera Arcade - Covent Garden, London

HeartBeat - Installation - Covent Garden, London