À bout portant is a three-stage drawing performance premiering during Drawing Now. In addition to an assortment of drawing media, tools and techniques, Morelli is assisted by his Belt Heads. Made from used belts, these sculptural prostheses have been both the subjects and objects of his intersectional artistic practice for over twenty-five years. Working horizontally directly on the floor on large sheets of paper, gestures of embodied drawing spread over time onto adjacent walls. Enigmatic and strange in nature, the work is based on an improvised approach to movement and the creation of traces. Who draws what... and why? Sometimes narrative, the work remains conceptual while exploring various types of physical and psychological constraints.

"My works, whether two- or three-dimensional, performative or installation-based, claim to be hybrid, heterogeneous and iconoclastic. They are also part of the DIY tradition, making use of misappropriated objects and materials. The Belt Heads are made from old, salvaged belts, riveted and knotted. Fitted with a glove inside, they operate like puppets, coming to life when manipulated. They transform and change their user. These heads are part of my interest in the human figure in sculpture and the use of prostheses in performance. After discovering that Belt Heads can hold a paintbrush with their mouths, they began drawing at exhibitions and performances, but also in the studio." - François Morelli