Julie Béna

Julie Béna’s work regularly integrates devices and staging elements borrowed from the theater world. By way of distanciation, sliding, displacement, she subjects images and everyday objects to détournement, gradually turning them into the themes of a variety of fictions and poetic narratives.

On septembre 22nd 2012, in her studio, Julie Béna gave the premiere of Ain't you seen Rose Pantoponne?, the second chapter of a performed open book, the first one having been conceived in 2011 in London, during the Deptford Festival¹.

" Rose Pantoponne exists via William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch. She appears in one of the last chapters, from the mouth of an old junkie: "…Ain't you seen Rose Pantoponne? " A sentence looking for a character that never appeared and will never reappear. Thus, she does not exist, but has existed, or will exist. Ain't you seen Rose Pantoponne? is built around this quest. Who is Rose? A Moscow bird landed in the States? A Durasian Lolita from Pigalle ? An animate caryatid ? The answer is not really a talk-show, nor is it a cabaret, but more of a dreamlike farce that freely surfs and slides between installation, performance and comedy. Written and produced during Jule Béna’s residency at the Darling Foundry in Montreal, this acted performance casts the roles among characters drawn from the same place and to whom the artist puts the question, as well as to us : Ain't you seen Rose Pantoponne ? " Caroline Andrieux
¹ As part of Channel, This is not French Cinema, curated by Barbara Sirieix, Josefine Wikström. Deptford X Festival, London.

Biography

After her studies at the Villa Arson (Nice), completed by training at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, she took part in a number of exhibitions in France and Europe, including with the collective she cofounded, KIT. She recently presented Le Juste Retour des Choses (2010) at the Centre Culturel français of Surabaya (Indonesia), Le Monde Physique (2011) at La Galerie contemporary art center in Noisy-le-sec (France), Some MCP Reviews at the Tangiers Cinematheque (Morocco) and D’une Seconde Majeure ou Mineure with Dominique Blais at Lyon’s BF15 in 2012. In November, she will join Le Pavillon, the creative workshop of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

Recent exhibitions

2013	The Song of The Hands, in collaboration with Adrien Vescovi, Perfoma 13 - New Visuel Art Performance, New York Trois fois rien, with Antonio Contador, Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris Talgne, Pavillon Neuflize OBC-Palais de Tokyo, Biennale Anglet  Romantic Duo, La GAD - Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille
2012	Stimulo, Performance with Antonio Contador. On a proposal by Christian Alandete. Nuit Blanche, Fondation Ricard, Paris Ain’t you seen Rose Pantoponne, Performance. Fonderie Darling, Montréal Salon International de Tanger des Livres et des Arts . Programmation of artist's videos by Red Shoes and the Cinémathèque de Tanger, Tanger, Maroc D'une seconde majeure ou mineure, Dominique Blais / Julie Béna, curator Perrine Lacroix, La BF15, Lyon Never ending objects, part 2 Le champ de dispersion (ou la pomme de terre en robe des champs), curator Fabienne Bideaud, in the studio of Ann Guillaume, Cité internationale des Arts, Paris
2011	Channel, This is not french cinema, Curators: Barbara Sirieix, Josefine Wikström. Deptford X Festival, Londres C'est ainsi que finit le monde, pas sur un bang sur un murmure, Curators: Jérôme Cotinet-Alphaise and Damien Sausset. Transpalette, Bourges Tout ce qui arrive arrive par l'escalier, Solo exhibition, Galerie L MD, Paris Le Monde physique, Curator: Marianne Lanavère, La Galerie, Noisy-le-Sec