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VILNIUS AT WORK
PAROXYSM OF DISCONTENTE-mail conversation with Julie Bena
by Romuald Demidenko |
Julie Bena is an artist based in Prague and Paris. A large part of her practice is led by conjunctions of actually existing or alleged situations. Currently she works on a collection of tales rooted in the Lithuanian landscape and daily life
Julie Bena, Have You Seen Panopton Rose?, Act 2. The Choir, performance, 2014, Fahrenheit, Los Angeles
At your recent exhibition Nail Tang there was a fictional nail-polish salon that serves as a setup for your narrative work during performances. And then you embody a manicurist who takes up a monologue.
In France, over past few years, the relationship between language and immigration has become very problematic and awkward. What I mean by this is, in the last few years we have started to hear words in the TV and radio, that would have been unimaginable before. Openly expressed racism, with very little or no opposition is really one thing I cannot tolerate. Politics has played a big role in this story: Nicolas Sarkozy opened the door to this kind of behaviour, and it isn't the so-called 'left' who won the last election that fights this general ambience of intolerance and bigotry.
In France, over past few years, the relationship between language and immigration has become very problematic and awkward. What I mean by this is, in the last few years we have started to hear words in the TV and radio, that would have been unimaginable before. Openly expressed racism, with very little or no opposition is really one thing I cannot tolerate. Politics has played a big role in this story: Nicolas Sarkozy opened the door to this kind of behaviour, and it isn't the so-called 'left' who won the last election that fights this general ambience of intolerance and bigotry.
Julie Bena, Destiny, 2015, installation view, Galerie Edouard Manet, Gennevilliers
What does it speak about?
The text of the performance was written a bit before the big refugee crisis, but we were already aware for months and months that it would happen. Thousands of people were already dying in the sea, without moving the public view, politicians closing their eyes. I’m listening to, and watching what is happening, and I wanted to write something about that. But how do you write when you are not yourself a migrant, do you have a legitimacy, do you need it? You don’t need to look at kilometres to experience. A few meters or centimetres. My gallerist is a migrant, I married a Czech, the parents or grand-parents of my friends arrived from somewhere else. When you are starting to discuss it, a lot of testimonies emerge. So I spoke with a lot of people. I did very precise interviews with my gallerist about his life, leaving Hong Kong as a child, then leaving US, and asking questions such as:
The text of the performance was written a bit before the big refugee crisis, but we were already aware for months and months that it would happen. Thousands of people were already dying in the sea, without moving the public view, politicians closing their eyes. I’m listening to, and watching what is happening, and I wanted to write something about that. But how do you write when you are not yourself a migrant, do you have a legitimacy, do you need it? You don’t need to look at kilometres to experience. A few meters or centimetres. My gallerist is a migrant, I married a Czech, the parents or grand-parents of my friends arrived from somewhere else. When you are starting to discuss it, a lot of testimonies emerge. So I spoke with a lot of people. I did very precise interviews with my gallerist about his life, leaving Hong Kong as a child, then leaving US, and asking questions such as:
'When did you leave your maternal country? Alone? Or with your family?
How and why was the decision taken to move?
How did you choose the country to which you would move?
Do you remember the first feelings you had on arrival?
How did you learn the language?
Did you bring some specific object with you?
What is your relation with these 3 different languages, with these 3 countries?
Have you the impression to be always here as a foreigner? To be always 'judged' as a foreigner?'
Julie Bena, Destiny, 2015, installation view, Galerie Edouard Manet, Gennevilliers
But while I’m writing, I realise that the base of the project was established in Los Angeles in 2014, during the preparation of another performance Have you seen Pantopon Rose? at Fahrenheit. The starting point of our Nail Tang story takes place in a waxing salon. I felt really bizarre in this naked state of my body. And being in front of somebody, like this, and not even know her name, sounded awkward. Thus I started to speak with the lady who was taking care of me. She was from Vietnam. How did she arrived, why did she leave, when, why, why Los Angeles etc. I had one of the most beautiful encounters.
Julie Bena, L'Eternelle Insatisfaite, 2016, installation view, Syntax, Lisbon
You have created a number of characters with their concrete names, appearances, and verbal presence meaning there's a lot of communication in your practice. How do you think the age of information overload influences this approach?
On the contrary, I think they are quite dissolved. They act more as apparition, as forms. I'm careful not to describe too much the situation or the characters. Everything remains always quite abstract. They are always somewhere, elsewhere, without any date, time, and physical description. I want to let the space for the one who listens, for the ones who see. The characters are also mainly defined by their surroundings and rarely by their essence. And saying that, I think it’s quite the idea of the Cloud, intangible.
On the contrary, I think they are quite dissolved. They act more as apparition, as forms. I'm careful not to describe too much the situation or the characters. Everything remains always quite abstract. They are always somewhere, elsewhere, without any date, time, and physical description. I want to let the space for the one who listens, for the ones who see. The characters are also mainly defined by their surroundings and rarely by their essence. And saying that, I think it’s quite the idea of the Cloud, intangible.
Julie Bena, L'Eternelle Insatisfaite, 2016, installation view, Syntax, Lisbon
'When I’m travelling, I don't have internet on my phone, and this is a choice, a certain idea of control maybe? To get the impression for some days or weeks, that you're less focused on your mail'
Julie Bena, L'Eternelle Insatisfaite, 2016, installation view, Syntax, Lisbon
Do you use a lot of technology on a daily basis?
Well, I’m quite addicted to the screens. My days are mainly at the computer. The problem is this object became everything. It's your phone, your TV, your personal and professional correspondence, your work, your researches, your movies, your stereo, your friends and even your husband are part of the screen, and if it’s not the computer, it’s the phone! But, when I’m travelling, I don't have internet on my phone, and this is a choice, a certain idea of control maybe? To get the impression for some days or weeks, that you're freer, less constantly focused on your mail. Because yes, I have the sensation of being a slave of the internet.
Do you think artists and curators make the best use of their social media presence and their mobile appliances?
It depends who. I think that the problem, is that some curators or artists only live by the network and build everything on it. So of course, we are all using it, but it’s not so unusual to see no work and no content, but a crazy good networker. I mean the network/public relation had always existed, but sometimes I have the impression we are at a paroxysm of discontent. And while we are really in the area of the emptiness, maybe it is that art must produce more content. Making art is being engaged. And engagement can be displayed at a lot of different levels
Well, I’m quite addicted to the screens. My days are mainly at the computer. The problem is this object became everything. It's your phone, your TV, your personal and professional correspondence, your work, your researches, your movies, your stereo, your friends and even your husband are part of the screen, and if it’s not the computer, it’s the phone! But, when I’m travelling, I don't have internet on my phone, and this is a choice, a certain idea of control maybe? To get the impression for some days or weeks, that you're freer, less constantly focused on your mail. Because yes, I have the sensation of being a slave of the internet.
Do you think artists and curators make the best use of their social media presence and their mobile appliances?
It depends who. I think that the problem, is that some curators or artists only live by the network and build everything on it. So of course, we are all using it, but it’s not so unusual to see no work and no content, but a crazy good networker. I mean the network/public relation had always existed, but sometimes I have the impression we are at a paroxysm of discontent. And while we are really in the area of the emptiness, maybe it is that art must produce more content. Making art is being engaged. And engagement can be displayed at a lot of different levels
Julie Bena, Les nuits de la pleine lune, 2014, installation view at Graphic Design exhibition, Futura
What are the most useful apps that we could find in your phone?
Without thinking, Ulmon! This is a map which exist for every big cities of the world, free and you don’t need to be connected to internet!
It seems like 'design' is a notion that could reflect on some of your work. Your installations resemble a semi-functional objects that would be assembled in a kind of corporative environment. What's the connection with them and your performance work?
My work was recently on display on Graphic Design, a group show curated by Michal Novotny at Futura, in Prague. My proposal for the show, was a site specific installation as often in my work, consisting of 9 digital collages printed on fabrics, mounted on the pre-existing structure of the usual blinds of the space. The piece is called Les nuits de la pleine lune (Full Moon in Paris), just like a movie of Eric Rohmer, a French director that I particularly like. This movie takes place in Marne-la-Vallée, one of the new cities built around Paris in the 80s, - such as Cergy Pontoise. For years, I was collecting interior pictures presenting blinds, mainly taken for advertisements. I was particularly attached to the 80s-90s ones. An aesthetic I knew from my childhood, objects, furniture, quality of the sets, temperature of the pictures, including the new standardisation. For me the 90s, it’s really the beginning of the aseptic interior without quality, a kind of B series.
I can’t deny my relation to design but maybe, I would more say to objects, regarding the relation established between objects and gesture, space and body. In my shows, this question is always fundamental, how you are placing the visitor, what would she or he see first, would she or he like to move it, to grab it, to sit on it, what is the potential action? This is maybe how it is linked to the performance.
Without thinking, Ulmon! This is a map which exist for every big cities of the world, free and you don’t need to be connected to internet!
It seems like 'design' is a notion that could reflect on some of your work. Your installations resemble a semi-functional objects that would be assembled in a kind of corporative environment. What's the connection with them and your performance work?
My work was recently on display on Graphic Design, a group show curated by Michal Novotny at Futura, in Prague. My proposal for the show, was a site specific installation as often in my work, consisting of 9 digital collages printed on fabrics, mounted on the pre-existing structure of the usual blinds of the space. The piece is called Les nuits de la pleine lune (Full Moon in Paris), just like a movie of Eric Rohmer, a French director that I particularly like. This movie takes place in Marne-la-Vallée, one of the new cities built around Paris in the 80s, - such as Cergy Pontoise. For years, I was collecting interior pictures presenting blinds, mainly taken for advertisements. I was particularly attached to the 80s-90s ones. An aesthetic I knew from my childhood, objects, furniture, quality of the sets, temperature of the pictures, including the new standardisation. For me the 90s, it’s really the beginning of the aseptic interior without quality, a kind of B series.
I can’t deny my relation to design but maybe, I would more say to objects, regarding the relation established between objects and gesture, space and body. In my shows, this question is always fundamental, how you are placing the visitor, what would she or he see first, would she or he like to move it, to grab it, to sit on it, what is the potential action? This is maybe how it is linked to the performance.
Julie Bena, Nail Tang, 2015, installation view, Galerie Joseph Tang, Paris
You live both in Paris and Prague. You'd told me that the quality of life in Czech's capital is even better than Paris. And there are also many artists living there. Is Prague the new hotspot for art world?
Yes! Paris is the city I was born and raised, Prague is my city of love, and nowadays also the city where I produce or make most of my pieces. I'm not always sure the quality of life nowadays in Paris is so great. I don’t think a city where everything is so expensive is a city with a great quality of life, or at least, now it is for me a factor of quality of life. You can eat in the restaurant? Take a little soup for lunch? Have drinks with your friend, pay for the round? Honestly in Paris, I can’t afford it all. So for sure, we are more and more inside, in the apartments for aperitif or a great dinner. Which is great but the level of life in a city is really an important question. Where do you live or where do you decide to live?
Prague is an art scene I’m actually discovering, and which is exciting and amazing, and well, if people would care more about things happening in non-so-called Western countries, yes it could totally be the new hotspot. Even if I prefer to keep Prague like this, because the trend is not really my cup of tea. But yes, more and more people are passing by, and it's for the best.
Yes! Paris is the city I was born and raised, Prague is my city of love, and nowadays also the city where I produce or make most of my pieces. I'm not always sure the quality of life nowadays in Paris is so great. I don’t think a city where everything is so expensive is a city with a great quality of life, or at least, now it is for me a factor of quality of life. You can eat in the restaurant? Take a little soup for lunch? Have drinks with your friend, pay for the round? Honestly in Paris, I can’t afford it all. So for sure, we are more and more inside, in the apartments for aperitif or a great dinner. Which is great but the level of life in a city is really an important question. Where do you live or where do you decide to live?
Prague is an art scene I’m actually discovering, and which is exciting and amazing, and well, if people would care more about things happening in non-so-called Western countries, yes it could totally be the new hotspot. Even if I prefer to keep Prague like this, because the trend is not really my cup of tea. But yes, more and more people are passing by, and it's for the best.
Julie Bena works on environments that draw inspiration from the world of literature, film, theater and popular culture. Béna studied at the Villa Arson in Nice and attended the Gerrit Rietveld Academie at Amsterdam.
In 2012-2013, she was part of le Pavillon, the research laboratory of le Palais de Tokyo. Selected solo exhibitions include: L’Eternelle Insatisfaite, Syntax, Lisbon (2016), Nail Tang, Galerie Joseph Tang (2015); How to ask better questions? Artopia, Milan; Destiny, Galerie Edouard Manet, Gennevilliers (2015); T&T consortium, you’re already elsewhere, FIAF, New York (2014); or Das Reisebüro, Display art projects, Paris (2012). Selected collective exhibitions and screenings include: Camera of wonders, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico city (2015) ; Artists’Film Club: Breaking Joints: Part 2, ICA, London (2015) ; Rideaux / blinds, IAC, Villeurbanne (2015), Late capitalism, it’s like, almost over, The Luminary, St Louis, Missouri (2014); Things, Design Cloud, Chicago(2014); Graphic Design, Prague (2014); La Méthode Jacobson, Nouvelles vagues, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013) . She realized performance projects at Fahrenheit, Los Angeles (2014); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014), PERFORMA 13, New-York (2013); La Fondation Ricard, Paris (2012) and La Fonderie Darling, Montréal (2011). |
The conversation with Julie Bena is part of the project Vilnius at Work, newartcenter.info's residency at Rupert, Vilnius.
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Images courtesy of Julie Bena
Thank you to Naomi Langan
Thank you to Naomi Langan
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