In performances, sculptures and installations Béatrice Balcou creates situations offering innovative exhibition rituals that challenge our way of looking at and perceiving objects - especially works of art. Homing in on attentiveness to the materiality of the artwork and the behaviour of the viewer, she investigates the perceived value of art and the role assigned to it by our contemporary lifestyles. This sixth title in the series is devoted to Béatrice Balcou and marks her exhibition at La Ferme du Buisson art centre.
In the exhibition the artist makes a connection with her earlier work while at the same time putting recent changes in her practice into perspective. The new Digressions title echoes this significant turning point and its concrete implications for her work; and in her choice of interlocutors - Emilie Renard, Christophe Gallois and Julie Pellegrin – Balcou has decided to submit her current lines of exploration to the gaze of three kinds of curator. Via the interplay of these different but complementary voices she looks into the political dimension of discretion, the intertwining of time frames, the accountability of the exhibiting institution, the viewer experience and that of the public generally, and the relationship between working gesture, care-giving gesture and choreographic gesture.
Digressions
Initiated by La Ferme du Buisson in association with Captures Éditions, Digressions accompanies the Art Centre programme. Bringing a fresh eye to bear via group discussion, the series clarifies the thinking, criteria, methods and, sometimes, serendipity that fuel a creative working process.
Biographies
Christophe Gallois has been a curator at Mudam Luxembourg since 2007, focusing on concepts including time, language, the image, sound, and the spatial interconnections between books and exhibitions. His interest in Béatrice Balcou’s work date back many years.
Émilie Renard is a curator and art critic. From 2012 to 2018 she was director of La Galerie, Centre for Contemporary Art in Noisy-le-Sec, where in 2016 she and curator Vanessa Desclaux organised a one-year exhibition entitled Your Hands in My Shoes that included the work of Béatrice Balcou.
Julie Pellegrin is the director of the Ferme du Buisson Centre fort Contemporary Art.
Publication details
authors Béatrice Balcou / Christophe Gallois / Julie Pellegrin / Emilie Renard
series Digressions
edition publisher Captures Éditions / Ferme du Buisson
general editor Valérie Cudel in association with Julie Pellegrin
editorial coordination Céline Bertin
graphic design Claire Moreux
conception graphique copyeditor Sophie Streefkerk
english translation John Tittensor
publication date 2018
languages French/English
format 21.5 x 13.5 cm + postcard
pages 34
price 6 €
isbn 978-2-9558778-7-6
printing Imprimerie Simon, Ornans (France)
distribution Les presses du réel
This sixth book in the Digressions series appears with the aid of the publications fund of the National Centre for Visual Arts
