Julie Béna’s work explores the threshold between one perception and another; between being a team player or a spoilsport; participation or abstinence. Béna refers to the exhibition space as her “playground,” which she populates with performers, singers, sculptures, photos, videos and installations. Early in life, Béna acted in a roving theatrical troupe in France. In the past few years, the transient and artificial staging of play resurfaced in her practice, alongside prominent use of text.

Julie Béna (born 1982, Pantin, France) currently works in New York City. Her past solo exhibitions include: Nail Tang, Galerie Joseph Tang, Paris, France, 2015; Destiny, Galerie Edouard Manet, Gennevilliers, Paris, 2015; T&T consortium: You’re Already Elsewhere, The French Institute Alliance Française, New York, 2014. Her selected collective exhibitions and screenings include: Camera of Wonders, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, Mexico, 2015; Artists’ Film Club: Breaking Joints: Part 2, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 2015; RIDEAUX / blinds, Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne, France, 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, France, 2013. She exhibited performance projects at Fahrenheit, Los Angeles, 2014; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2014; PERFORMA 13, New York, 2013; La Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Paris, France, 2012 and Fonderie Darling, Montréal, Canada, 2011. Béna studied at the Villa Arson in Nice, France and attended the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. From 2012 to 2013 she was part of Le Pavillon, the research laboratory of Le Palais de Tokyo.