Julien Bismuth and Antoine Boute PERFORMER

The “Performer” meeting, part of the Fondation d’entreprise Ricard’s “Poésie Plate-forme” series, will feature a dialogue between visual artist Julien Bismuth and poet Antoine Boute, both of whom practice performance. It is a chance to better understand what contemporary art and poetry each designate by the same term “performance”, especially when it is implemented – as in this case – by two innovative artists linked to this quintessential mobile practice. Proximities, nuances, uses, humour and disparities are part of their approaches, which make use of obviousness and opaqueness, and are evidence of two bodies of work that thwart codes: that of Julien Bismuth, an artist combining visual practices and literature who lives and works between New York and Paris, and Antoine Boute, a Belgian sound and narrative poet who also develops plastic work.

BIOGRAPHIES

Julien Bismuth

Julien Bismuth was born in 1973. His approach combines literature, the plastic arts, writing, as well as visual and performative forms. He links plastic work with theoretical research. He is currently completing a comparative literature thesis at Princeton University. His practice establishes dialogue between drawings, sculptures, installations and performances in the service of a subtle reflection on the codes of text and corporeal language, in accordance with an open, often partitionnel principle. His art is infused with cryptic writings and irony, and it reworks theatrical objects, leading to forms of dramatization and page layouts that that have made him one of the most influential artists of his generation.

His work has been shown in many institutions in France and abroad, including the Orange County Museum in Los Angeles, 2008; Tate Modern in London, 2009; La Ferme du Buisson, 2009 and 2013; the GAK in Bremen, 2011; the Royal College of Art in London, 2011; the Frac Île-de-France, 2012; the Kunsthalle Wien, 2012; the Jeu de Paume, 2008 and 2013; the Palais de Tokyo, 2014 and 2015; the Guggenheim Museum in New York, 2016. He is represented by Galerie Georges-Philippe et Nathalie Vallois in Paris, Galerie Emanuel Layr in Vienna, Simone Subal Gallery in New York, The Box Gallery in Los Angeles and Galerie Parisa Kind in Frankfurt.

Antoine Boute

Antoine Boute was born in 1978 and lives in Tervuren, Belgium. With brio and humor, he hybridizes written, graphic and sound poetry, philosophy, and experimental performance and music. His “pornoletterist” and prospective universe links the intrepidity of a crazy story with the energy of an imagination amplified by voice. He has produced some fifteen books, including Terrasses, MIX, 2004; Cavales, MIX, 2005; Technique de pointe (tirez à vue), Quartanier, 2007; Du toucher. Essai sur Pierre Guyotat, publie.net, 2008; Brrr…, Polars expérimentaux, Voix, 2010; Post crevette, L’Âne qui butine, 2010; Tout public, Les Petits Matins, 2011; 100% Ergonomique with Bertrand Laverdure, Maelström, 2012; Les Morts rigolos, Les Petits Matins, 2014; S’enfonçant, spéculer, Onlit, 2015; Inspectant, reculer, Onlit, 2016: Opérations biohardcores, Les Petits Matins, 2017. He is very regularly invited to give readings/performances at numerous festivals, art spaces and performance venues in Belgium, France, Holland, Catalonia, Canada, the United States and Japan, either alone or sometimes in association with music groups or experimental theatre troupes. He is developing visual work, consisting primarily of drawings, presented in France, Belgium and Holland.