Julie Béna
Julie Béna was born in 1982 in Paris, France, and currently lives and works between Prague and Paris.
She is a graduate of the Villa Arson, Nice, and attended the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. In 2012–13, she was part of le Pavillon, the research laboratory of the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. In 2018, she was nominated for the Prix AWARE women art prize.
Having spent her childhood in a traveling theater and her adolescence as an actress, Julie Béna's thinking is inspired by theater and literature as well as popular culture. Through a body of work combining performance, sculpture, film, and installation, Julie Béna draws on images and concerns from everyday life, which she appropriates through staging, transforming them into subjects for fiction that is sometimes poetic, romantic, or epic.
Béna’s selected solo exhibitions include Magasin CNAC, Grenoble, FR (2025–26); PLATO, Ostrava, CZ (2024); Vitrine, Hermès, Prague, CZ (2024); CEAAC, Strasbourg, FR (duo exhibition with Anna Hulačová, 2023); Longtermhanstand, Budapest, HU (2025; 2022); NıCOLETTı, London, UK (2021); Villa Arson, Nice, FR (2021); Polansky Gallery, Prague, CZ (2020); Kunstraum, London, UK (2020); Kunstverein Bielefeld, DE (2020); Jeu de Paume, Paris, FR (2019); CAPC Bordeaux, FR (2019); Museo Amparo, Pueblo, Mexico, MX (2019); and CAC Passerelle, Brest, FR (2017).
Béna’s work has been shown in international museums and galleries, including Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR, Biennale de Rennes, FR; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, FR; National Gallery, Prague, CZ; MOCO, Montpellier, FR; Biennale de Coimbra, Coimbra, PT; Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, Monaco, MC; Polansky Gallery, Brno, CZ; 1646, The Hague, NL; C art C Madrid, ES; Bozar, Brussels, BE; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris and San Francisco; Protocinema, Istanbul, TR, and Chapter NY, New York, US. Béna has staged numerous performances, including at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; ICA, London, UK; M Leuven, BE; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR; and Performa NY, US.
