Julie Béna’s work is made up of an eclectic set of references, combining contemporary and ancient literature, high and low art, humor and seriousness, parallel times and spaces. Comprising sculpture, installation, film, and performance, her work seems to often float in an infinite vacuum, unfolding against a fictional backdrop where everything is possible. Over the past years, Béna has developed a range of personal cosmologies in which she stages seemingly banal characters and objects that have enigmatic conversations and interactions with each other. From Pantopon Rose – a character taken from William S. Burroughs’ ‘Naked Lunch’ –, to Miss None and Mister Peanut – a disembodied floating wig and the iconic monocled anthropomorphic peanut –, Béna lends her characters a singular agency and voice, which defines them by what they are not.
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.
Béna’s selected solo exhibitions include PARODIE, Magasin CNAC, Grenoble, FR (2025–26); Fantasy, PLATO, Ostrava, CZ (2024); Vitrine, Hermès, Prague, CZ (2024); Sometimes, Polansky Gallery, Prague, CZ (2024); Anna, the Jester et les monstroplantes, duo exhibition with Anna Hulačová, CEAAC, Strasbourg, FR (2023); Sombre dimanche, Longtermhanstand, Budapest, HU (2022); The Den, NıCOLETTı, London, UK (2021); Miles, Villa Arson, Nice, FR (2021); The wolf, the princess and the little soldier, Polansky Gallery, Prague, CZ (2020); The Jester and Death, Kunstraum, London, UK (2020); Les Lèvres Rouges, Kunstverein Bielefeld, DE (2020); Anna and the Jester in Window of Opportunity, Jeu de Paume, Paris, FR (2019); Anna and the Jester, CAPC Bordeaux, FR (2019); Anna and the Jester, Museo Amparo, Pueblo, Mexico, MX (2019); and Have you seen Pantopon Rose?, 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.
Selected residencies include at Fonderie Darling, Montreal, CA; Futura, Prague, CZ; ISCP, New York, US; Moly Sabata, Sablons, FR; CCF, Surabaya; Rupert, Vilnius, LT; INI project, Prague, CZ.
In 2017, Béna’s first book, It needs to be tender and to be whipped, was published by Montez Press, and launched in Paris, New York, and San Francisco. In 2019, her first monograph was published by the Jeu de Paume, Paris, accompanying the artist’s solo exhibition at the museum.
Béna’s work is part of a number of public and private collections, including Kunstverein Bielefeld, Bielefeld, DE; CAPC, Bordeaux, FR; Fond d’art contemporain – Paris Collection, FR; Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap), Paris, FR; FRAC MÉCA Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Bordeaux, FR; FRAC Bretagne, Rennes, FR; FRAC Normandie, Caen, FR; Fiorucci Arts Trust; Tapisserie Aubusson; Foundation Kunsthalle Praha, CZ; and Havrlant Art Collection, CZ