Julie Béna

Julie Béna was born in 1982 in Paris, France, and currently lives and works between Prague and Paris. 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.

Heir to a childhood spent in a traveling theater and an adolescence as an actress, Julie Béna’s reflections are nourished and inspired by theatre and literature as well as popular culture. Through a work that mixes performance, sculpture, cinema and installation, Julie Béna summons imagery and everyday concerns that she makes her own through stagings, transforming them into subjects of fictions that are sometimes poetic, romantic or epic.

Béna’s selected solo exhibitions include PARODIE, Magasin CNAC, Grenoble, FR (2025–26); Fantasy, PLATO, Ostrava, CZ (2024); Vitrine, Hermès, Prague, CZ (2024); Sombre dimanche, Longtermhandstand, Budapest, HU (2022); The Den, Nicoletti, London, UK (2021); Miles, Villa Arson, Nice, FR (2021); 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, Puebla, 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; National Gallery, Prague, CZ; MOCO, Montpellier, FR; Biennale de Coimbra, Coimbra, PT; Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, Monaco, MC; 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.