Béatrice Balcou & Yuki Okumura

Béatrice Balcou proposes new rituals that challenge how we view and perceive objects. Her exhibitions include Chaque Chose en son Temps (FRAC Franche-Comté, 2013); Walk-in Beauty (Casino, Luxemburg, 2014); Un-Scene III (WIELS, Brussels, 2015); Un Nouveau Festival (Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2015); Des Choses en Plus, des Choses en Moins (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2015); Tes Mains dans mes Chaussures (La Galerie, Noisy-le-Sec, 2016); The Absence of Work (Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, 2016); K.Miyamoto <> B.Balcou (L’Iselp, Brussels, 2016); Exile (Berlin, 2017) and Wrapped/Unwrapped (Zoo Galerie, Nantes, 2017).

Through reflections on identity, individuality and authorship, Yuki Okumura explores new forms of self-portraiture and autobiography by overlapping his life and work with the life and work of other artists. His performative actions relate a parallel history of art and question the attribution of works and the institutional exhibition system. His exhibitions include Un-Scene III (WIELS, Brussels, 2015); Na, (@KCUA, Kyoto, 2016); Hisachika Takahashi by Yuki Okumura, (Le Forum, Tokyo, 2016); The Absence of Work (Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, 2016) and Wrapped/Unwrapped (Zoo Galerie, Nantes, 2017).

Intrigued by the commonalities of their work – not least their position as a facilitator working behind another artist’s practice and their interest in the notion of author –, and by their different ways of approaching a subject, Béatrice Balcou and Yuki Okumura explored (mutual) assistance as a means of collaboration. Bunraku – traditional Japanese puppet theatre – became a reflection of their gestures, those of puppet-master and storyteller respectively, as well as a source of inspiration into how different roles contribute to a single production.