Benoît Piéron creates moments, installations and objects.
2023 Biennial Year Find out more
He is interested in the sensuality of plants, the borders of the body and the temporality of waiting rooms. He practices patchwork, existential gardening and designs wallpapers. Having always lived with a pet illness, the hospital world is his ecosystem. From time to time, he gives workshops around botany and ableism. In Fall 2021, he held gardening workshops at Le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine , within the programming of the exhibition Dead Souls Whisper (1986-1993), devoted to British artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman. For the past few months, he has been questioning the sustenance of unicorns, the place of orgasm in the hospital and lethal flora. He is nominated for the 2022 Prix Fondation Pernod Ricard and has upcoming exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; L’antre peaux, Bourges; the Sultana Gallery, Paris and Arles; and the Matadero Madrid. As of September 2022, he will begin a year-long residency in Lens, France as part of the Pinault Collection’s residency programme. Benoît Piéron lives and works in Paris.
Selected solo shows include: 2023, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK (forthcoming) ; MUMOK, cur. by Manuela hammer, Vienna, Austria (forthcoming) ; 2022, Prix Fondation Pernod Ricard, HORIZONES, Fondation Ricard, Paris, France ; Bandage, galerie du Haïdouc à l’Antre Peaux, Bourges, France ; Illness Shower, Sultana Summer Set, Arles, France.
Liverpool Biennial 2023
Piéron describes his work as an attempt to “stay alive in a hostile territory” and to make “life more suitable for dreamers”. Living with and through various illnesses, his work deals with the uncertainty of life, death and immunity. Creating art allows him the opportunity to play, both individually and with others – a luxury he was often denied as a child due to his chronic health condition. Here at the Bluecoat, he has worked with the team to create a space amongst his artworks for visitors to explore, play, rest and connect.
The artist draws on the medical environments and materials that surround him, such as used hospital sheets and gowns, IV drips and furniture from hospital waiting rooms, using
Piéron describes his work as an attempt to “stay alive in a hostile territory” and to make “life more suitable for dreamers”. Living with and through various illnesses, his work deals with the uncertainty of life, death and immunity. Creating art allows him the opportunity to play, both individually and with others – a luxury he was often denied as a child due to his chronic health condition. Here at the Bluecoat, he has worked with the team to create a space amongst his artworks for visitors to explore, play, rest and connect. The artist draws on the medical environments and materials that surround him, such as used hospital sheets and gowns, IV drips and furniture from hospital waiting rooms, using them as inspiration to create something new and full of joy and life. Piéron’s stuffed animals, entitled ‘Peluche Psychopompe’, are made using discarded hospital bed sheets which still bear traces of their previous owners through faded stains. His reimagining of a children’s bed ‘Le Lit’, is the result of a 3-month residency at the Hermès silk factory, where the artist worked with the craftsmen in the factory under the mentorship of sculptor Richard Deacon. Piéron navigates the art of survival by practicing tasks with repetitive actions of care and making, such as quilting, sewing, and gardening. Through these ongoing processes, he engages and comes to terms with the state of dying, death and what it means to sustain life.
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Benoît Piéron. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at The Bluecoat. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty
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Benoît Piéron. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at The Bluecoat. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty
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Benoît Piéron. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at The Bluecoat. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty
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Benoît Piéron. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at The Bluecoat. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
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Benoît Piéron. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at The Bluecoat. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
