Born in 1976, in Tréguier, France
Lives and works in Brussels.
In performances, sculptures and installations Béatrice Balcou creates situations offering innovative exhibition rituals that challenge our way of looking at and perceiving objects—especially works of art. Homing in on attentiveness to the materiality of the artwork and the behaviour of the viewer, she investigates the perceived value of art and the role assigned to it by our contemporary lifestyles.
Various international institutions including Musée d'art de Joliette (Joliette, Canada), Société (Brussels), Rozenstraat – a rose is a rose is a rose with Tlön Project (Amsterdam), M Museum (Leuven, Belgium), La Ferme du Buisson Contemporary art center (Noisiel, France), Art Hostel Kumagusuku (Kyoto, Japan), Exile Gallery (Berlin), L’Iselp (Brussels), Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain (Luxembourg), Le Quartier Contemporary art center (Quimper, France) and the FRAC Franche-Comté (Besançon, France) have organised solo or duo exhibitions featuring her work.
Furthermore, her work has been exhibited, among others, at Jeu de Paume (Paris), Kunsthalle Recklinghausen (Germany), Société (Brussels), FRAC Corsica (Corte, France), FRAC Champagne-Ardenne (Reims, France), Fondation CAB (Brussels), Salle Principale (Paris), Villa Kujoyama (Kyoto, Japan), Kunstverein Langenhagen (Germany), FRAC Bretagne (Rennes, France), MAC VAL contemporary art museum of Val-de-Marne (Vitry-sur-Seine, France), Kunsthalle (Mulhouse, France), Été 78 (Bruxelles), La Galerie Center for Contemporary Art (Noisy-le-Sec, France), Zoo gallery (Nantes, France), WIELS (Brussels), FRAC Franche-Comté (Besançon, France), Center Georges Pompidou (Paris) and Palais de Tokyo (Paris).
Béatrice Balcou’s work has been collected by many including Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Cera–M Museum (Leuven, Belgium), Fondation CAB (Brussels), CIRVA (Marseille, France), FRAC Franche-Comté (Besançon, France), FRAC Île-de-France (Paris), Centre National des Arts Plastiques CNAP (Paris), FRAC Corsica (Corte, France), FRAC Normandie (Rouen, France), FRAC Lorraine (Metz, France), Kunsthalle (Recklinghausen, Germany) as well as various private collections in France, Belgium and Germany.
A monograph "Ceremonies &" has just been published by MER editions (2021) in collaboration with Luc Derycke and Émilie Renard, with essays by authors such as Vanessa Desclaux, Christophe Gallois, Zoë Gray, Béatrice Gross, Julie Pellegrin, Émilie Renard , Septembre Tiberghien, Eva Wittocx and texts by the artist.