Anna, the Jester et les monstroplantes
2023
Duo show at CEAAC with Anna Hulacová
Curator: Alice Motard
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<This double exhibition by Anna Hulacová and Julie Béna (born in 1984 and 1982, live and work in Klucov and Prague) takes the shape of a dystopian ecological fable.
One is Czech, the other French, both live and work in Prague (or not far from it) and are pursuing an international artistic career.

Julie Béna stages tragic-burlesque performances in which she embodies avatars that can also be seen in her films and installations based on objects and texts. Here, she presents a series of three animated films in which a fictional character wearing a ruff and tricorne and named ‘the Jester’ – the artist’s alter ego, as it were – moves through parallel worlds where she grapples with themes of transparency, death and ecology. Shown on screens or as projections, these 3D videos with their disturbing message mingle with Hulacová’s mysterious characters, who populate futuristic scenes of rural life through which the artist questions intensive farming practices, highlighting their impact on the environment and biodiversity.

The fertile dialogue between two practices that embrace the vernacular – both as concerns its forms and concerns (Hula?ová) and its ways of telling stories and addressing audiences (Béna) – produces an uncanny dystopian fable set against the backdrop of the current ecological crisis.>