Le Meilleur des Mondes

For its summer exhibition, La Kunsthalle Mulhouse presents new projects from Julie Beaufils, Elvire Bonduelle and Chai Siris.

Brought together at la Kunsthalle, works by Julie Beaufils, Elvire Bonduelle and Chai Siris will be presented through three independent proposals, including paintings, videos and installations. The pieces presented here are symptomatic of the singular universes of each of these three artists, and seem to be linked by a common preoccupation: in a hyperconnected world, characterised by the desire for constant awareness, which forms should we give to abandonment, idleness and laziness? How can dreams and sleep paradoxically create a state of resistance within our social, cultural and even personal landscape? This exhibition invites visitors to « let go » through an offbeat experience of contemplation and comfort with Elvire Bonduelle, dreams and memory with Chai Siris, and disconnection with Julie Beaufils, under the common title Le Meilleur des mondes .

Julie Beaufils’s paintings are infused with references to televisual culture (series, sitcoms and video clips) but also with new, “post-internet” aesthetics and other forms originating in social media such as Skype. Their singularity of Julie Beaufils’s paintings does not come from her preference for a pared down style and a palette made up of pastels enhanced with black, but rather from a voluntarily classical approach in her treatment of the most modern subjects.

Elvire Bonduelle’s work consists of paintings and drawings, installations and furniture, but also editing projects and collective exhibition. For several years she has been working on redefining the exhibition space as an apparently comfortable and cosy place, to highlight more effectively the visitor’s physical presence. Soft and minimalist forms make up her vocabulary, which simultaneously finds inspiration in the history of art and in the minute observation of her daily environment.

Chai Siris is an emerging figure in experimental cinema in Thailand and regularly collaborates with Apichatpong Weerasethakul. He is developing a body of work made up of films, videos and photos, dedicated to the reconstruction of personal and social narratives from different local communities (workers, migrants, villagers, families) where he gathers stories and aspirations. Starting with this part-documentary, part-fictional piece he presents a contemplative œuvre, between near and far, intimacy and history in the making.