Julie Béna

Stories of Rivers (2023)

A cabaret about abortion? Impossible, or so it would seem, considering how terminations of pregnancy are still stigmatized as creepy and cruel. Julie Bénaʼs cabaret challenges this assumption. Joined on stage by her mother and daughter, she embarks upon a hyperbolic three-chapter show of stories, songs, mimes, and dances, aiming to elicit that little vibration right before screams of terror or laughter.

Julie Béna (1982, Paris, France) is an artist working with sculpture, installation, film, and performance. Her work draws upon an eclectic set of references, combining contemporary and ancient literature, high and low art, humor and seriousness, parallel times and spaces. In 2012–13, she was part of the Pavillon, the art research lab at Palais de Tokyo, Paris. In 2018, she was nominated for the AWARE prize for women artists. Over the past years, Béna has developed personal cosmologies staging seemingly banal characters and objects that have enigmatic conversations and interactions with each other. She lives in Prague and Paris.

Commissioned and produced by steirischer herbst ʼ23
With the kind support of Trampoline, Association de soutien à la scène artistique française

30.9., 1.10., 19:00

Forum Stadtpark (basement)
​Stadtpark 1
8010 Graz  ♿

18/14 euros per evening

Duration: 45 min.

In English

Commissioned and produced by steirischer herbst ʼ23
With the kind support of Trampoline, Association de soutien à la scène artistique française