Benoît Piéron: Slumber Party

A small stuffed toy bat perches on Chisenhale Gallery’s front desk—she issues a warm welcome on behalf of the artist. An enchanting incarnation of illness, Monique signposts a material language that threads through Benoît Piéron’s practice.

Slumber Party—Piéron’s first solo exhibition in the UK—applies a vital softness to the harsh uncertainties of life and death, and supplants the often distressing, stale and clinical atmosphere of hospitals with a sense of possibility and renewed imagination. 

Cotton sheets that once lined hospital beds in the UK and France are stitched together to create an expansive patchwork canopy. Traces of hospitalised bodies—faded secretions and stains—stretch across the gallery, crafting a collective corpus of matter and memories, and revealing beauty in the discarded. 

Anchored by a giant wooden table leg and topped with an oversized pin cushion, the installation plays with scale to evoke the proportions of a domestic den. Linked to the times Piéron has spent in hospitals, throughout his childhood and later life, the space simultaneously becomes a refuge and a portal through which to journey into other realities—a dreamscape that is also a means of survival.

A series of emergency vehicle lights, veiled by pastel–sprayed domes, slow down and gently dim over the course of each day. Clustered throughout the gallery, their urgency is reprogrammed, functionality rejected, and their panic shrouded in softness.

Piéron’s commission harnesses the spaces in between; day and night, internal and external, public and private, the real and the imagined. In Slumber Party, time itself becomes an artistic medium—slowed, stretched, non-linear and porous. In this suspended state, experiences of waiting and uncertainty become opportunities to dream together.

As an extension of Piéron’s commission, a publication co-published by Chisenhale Gallery and Mousse Publishing will launch in November 2023.
 

Events 

Workshop
Sunday, September 17, 2–5pm
Make juggling balls with artist Benoît Piéron—a workshop for adults.

Tour
Sunday, October 8, 3pm
A walkthrough of Slumber Party with curator Olivia Aherne.

Crit
Thursday, October 26, 7pm
Artist Richard Deacon joins Peer Sessions (artists Kate Pickering and Charlotte Warne Thomas), inviting you to share work-in-progress.

Talk
Saturday, November 4, 2pm
Chisenhale Gallery and Great Ormond Street Hospital Arts host a collaborative event exploring artist commissions within hospital settings.

Book launch
Thursday, November 9, 7pm
Join us for the launch of Benoît Piéron’s new publication.

All events are free to attend, but booking is essential. Please visit chisenhale.eventbrite.co.uk.

We are committed to ensuring our events are accessible for all. Please contact mail@chisenhale.org.uk to discuss any access needs. We will endeavour to meet all requests where possible. Please be advised that requests should be made two weeks in advance of the event.

Biography
Benoît Piéron lives and works in Paris, France. Selected exhibitions include: delicious monstera, mumok, Vienna (2023); Get Well Soon (Prologue), Ormston House, Limerick City (2023); der pinkelnde tod, Kunstverein Bielefeld, Bielefeld (2023); Avant l’orage, Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection, Paris (2023); uMoya: The sacred Return of Lost Things, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool (2023); Exposé.es, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2023); Horizones, Fondation Pernod Ricard, Paris (2022); Bandage, galerie du Haïdouc à l’Antre Peaux, Bourges (2022); Deux drapeaux, Une Belladone, L’alcôve, Paris (2021); VIH/sida, l’épidémie n’est pas finie, Mucem, Marseille (2021); Plaid, Cité internationale des Arts, Paris (2021); Mort is more, Brasserie Atlas, Brussels (2021); Seconde peau, soft walls, patch.e.s & soap, Open Source Body, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2021). In 2022, Piéron was nominated for the Prix Fondation Pernod Ricard, The Prix Pujade-Lauraine • Carta Bianca, and was featured in ElaineAlain by ADAGP. He was previously in residence at the Pinault Collection, Lens (2022–2023) and Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2020). Piéron is currently in residence with Art Explora, Paris (2023–2024), and will be in residence at Les Capucins, Embrun and La Becque in 2024.
 

Slumber Party is commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London with support from the Chisenhale Gallery Commissions Fund.

The publication Benoît Piéron: Slumber Party is co-published by Chisenhale Gallery and Mousse Publishing. 

Lead Supporter: Fondation Pernod Ricard

Headline Supporters: Fluxus Art Projects and The Clare McKeon Charitable Trust.

With special thanks to our drinks sponsor Perrier-Jouët.

With additional thanks to Chisenhale Gallery Publishing Supporters’ Circle.

Chisenhale Gallery’s Public Programme 2023 is supported by the Talks & Events Supporters’ Circle.

Chisenhale Gallery’s Schools’ Programme 2023 is made possible through the generosity of Headline Supporter Goodman Gallery.

The Chisenhale Gallery Curatorial Fellowship 2023-24 is supported by the Terra Foundation of American Art.

The 2023-24 Asymmetry Curatorial Research Fellow is hosted by Chisenhale Gallery.