Béatrice de Fays, aka B2Fays, is a French-Belgian artist. She develops her creations using diverse media: paintings, illustrations, video projections, local or network interactive installations and augmented reality.
Her childhood, spent between France and Belgium, was accompanied by a sculpture of Buddha from the Indian salon of Jean Robie, African sculptures linked to the life of her father, and works that revealed spiritualities of the whole world eagerly discovered in Art magazines.
In 1984, she realised that creation was the only way for her to evolve in a universe, which then seemed completely incomprehensible to her. Wanting to free herself from the dictates of the institutional art of the time, and from the academicism of the painters linked to her family (Jean Robie and Balthazar-François Tasson-Snel), she refused to join an art school, and began her self-taught career in Paris.
She chose a popular narrative style (comics, illustrations…), and the dematerialized images of the first graphic palettes.
Her first comic strip was published by Philippe Manœuvre of the Humanoïdes associés publishers. Her work then appeared in magazines (including Métal Hurlant), fanzines, and on television. In 1985 she participated in the first exhibition of images made with graphic palettes titled “Palettes Pauvres – Images Riches” (Poor Palettes – Riche Pictures) held at the George Pompidou Centre in Paris, France. In 1987, she was selected for the SIGGRAPH Art Show held in California, USA. In 1988, she exhibited her work at the Ministry of Culture in Paris.
The transition from comics to painting happened following the publication of her work in the comic strip newspaper Zoulou in 1986. An art lover ordered a 3-meter-long canvas painting of one of the published panels.
This life-sized painting and the involvement of the whole body to achieve it, made the artist aware of the positive impact of this medium on herself, both physically and mentally. After this experience, she distanced herself from digital images, and worked exclusively with material picturization.
Close to the Figuration Libre movement, her colorful and frontal narrative works question human relationships, the beauty of beings and the horror that sometimes hides under appearances, celebration and loneliness in the poetic and wild urban universe. By seeking complementarity, she confronts opposites: contradictions vs. relationships, destruction vs. construction, interiority vs. exteriority.
Claiming an art form that is authentic, true to life and reality, she favored locales of underground culture to exhibit her work (nightclubs, restaurants, fanzines, TV, cinemas, streets…). She exhibited in the mythical Parisian club Les Bains Douches, decorated the Le Boy nightclub, created posters and armchairs for the Max Linder Panorama cinema….
In 1994, wishing to further pursue the exploration of her inner self, she radically changed her style and technique. She abandoned frontal and narrative illustrations, and developed a style that built a succession of images, layer by layer, in the depth of the canvas, and on large polyptychs.
Around that time, all her paintings were destroyed in a fire. This shock made her aware of the fragility of matter, as against the durability of the artistic experience which transforms the body and the spirit in an immutable way.
She decided to once again turn towards computers, but this time to integrate the viewer into the creative process and share the experience.
From 1996, during residencies at the CICV Pierre Schaeffer (Centre International de Création Vidéo), she produced multimedia installations, Le Musée Amarrage et Voir (CICV Pierre Schaefer), Matière première / Raw material (Galerie Donguy, Paris) which question the presence of the viewer and the place of the works.
In 1999, following a research residency at the CNBDI (Centre National de la BD et de l’Image) with her musician partner Lotfi Zitouni, she designed the installation Xposelive, a real-time experience where the viewer became the actor, subject and spectator of the work in progress. Between 1999 and 2006, this installation was presented in different places: Festival Interférences (Belfort), Villette Numérique (Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, Paris), – Open Source 3 (Gaîté Lyrique, Paris), and Le Cube ART 3000 (Issy Les Moulineaux) among others.
In 2006, Béatrice de Fays won the “Villa Médicis Hors les Murs” prize in India.
During a residency at the Espace Mendès France, she started a collaboration with the multimedia artist Mathieu Constans with whom she created the interactive installation Digital Palimpsest. This installation, drawing from the concept, scenography and experience of Xposelive, was presented at the Center d’Art RURART in Rouillé, France, and then during an India tour at IIT Bombay (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay), Kalahita Art Foundation in Hyderabad, and Shrishti Art School in Bangalore.
From then on, Béatrice de Fays worked between Asia and Europe: paintings, interactive multimedia installations, projections on accumulation, and spaces in augmented reality.
In 2008, she designed a display consisting of two interactive networked installations at La Géode (La Cité des Sciences, Paris), and the Nehru Science Center, Mumbai, India, where visitors could meet, interact and create together, in real time, 7000 km apart.
She then exhibited in Brussels in Belgium (Hôtel de Ville Saint Gilles, Galerie Arielle d’Hauterives, European Commission), in Manila in the Philippines, in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Pondicherry and Mumbai in India (Goethe Zentrum, Kalakriti Art Gallery, World Design Assembly, India Habitat Centre, …), and in Hong-Kong (PMQ Central), …
She designed workshops: Digital Palimpsest (Espace Mendès France, Poitiers France), Through Layers of Memory (PMQ Central, Hong-Kong), Via Présence (Gudipudi village in Andra Pradesh, and Pattanur village in Tamil Nadu, India).
Her paintings are part of several Indian collections: Park Hyatt Hyderabad, Novotel Vijayawada Varun, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport Hyderabad, and private collections.
Group exhibition / selection
2020 – Courant 3D Festival – Paintings AR in.space with Mathieu Constans & Guillaume Evrars – Angoulême, France
2020 – Salar Jung Museum – International women’s day celebrations at Hyderabad – Hyderabad, India
2019 – World Design Assembly – Interactive installation Via Presence with Mathieu Constans – Hyderabad, India
2019 – India Habitat Centre – Photosphere Festival – Interactive installation Via Presence with Mathieu Constans – New-Delhi, India
2012 – European Commission – Geniarts – Polyptych InstantT – Brussel, Belgium
2011 – Nightshot #5 – Nuit de l’image numérique – Video projection Univers Palimpseste – Malves en Minervois, Belgium
2007 – Art Center RURART – Interactive installation Digital Palimpsest – Rouillé, France
2004 – Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie – Villette numérique Festival – Installation Xpose Cité with Lotfi Zitouni – Paris, France
2004 – La Couronne Abbey – Installations Xpose & La Chapelle de Vierges with Lotfi Zitouni – La Couronne, France
2003 – Gaîté Lyrique – Open Source 3 – Installation Xpose toi with Lotfi Zitouni – Paris, France
2000 – CICV Pierre Schaeffer – Festival Interférences – Installation Xpose Interférences with Lotfi Zitouni – Belfort, France
1999 – Georges Pompidou Centre – Kites Technoparade – Paris, France
1999 – What’s Up Bar – Collaborative multimedia party Matière première/Raw material with several partner artists – Paris France
1997 – CICV – Terres Blanches Festival – Multimedia installation Musée amarrage with Philip Samartzis & Bernard Bats – Blâmont, France
1987 – Escurial Max LInder Panorama cinema – Armchair decoration – Paris, France
1987 – Siggraph Art Show – Digital image Couple – California, USA
1985 – Mercedes Benz event – Poster in Colonel Fabien & Bercy with Daniel Boursin – Paris, France
1985 – Wild display with les Frères Ripoulin – Posters in the Opéra district – Paris, France
1985 – Global Women’s Forum – Digital images and Paintings – Nairobi, Africa
1985 – Georges Pompidou Centre – Digital images Palettes pauvres – Images riches – Paris, France
1984 – Wild bombing in La Villette & Marx Dormoy with the 7 Mercenaires artist group – Paris, France
Solo exhibition/ selection
2022 – Underspace secteur17 & Alliance Française Gallery – Paintings AR in.space with M. Constans & G. Evrars – Chandigarh, India
2021 – Park Hyatt Hyderabad – Paintings AR in. space with Mathieu Constans & Guillaume Evrars – Hyderabad, India
2018 – Club Marpen – Interactive installation Via Tusson with Mathieu Constans & Guillaume Evrars – Tusson, France
2018 – Atout France – France Tourism Development – Soirée champagne – Mumbai, India
2017 – Lloyd Laboratories – Exhibition Family Tree – Manilla, Philippines
2015 – PMQ Central – Exhibition Through Layers of Memory – Hong-Kong, China
2015- Goethe Zentrum / Kalakriti Art gallery / Alliance Française – Installation Nomads of Memory – Hyderabad, India
2014 – Alliance Française – 125 years Indo-French Festival – Video projection Via Puduchery – Pondicherry, India
2013 – Park Hyatt Hyderabad – Multimedia installation Via Hyatt – Hyderabad, India
2012 – Galerie Arielle d’Hauterives – Exhibition TransIndia – Brussel, Belgium
2011 – Kalakriti Art Gallery – Interactive installation Via Presence Hyderabad with Guillaume Evrars – Hyderabad, India
2010 – Saint Gilles Town Hall – Interactive installation Trace de Robie with Mathieu Constans – Brussel, Belgium
2009 – Kalahita Art Foundation – Exhibition Moving Within – Hyderabad, India
2008 – Maison de la Région – Exhibition Empreinte de la rencontre – Poitiers, France
2008 – Nehru Science Centre <> La Géode, Cité des Sciences – French-Touch Festival – Interactive installations in network Univers Palimpseste with Mathieu Constans and many Indian and French artists – Paris, France <> Bombay, India
2007 – Kalahita Art foundation – Interactive multimedia installation Digital palimpsest with Mathieu Constans – Hyderabad, India
2007 – Shrishti Art School – Interactive multimedia installation Digital palimpsest with Mathieu Constans – Bangalore, India
2007 – IIT Bombay – TechFest Festival – Interactive installation Digital palimpsest with Mathieu Constans – Mumbai, India
2006 – Espace Mendès-France – Interactive installation Digital palimpsest with Mathieu Constans – Poitiers, France
2006 – Le Cube ART3000 – Installation Xposelive Cube with Lotfi ZItouni – Issy les Moulineaux, France
2005 – IUFM – Installation Xpose with Lotfi ZItouni – Angoulême, France
2005 – Galerie MR – Paintings exhibition – Angoulême, France
2001 – CNBDI – Garage Hermétique – Installation Xpose with Lotfi ZItouni – Angoulême, France
1999 – Ferme du Bois Briard – Multimedia installation Chemin de Vie with Lotfi ZItouni – Corbeil Essonne, France
1999 – Galerie Donguy – Multimedia installation Matière première / Raw material with Philip Samartzis – Paris, France
1998 – Gantner multimedia space – Multimedia installation Voir – Bourogne, France
1996 – Maison du Bailly & Ancienne trésorerie – Exhibition Le Sang de Picasso sur les femmes Humides – Epinal, France
1993 – Galerie Art & Patrimoine – Paintings exhibition – Paris, France
1990 – Galerie Charles & André Bailly – Paintings exhibition – Paris, France
1988 – Ministry of Culture – Exhibition Commune Nikation sans Harmonie – Paris, France
1988 – Les Bains Douches – Exhibition Brankitos – Paris, France
1987 – Nightclubs – Paris, France
Comics – Illustrations / selection
2019 – Courant 3D Festival – Angoulême, France
1989 – Marie-Claire – Illustrations – France
1988/1989 – Télérama – Illustrations – France
1988/1989 – 7 à Paris – Illustrations – France
1988 – Jardin des modes – Illustrations – France
1989 – Galeries Lafayette / Jardin des modes – Sketch Imagine the fashion of the future – Paris, France
1988 – Arts n°5 Ministre culture – Illustrations – Voyage au Centre de l’Orchestre – France
1986/1987 – Métal Hurlant – Comics series Amour à Gants – France
1984 – PGP PUR n°17 – Comic Choc sans chute – France
1984 – Zoulou – Comic – France
1984 – Rigolo – Comic Dring-Dring – France
Video animation
1987 – TV TF1 – Generic La une est à vous
1985 – TV France 2 – Generic Fit ou double (International Festival of Industry and Technology) with Éric Roussel.
Decoration
2017 – E Ee – Ram Ganapatirao Telugu movie – Paintings – Hyderabad, India
1988 – BOY nightclub – Painted walls – Paris, France
Workshops
2017 – Graphical Monitoring & Information Systems – Swarnandhra Vision 2029 – Via Presence – Lachanagudipudi, India
2015 – PMQ Central – Through Layers of Memory – Hong-Kong, China
2014 – Yatra Arts Foundation – Digital palimpsest – Chinna Pattanoor, India
2006 – Espace Mendès-France – Digital palimpsest with Mathieu Constans and Lotfi Zitouni – Poitiers, France
2006 – Le Cube ART3000 – Xposelive Cube with Lotfi ZItouni – Issy les Moulineaux, France
Auctions
2001/1999 – Péron – Barbizon, France
1990 – Rogeon – Drouot Paris – Paris, France
1989/88/87 – Binoches & Godeau – Drouot – Paris, France
Awards – Grants
2020 – Institut français & French Embassy in India – India
2011 – Région Poitou-Charentes – Art Plastique – France
2009 – Suman Art Theatres – Ugadi Talent Awards – India
2009 – Région Poitou-Charentes – Art Plastique – France
2007 – French Embassy in India – Artiste-en-résidence – India
2007 – Poitou-Charentes Région / CulturesFrance – France
2006 – CulturesFrance – Awardee of the programme Villa Médicis Hors les Murs in India – Institut Français – France
2006 – Région Poitou-Charentes – Art Plastique – France
2006 – DICREAM ministère de la culture – Production grant – France
2004 – DICREAM ministère de la culture – Help with writing – Palimpseste Cité – France
2002 – SCAM award – Brouillon d’un rêve – France
1987 – Ressort des Arts and de la Créativité award – France
Conferences – Talks
2020 – Megha Institute Engineering & technology – Megha international women’s empowerment summit – Hyderabad, India
2020 – Festival Déconfine – in.space – On line
2007 – Cochin Hospital – Teenage house – Therapeutic workshops with interactive installations – Paris, France
2017 – Goethe Zentrum Hyderabad – Goethe Institut – Kunstforum by Béatrice de Fays – Hyderabad, India
2013 – FASTERI – Angoulême Formation Supervision of Relief and Interactivity Technologies – LISA – Angoulême, France
2012 – Africa e Mediterraneo – Via Presence – Brussel, Belgium
2011 – Mobility for Digital Arts in Europe – Mons, Belgium
2007 – Kalakriti Art Gallery – Krishnakriti Festival – Digital Art presentation – Hyderabad, India
Collections
2019 – PVP Collection – Goa, India
2018 – Novotel Vijayawada Varun hotel – Vijayawada, India
2017 – Rajiv Gandhi International airport – Hyderabad, India
2013 – La Suite 341 – Angoulême, France
2012 – Park Hyatt Hyderabad hotel – Hyderabad, India
Artist residencies
2017 – Lloyd Laboratories – Manilla & Baguio, Philippines
2016 – Hyderabad Art Society – Platinum Jubilee Celebrations – Woman Artist Art Camp – Hyderabad, India
2011 – CCN – National Choreographic Center – La Rochelle, France
2011 – Transcultures – Mons, Belgium
2010 – Jean Robie Foundation – Brussel, Belgium
2009 – Kalahita Art Foundation – Hyderabad, India
2008 – Villaveli Art Factory – Fort Kochi, India
2000/2003 – CNBDI – Multimedia Technical Support Center – Angoulême, France
1997/2000 – AME – Art and corporate sponsorship in Essonne – Évry-Courcouronnes, France
1997/1998 – CICV Pierre Schaeffer – Hérimoncourt, France
1996 – La lune en parachute – Fricotel factory – Epinal, France
Art collaborators
Bernard Bats (film-maker) ;
Mathieu Constans (multimedia artist) ;
Guillaume Evrard (programmer) ;
Jacques Labarrière (composer) ;
Pierre Lange (composer) ;
Abhilash Ningappa (dancer) ;
Philip Samartzis (composer) ;
Gireesh Thumath Ayappu (dancer) ;
Lotfi Zitouni (composer).
Mukhtiar Ali, Baba Anand, Minam Apang, Vasumathi Badrinathan, Gregory Beller, Daniel Boursin, Nathalie Brissonnet, Dirty Dezer, Francis Faber, André Fertier, Ishan Ghosh, Chantal Jumel, Migwel, Kefli One, Blaise Patrix, Rajyashree Ramamurth,, Vidya Rao, Eric Recordier, Prahlad Singh Tipanya, Louise Vantalon, Velu Viswanadhan.