Benoît Piéron

Benoît Piéron draws his materials from hospitals and medical environments, and reappropriates them in order to open up new enchanting worlds, far removed from the romantic heroism typical of the usual metaphors of illness. His vocabulary is based on his experiences of time (slowed down, distended) and space (shrunken, but also expanded) during illness and the many hospital stays he has endured since childhood. Benoît Piéron’s installations account for his stand still journeys, the sensation of the body “in landscape format” and the feeling of living “off-screen”. The reveries that emerge from these memories are as many ways of protesting against validist and productivist norms. ...

Founded in 2010 by Guillaume Sultana, Sultana collaborates with emerging international artists. The gallery space operates as a site for experimentation and expression, often bringing together well-established and lesser known artists through a playful, yet politically-engaged curatorial program that highlights practices concerned with questions of identity and their social ramifications. By giving space to curators and writers, in addition to artists, the gallery is committed to rethinking the traditional modes of exhibition-making and collaboration within the art world. In 2021, Sultana opened Sultana Summer Set Arles to convene artists, collectors, curators, and friends close to the gallery in a domestic and intimate space in the heart of the city. This space was conceived as a residency and site of exchange, to host projects angled toward creative freedom, reflection, and flânerie that eschews a regular programming schedule, and is organized instead according to the whims and desires of our community. These two spaces exemplify the spirit of Sultana: the desire to provide artists with an independent platform for expression via site-specific projects and curatorial propositions. ...