The performances, sculptures, drawings and installations by French artist Béatrice Balcou offer innovative sensory and emotional exhibition rituals that demand thoughtful attention for art.

Balcou copies other people’s artworks and takes on the role of ‘art handler’ and ‘art registrar’, as it were. She thus radically challenges our relationship with art and the way art is produced. To Balcou, an artwork is not a fleeting image to be identified or consumed quickly. In her view, the essence of art lies in the way in which we look at things, the time we take for it and what we learn from the process of looking.

In her exhibition at M, Balcou is bringing together several series of works: a series of existing 'placebo' and 'assistant' sculptures, film ceremonies, drawings, and works that will be activated within the space. These spatial and temporary installations invite us to interact with the artworks actively, understand them, become attached, take time genuinely to look at them, and to become a viewer.