Juliette Goiffon & Charles Beauté: Muda, Muri, Mura

The Centre d’art contemporain La Halle des bouchers is thrilled to present Muda, Muri, Mura, the first institutional exhibition of French artists Juliette Goiffon & Charles Beauté, who recently gained attention at Jeune Création and Galerie Eva Meyer.

As careful observers of the world and its mutations, Juliette Goiffon & Charles Beauté (born respectively in 1987 and 1985, live and work in Lyon) reveal the complexities of our society in the era of its dematerialization. Through a multifaceted practice (printing, installation, sculpture, video…), Goiffon & Beauté question how technological developments alter our perception of the everyday, and observe how humans can benefit from failures disrupting in presumably well-established systems.

At the Centre d’art conteporain La Halle des bouchers, Juliette Goiffon & Charles Beauté propose a new installation composed of elements echoing corporate strategies. Borrowed from the production system implemented by Toyota in the 1960s, the Japanese words “Muda” (waste), “Muri” (overload) and “Mura” (variability) give the title to this exhibition. The exhibition’s background derives from management techniques as they have unfolded for the past two decades, especially through Agile management methods. If the intensive development of self-esteem is prioritized in these processes, the general interest and the company’s productivity remain the very first motivation of such ways and means.

Diagrams, growth and organization charts—initially core elements of management—are here decontextualized: stripped of any information, these patterns become almost abstract shapes, punctuating the exhibition space, thus transposing the pragmatic world of business systems to an environment that recalls cults or mystic beliefs. If this exhibition evokes a disembodied working open space, the display in Vienne is also inspired by the architecture of Masonic lodges, revealing a latent form of esotericism within Agile management. Such key figures of this duality can be found in Goiffon & Beauté’s installations entitled Espace détente (Relaxation area), where the Zen garden meets the briefcase austerity, or even Téléprésences, which sets brass ghostly faces onto robotic structures.

It’s this continuous back and forth dynamics between contemporary management protocols and their relation to Western esotericism that makes the practice of Juliette Goiffon & Charles Beauté both ominous and exciting—revealing the complexity of topics that seem innocent at first glance.

Curator: Marc Bembekoff, Director of Centre d’art contemporain La Halle des bouchers

This exhibition follows the artists residency at Moly-Sabata, Résidence d’artistes Fondation Albert Gleizes
With the kind support of Galerie Eva Meyer and Association des Amis du Centre d’art contemporain La Halle des bouchers.

About the Centre d’art contemporain La Halle des bouchers
Initiated by the City of Vienne (Isère, France), the Centre d’art contemporain La Halle des bouchers is located in the very heart of the city, in a 16th century building used originally as a meat market. Opened in March 2014, the aim and program of this contemporary art center is to offer privileged access to contemporary art through demanding projects and exhibitions, including solo projects with Nina Childress, Gaëlle Choisne, Salvatore Arancio, Maxime Rossi, among others.