Top of this document
Go directly to navigation
Go directly to page content

artist

artist

Benoît Goupy

Between the Lines

You are staring into the water. Suddenly, the water wells up and the word “murmur” appears. Did you see what you thought you saw?

In the pond in the Beatrixpark, a word is written three-dimensionally in the water – not something you would run across in reality, but it’s not virtual either. The word is made to appear by an installation that makes the water well up above the surface.

Benoît Goupy’s installations change the space in such a subtle way that you must remain alert to every imperfection in the wall or environment to notice the work. In this way, he plays on your awareness of the interaction between the space, yourself and the installation.

His work tends to infiltrate spaces, working just below the surface of direct perception. Or more literally, to manifest itself directly from under the physical surface.

His installations usually consist of texts that appear on the exhibition wall after some physical process. Electric installations short-circuit, burn and leave a mark on the wall. Words of ice appear on the wall, thaw and leave behind “tears.” What is innermost comes out, while the cause remains hidden, like blood vessels under skin. His interventions behave like alien bodies on or in an architectural element.

Benoit Goupy was born in 1964 in Poitiers, France, and lives and works in Amsterdam.
www.deiska.nl/goupy