Neïl Beloufa

Art and politics are two separate entities. The only way to be political in art is to consider the way it’s conceived, disseminated, and received by the public. Otherwise, it’s an art object. I’m interested in a world that keeps adding ideas instead of opposing them. – Neïl Beloufa

The multi-layered practice of French-Algerian artist Neïl Beloufa occupies the space between various dichotomies. Reality and fiction, cause and effect, and presence and absence are the polarities between which the artist’s work begins to take form. Developing his reflection on these themes by combining various media, including sculpture, video and painting into single installations, Beloufa masterly manages to deconstruct our contemporary systems of belief by moving between the real and the imaginative.

Situating himself between these polarities, Beloufa’s practice is deeply reflective. Examining established structures of power, incidentally, those within the “creative economy,” whilst dwelling on the authority that is afforded by artists in today’s society, Beloufa eliminates his dominant role by awarding agency to actors or materials, informing one another and coexisting in installations as though they are actors and props on a set.

Rejecting the alias of sculptor, or any alignment to a particular set of practices or creative processes, Beloufa works primarily as an editor, constructing scenarios to facilitate intersections between different meanings that viewers might build independently.

Neïl Beloufa (b. 1985, Paris, France) lives and works in Paris.

The artist currently has a solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland (2024). He has also had solo exhibitions at The Renaissance Society, Chicago, USA (2024), Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2018); Schirn Künsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany (2018); The Pejman Foundation, Teheran, Iran (2017); MoMA PS1, New York, NY, USA (2016); ICA, London, UK (2014); and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA (2013).

His works have also been presented in institutional collective exhibitions at Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France (2023); The Henie Onstad Triennale for Photography and New Media, Høvikodden, Norway (2023); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2022); 58th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2019); Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing, China (2018); Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland (2017); Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (2015); La Biennale de Lyon, La Mulatière, France (2013); Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, USA (2013); 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2013); and Wiener Secession 11th Baltic Triennale (2012).