Benoît Piéron in conversation

4 Nov 2023 2-3pm

Overview

Join artist Benoît Piéron, the Great Ormond Street Hospital Arts team and Chisenhale Gallery for this one-off event exploring the opportunities and challenges of commissioning art in and for hospitals.

Taking place within Benoît Piéron's new Chisenhale commission, Slumber Party, this event will bring together artists and arts workers, people with lived experience of hospital care and disability, and the general public. Through relaxed conversation, we will explore the value of high-quality art in healthcare contexts, extending lines of enquiry around art, ethics, and illness present within Piéron’s practice and exhibition.

Biographies:

Benoît Piéron (born 1983, France) creates moments, installations, and objects. His work untangles the sensuality of plants, the borders of the body and the temporality of waiting rooms. From cosmogonic cabins and patchwork tents to hand-drawn wallpapers and metabolised gardens, Piéron's practice is an art of survival. Living with and through various illnesses, his work deals with the uncertainty of life, death and immunity. His practice draws on surrounding hospitals and medical environments for materials, reappropriating them to unlock other enchanting worlds free of binaries and boundaries. For his Chisenhale commission, Piéron has produced a new work that explores illness and hallucination as a space of potential and imaginary abundance.

GOSH Arts is the arts programme at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). Their live arts programme, art collection and temporary exhibitions inspire creativity, create welcoming environments, and offer meaningful and innovative cultural opportunities for communities both in and around the hospital.

Their work plays an essential role in enhancing the hospital experience. Engaging with visiting artists and having art developed in collaboration with their community integrated into the hospital buildings helps to create less clinical environments, contributes to reducing stress and anxiety and creates space for reflection and exchange.