Join us for NY book release of Montez Press’s new publication It Needed to be Tender and to be Whipped, a collection of the essential writings by artist Julie Béna from 2012 to present. The event will include a performative reading by Béna. Join the event on Facebook here

Béna’s practice mostly enfolds in performance and sculpture. However, this collection of poems, essays, film and theater scripts wind around her visual art work. The reader navigates through these various forms, and finds them situated against the different places where Béna wrote them, bearing witness to the inspiration that each locale offers Béna’s multi-layered experience. The scope of expression found in Béna’s use of language demonstrates how relationships form between an artist’s writing and their other practices.

In It Needed to be Tender and to be Whipped", one is exposed to Béna’s view on every-day situations, a view filled with wonder and thus perceptive of the mystery in small things. Narrations escape into the irrational and surreal. A love affair is just as wonderful as a stranger eating an apple.

Texts are intended to be performed or read aloud, and the publication is accompanied by an audio recording of the works on a USB key.

Julie Béna Julie Béna works on environments that draw inspiration from the world of literature, film,theater and popular culture. Béna studied at the Villa Arson in Nice and attended the Gerrit Rietveld Academie at Amsterdam. In 2012-2013, she was part of le Pavillon, the research laboratory of le Palais de Tokyo. Béna exhibits internationally and her performance projects are perceived by a large audience. Recent projects include: L’Eternelle Insatisfaite (solo show: Syntax, Lisabon/2016), Nail Tang (solo show: Gallery Joseph Tang, Paris/2015), JUMP (Cac Brétigny, Brétigny/ 2016), PREDICTION (Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo/2016), Nouvelles Vagues (Palais de Tokyo, Paris/2013). Julie Béna realized Performance projects at Kadist Foundation, San Francisco (2015), Fahrenheit, Los Angeles (2014); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014), PERFORMA 13, New-York (2013)