Béatrice de Fays – B2Fays

She chose a popular narrative style (comics, graphic design, etc.), and the dematerialised images of the first graphic palettes.

Her first comic strip was published by Philippe Manœuvre of Humanoïdes associés. Her work subsequently appeared in magazines (including Métal Hurlant), fanzines and on television. In 1985 she took part in the first exhibition showing images made with graphic palettes, ‘Palettes Pauvres – Images Riches’, at the Centre George Pompidou / Paris France. In 1987, she was selected for the SIGGRAPH Art Show / California USA.

His transition from comics to painting followed an appearance in the comic strip magazine Zoulou in 1986. Close to the Figuration Libre movement, her narrative, colourful and frontal works question human relationships, the beauty of beings and the horror that sometimes lurks beneath appearances, festivities and solitude, the poetic and wild world of urban universes.

Committed to authentic art, close to life and people, she favours underground venues. B2Fays exhibited in the legendary Parisian club Les Bains Douches, decorated the nightclub Le Boy, and designed posters and armchairs for the Max Linder Panorama cinema ….

In 1994, the artist radically changed her style and technique, wishing to engage in more inner research. She abandoned frontal, narrative graphics, instead inscribing layer by layer a succession of images in the depth of the canvas, and on large polyptychs.

At the same time, all his paintings were destroyed in a fire! This shock made her aware of the fragility of matter, and of the perennial nature of the artistic experience, which transforms the body and mind in an immutable way. She decided to use computers again to involve visitors in the creative process and share the experience.

In 1996, during residencies at the CICV Pierre Schaeffer (Centre International de Création Vidéo), she created multimedia installations. In 1999, following a research residency at the CNBDI (Centre National de la BD et de l’Image) with her musician partner Lotfi Zitouni, she designed the Xposelive installation. From 1999 to 2006, this installation was presented in various venues. In 2006, the artist was awarded the ‘Villa Médicis Hors les Murs’ prize in India.

During her residency at the Espace Mendès France, she began a collaboration with multimedia artist Mathieu Constans, with whom she created the interactive Digital Palimpsest. This installation, based on the concept, scenography and experience of Xposelive, will be presented at the Centre d’Art RURART / Rouillé France, then during a tour of India: IIT Bombay (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Kalahita Art Foundation / Hyderabad – Shrishti Art School / Bangalore.

From then on, Béatrice de Fays worked between Asia and Europe, creating paintings, interactive multimedia installations, projections on accumulation, and augmented reality spaces.

In 2008, she designed a network of two interactive installations between La Géode (La Cité des Sciences – Paris) and the Nehru Science Centre (Mumbai – India), where visitors meet, interact and create together, in real time, 7,000 km away.

She then exhibited in Brussels, Belgium (Hôtel de Ville Saint Gilles, Galerie Arielle d’Hauterives, European Commission), Manila, Philippines, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Pondicherry and Mumbai, India (Goethe Zentrum, Kalakriti Art Gallery, World Design Assembly, India Habitat Centre, etc.) and Hong Kong (PMQ Central).

These paintings are part of several international and Indian collections: Park Hyatt Hyderabad, Novotel Vijayawada Varun, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport Hyderabad and private collections.