Yesterday (when there were no jokes left to tell)

JESTER IN GENK PRESENTS A DUO EXHIBITION WITH JULIE BÉNA AND KAMIL BOUZOUBAA-GRIVEL The duo exhibition plays tribute to the figure of the Jester by following the structure of a tarot reading Jester presents Yesterday (when there were no jokes left to tell), the first institutional exhibition presenting the artistic practices of Julie Béna (°1982, FR) and Kamil Bouzoubaa-Grivel (°1992, FR/MA) in Belgium. Jester is a new organisation that was founded through the merger of FLACC and CIAP, two Limburg-based organisations that have grown into vital players in the (inter)national arts field since the 1970s. In 2023, Jester landed in three new pavilions on the C-mine site in Genk, where Jester is hosting residencies, providing studios and workspaces and organising exhibitions, screenings and performances. Due to the unique history of this mining site and its neighbouring, multicultural cités, social, economic, demographic and ecological issues are deeply rooted in Jester's operation. The exhibition Yesterday (when there were no jokes left to tell), curated by the new artistic director Koi Persyn, results from a dialogue between artists Julie Béna and Kamil Bouzoubaa-Grivel, and includes both new and existing artworks, of which Kamil Bouzoubaa-Grivel’s new body of work was developed during his residency in Jester. The exhibition follows the structure of a tarot reading and mirrors the cards that were pulled for this project: The Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged Man and Death. These three cards are embodied by the spaces, the artworks and its premises while connecting the past, present and future as a vehicle to discuss and understand unresolved questions, both individual and collective. Yesterday (when there were no jokes left to tell) offers the stage of the exhibition space to the figure of the jester, who plays an important role in the artistic research of both artists, while transforming the space itself into a jester. Departing from the name of the organization, the attitude of this historical phenomenon is now embodied by (the format of) the exhibition, but also by the vernacular space itself, inhabiting the walls and extending to the architecture of the building. The jesters make their appearance and promptly enter the stage to manifest their attitude by attributing their revolutionary skills to the arts organization. Yesterday (when there were no jokes left to tell) thus introduces itself as an alter ego, a shapeshifter, a trickster and (above all) a jester, who welcomes you to discover the visual multiverses of Julie Béna and Kamil Bouzoubaa-Grivel. Who is this jester of yesterday? Visual culture is currently being disrupted heavily by AI and censorship. Kamil Bouzoubaa-Grivel and Julie Béna weapon themselves with the graphical tropes of digital mass media as a survival mechanism for the rise of deep-fake imagery. Their artworks blur and balance on the thin border between digital and analogue, metaphor and statement, versatility and immobility, high and low culture, dream and reality, to carve out a space of opportunity for the jester to escape the fatigue, colondrum and hopelessness of today’s existence. Bouzoubaa-Grivel’s and Béna’s drawings, texts, sculptures and videos encourage the jester (and you) to leave the nightmare of yesterday behind, and to look forward to the dream of tomorrow.