Damien Bénéteau France, b. 1971

Damien Bénéteau's sculptural language operates within a terrain shaped by kinetic equilibrium, light manipulation, and spatial choreography. Born in 1971 in L'Haÿ-les-Roses, France, Bénéteau originally trained in photography, graduating with a BTS in 1993. His early work in the press sector-first at MPA agency and later through the co-founding of the photography collective "Les Cyclopes" in 1998-laid the groundwork for a visual practice grounded in the dynamics of framing, temporality, and precision.

Since 2010, Bénéteau has developed a body of work that translates these concerns into a sculptural register. Working primarily with anodised aluminium, custom-built LED systems, and internal mechanical components, he fabricates kinetic wall reliefs and floor-standing sculptures that explore the perceptual tension between stillness and motion. These works often feature central rotating elements-circular forms, reflective half-spheres, or luminous pistons-set into choreographed motion through magnetic or pendular systems. The movement is never ornamental; rather, it acts as an optical vector that stages a visual event, modulating the way form and light unfold across the viewer's field of vision.

His practice resonates with a broader lineage of kinetic and optical art-most notably the structural poetics of Alexander Calder, the sensorial architecture of James Turrell, and the spatial logic of Constructivist abstraction. Yet, Bénéteau's approach is distinctly his own: he neither gestures toward narrative nor spectacle. Instead, his works function as perceptual instruments-silent, slow, and exacting-where the presence of the viewer completes the system.

Over the past decade, Bénéteau has exhibited widely across international contexts. He has held solo exhibitions at ToolsGalerie (Paris), SCOPE (Paris), Galerie Mathias Coullaud (Paris), and MAD Gallery (Geneva, Dubai, Taipei). Institutional highlights include a solo show at the Fondation Vasarely in Aix-en-Provence (2022), as well as participation in group exhibitions at Tank Shanghai, SaMoca Riyadh, and the Espace Topographie in Paris. Recent exhibitions at Buysse Gallery (Knokke, Belgium), including Shift: Abstract Transformations (2024) and Abstract Transformations II (2025), have further anchored his work within a contemporary discourse of light, abstraction, and spatial materialism.

Bénéteau's works are held in private and public collections across Europe and Asia. A permanent installation, Cosmogonie (2017), is sited at Lycée Léon Blum in Créteil. He currently lives and works in France.