Cecilia Bengolea (Buenos Aires, 1979), works in a range of media including performance, video and sculpture. Using dance as a tool and a medium for radical empathy and emotional exchange. Infused with the symbolic energies found within nature and relationships, her compositions are formed around ideas of the body - both individually and collectively - as a medium. Bengolea develops a broad artistry where she sees movement, dance and performance as animated sculpture where she herself is both object and subject in her own work.
Bengolea has collaborated with artists Dominique Gonzalez Forster and Jeremy Deller and with dancehall artists such as Craig Black Eagle, Bombom DHQ, Damion BG. Her collaborative work with choreographer François Chaignaud, has earned several awards such as the Award de la Critique de Paris in 2010 and the Young Artist Prize at the Gwangju Biennale in 2014. They have also co-created dance pieces for their dance company as well as for the Ballet de Lyon, the Ballet de Lorraine and Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal.
Bengolea’s work has been exhibited at venues such as La Bourse du Commerce Paris 2025, Noor Riyadh 2024, Museum Thyssen Bornemisza 2021 and 2024, The Vynil 2024 and 2019, E.A.T – Engadin Art Talks, Switzerland 2019 Contemporary Copenhague 2023, MUDAM, Luxembourg 2022, 2023, le Guggenheim Bilbao 2021, 2022, The Gwanjgu Biennial 2014 and 2020, Bourse de Commerce - Collection Pinault, Paris 2021, Art Basel Parcours, Basel 2021, La Casa Encendida, Madrid 2021, Tank Shanghai 2020, Centre Pompidou Spectacles Paris in 2010, 2016, 2019, SFER IK Tulum 2019, Fondation Giacometti, Paris 2019, Performa, NY 2019, Desert X 2019, TBA21 Ocean Space 2019, Dhaka Art Summit 2018, Palais de Tokyo, Paris 2015, 2018, ICA Londres 2015, Elevation 1049, Gstaad 2017, Dia Art Foundation Beacon 2017, Hayward Gallery, Londres 2016, Biennalede Sao Paulo 2016, Tate Modern, Londres 2015 and Biennale de Lyon 2014.
Her work can be found in major private and public collections, including TBA21 Academy, MIRE - Fond cantonal d’art contemporain, The Vinyl Factory, Le CNAP, Le Consortium, Fiorucci Art Trust, Tank Shanghai, Fundación Arco, Museo Reina Sofia, Kadist France, Mudam Luxembourg and the MONA - Museum of Old and New Art of Tasmania among others.
In 2023, she was a guest teacher for the Performance master’s program of the Architecture University of Venice, Italy.
She lives and works in Paris and Buenos Aires.
SOLO and TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHY
born in Buenos Aires in 1979
lives and works in Paris and Buenos Aires
SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2025 Borås Konstmuseum, Sweden
Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), Spain
GAMeC, Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery of Bergamo Italy
2024 Galeria Nora Fisch, Buenos Aires Argentina Gallerie Andrehn-Schiptjenko, Paris
2023 Radical souls, format23, Derby, UK
Sylphides, TEA - Tenerife Espacio de la Artes, Tenerife
2022 Danza de la materialidades mutantes, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao Deary Steel, Mudam, Luxembourg
Hakai Dub, Fond Leclerc, Landerneau, FR
Deary Steel, Armory Show New York, Andrehn-Schiptjenko Gallery
2021 Animations in water, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
Oneness Barroco, commission ArtBasel Messeplatz, Basel
Baiser Mortel, Bourse du Commerce, Collection Pinault, Paris
Es siempre verano en algun lugar del planeta, Angels Barcelona, Barcelona
2020 Dancehall Weather, Tryptique. Jean Nouvel train Station, Champel, Geneva Liquid Guru, Gallerie Andreh-Schiptjenko, Stockholm
2019 Alliga, Sfer ik, curated by Claudia Paetzold, Tulum
Oneness, Der Tank, Art Basel, Basel
La danza de la esponja, Arte Ba, Faena Festival, Buenos Aires
2018 La danza de la esponja, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami
2017 Sylphides and Dub Love, with Francois Chaignaud, Dia Art Fondation, Beacon, Upstate New York 2016 ANSYTAE, with Francois Chaignaud, Tokyo Spiral Hall, Tokyo
2015 Georges Condo’ s Masques, with François Chaignaud, Block Universe, London
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Corps et Âmes, curated by Emma Lavigne, Collection Pinault, La Bourse du Commerce, Paris Sylphides, avec François Chaignaud, Festival d’Automne au Grand Palais, Paris
Lightning Dance, Loop Video Fair, Korea
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Noor Festival, Riyadh, KSA
180 Studios, The Strand, London
The Infinite Woman Carmignac Foundation, Ile des Porquerolles Radicar, Poush, Paris
Olivier Varenne galerie, Geneve
Healing Performance Emiliano Valdes, Art Dubai
Mimosa or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church, Impustanz, Vienna Sous l’Azur, Art Explora
Bestiaire and Tryptique Video, Leeum Museum, Seoul, Korea
2023 Crysalides, Centre d’art contemporain de Genève Everyone is a complete disappointment, New Galerie, Paris Angels Barcelona, Arco
TBA21 Accademy, Cordoba, SP
Tono, Mexico City
Angels Barcelona, LOOP
2022 Be Water, CAC Cincinatti Museum, Cincinatti
There must be a way out there, Crone Gallery, Vienna
In the Realm of the Senses, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhaguen collection du CNAP au CAPC Bordeaux, FR
Angels Barcelona, A Matter of Time
2021 Triptych, 13Th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju Lux, 180 Studios, London
Drawings, Angels Barcelona, Barcelona
Andrehn-Schiptjenko, ArtBasel Basel, Basel
Shelly Belly inna Real life, Parcours ArtBasel, Basel
La chambre humaine by Dominique Gonzalez Forster, Chantal Croussel Gallery, Paris Grimlove, Universal Exposition 2020 Dubai, Art Explora, Dubai
Autres Habitants, Art Explora Dubai-Paris, Dubai and Paris
Sweat, Haus der Kunst Munich, Munich
Grimlove, Fiac Paris, Musée du Louvre, Art Explora, Paris
2020 More, more More, Tank Shanghai, Shanghai
Danse au fond de la mer, Angels Barcelona, Art Geneve, Geneva
Ceramics and drawings, Angels Barcelona, Arco Madrid, Madrid
Lightning Dance, Highline Art Program, New York
Film Program. LEFEST, Festival de Video, selection by Pascale Cassagnau, Loop Barcelona, Barcelona
2019 Mosquito Net, DesertX, Salton Sea
Dancehall Weather, Pompidou Center, Paris
Les Trois Grâces, Engadin Art Talks, Engadin
Serendipity, Galeria Francisco Fino, Lisboa
Lightning Dance, Loop Barcelona, Angels Barcelona, Barcelona
Before We Die, with Michele Lamy, Performa19, New York
Sylphides, with Francois Chaignaud, Giacometti Foundation, Paris
Favorite Positions, with Francois Chaignaud, Fiac, Louvre Museum, Paris Anti-clock wise spin, Frieze Live London, Angels Barcelona, London
2018 Carnival des animaux de la mer, TBA21, Chiessa San Lorenzo, Venice Volcano Extravaganza, Stromboli, Fiorucci Arts Trust Program, Stromboli
Volcano Extravaganza, Dhaka Summit, Dhaka
Repetition et Roy, Consortium Dijon, Almanch, Dijon
Party Animal - Do Disturb, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Repetition et Roy, Brussels Independent, Almine Rech, Brussels
2017 Auto Body II, Faena Art Centre, Buenos Aires Same Same Joy, Elevation, Gstaad
Art Night, ICA London, London
2016 The Infinite Mix, Hayward Gallery, London
Bombom’s Dream, Bienniale of São Paulo, Incerteza Viva, São Paulo
2015 Do Disturb, Palais de Tokyo, Paris Fig2, ICA, London
Auto Body, Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires
In dialogue with Charles Atlas, Tate Modern, London Rythm ass poetry, La vie Moderne, Lyon Bienniale, Lyon
2014 Sylphides, 10th Gwangju Bienniale, Gwangju, curated by Jessica Morgan (M)Mimosa, Centre Pompidou, Paris
SELECTED PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
Spinning and Choking with the Planet, Diana Campbell, 2021 ; We Move in Infinite Space, Chus Martínez, 2021 ; LIQUID ANIMATION MEANS, Manuel Cirauqui, 2021 ; Financial Times, september 2021, in conversation with Dalia Dawood, 2021; Interview with X Zhu-Nowel, Tank Shanghai, march 2021 ; Transitional States: From Body to Object, From Object to Body, Eleonora Milani in conversation with Cecilia Bengolea, June 2021, Flashart Magazine ; Dancehall elevation, by Kathy Noble, 2019 ; Liquid skies and other clinamen,Stéphanie Moisdon, 2019 ; Spiritual Pornographic, Neville Wakefield, 2019 ; La danza de la Esponja, Cecilia Bengolea, 2019 ; Interview of Jeremy Deller and Cecilia Bengolea, Ralph Rugoff, 2017
AWARDS
2014 Noun Award, 10th Gwangju Bienniale, Gwangju, for Sylphides, in collaboration with François Chaignaud
2009 Prix de la révélation chorégraphique de l’année du Syndicat de la critique for Pâquerette and Sylphides, in collaboration with François Chaignaud
RESIDENCIES
2023 IFF Art Explora, Paris
2020 Luma Art Foundation, Arles
2017 Dia Art Foundation, Dia:Beacon, Beacon 2009 Djerassi, Palo Alto
EDUCATION
2004 EXERCE - master ‘s degree, National Choregraphic Center of Montpellier, Montpellier 2001 University of Art History, Buenos Aires