Hélène Baril was born in the French Alps, but grew up by the sea, the same part of Brittany frequented by the great filmmaker/biologist Jean Painlevé, who among other things, practiced filming under the sea. After getting an MA in literature, Hélène quit her job teaching French to study art. Moving to Finland, she began a career painting houses, purposely confusing the work of fine arts and decoration. Recently, she’s been developing a “tale” involving racecars. In 2011, she created Orlandus Gallery, inspired by a fictional Finnish painter and racing car driver from the early 1800s. The artist also served as inspiration for SBK, an experimental collaborative Hélène founded in 2012, which uses a car for meetings, projects, and as a working tool. Constructing its name and logo after Shell Oil, SBK is “an allegorical and poetic initiative,” whose sphere of operation touches literature, geography, economy, environmentalism, and popular psychology. In 2013 she started a collaboration with anthropologist Michael Taussig in what they call their Sea Theater. Hélène’s work is a fairy tale aimed at confusing real and fictional worlds, or simply encountering the one into the other.
2.8.13
27.7.13
ALL OK, Thank you Äkkigalleria
Äkkigalleria 20 – SBK My Racing Car is a Shell
August 1st - 4th, 2013
Väinönkatu 36, Jyväskylä
Äkkigalleria’s
twentieth exhibition presents SBK, a group exhibition including work by six
international artists.
SBK is an experimental, roaming, artistic platform
developed by artist Hélène Baril during an artist residency at the Arteles
Creative Centre, Finland, in 2011. Since then SBK has driven through a dozen
different countries, achieved numerous feats and collaborated with local
artists in several main arts centres around Europe. Having made a full circle,
SBK is back in Finland for the final sprint.
SBK is a car, a person and a
world where poetry and common sayings come to life mixing with fantasy and
adventure. It confuses fiction with reality, rally-cars with art and brings
unlikely pairs together. Hélène Baril draws from a diverse array of artistic
practices and forms of expression to embody the SBK entity. In this last sprint
of 2013 at Äkkigalleria 20, SKB includes the work by 6 artists collected during
an intense 6-month tour around Europe. The artists presented in this show are Hélène
Baril, Laura Donkers, Alberto Martinez Centerera, Robert Prior Pitt, Matthew
Scott Gualco and Lore Smolders
This exhibition is organized in
parallel to the infamous Neste Oil Rally Finland which occurs each year in the
city of Jyväskylä. This car rally is one of the most prestigious car races of
the world carrying with it thousands of rally fans who change the pace and
atmosphere of this small city. The coincidence of SKB and the rally happening
simultaneously in Jyväskylä brings two separate, isolated worlds so close they might
touch. What will happen if they collide? Can two radically separate cultural
events coexist in the same space?
Äkkigalleria invites you to discover SBK at
the opening of Äkkigalleria 20, at Väinönkatu 36 on July 31st from 4-6pm. The
event is free of charge, everyone is welcome.
22.7.13
11.6.13
Tu verras en haut on a une super vue
18.5.13
Performance in Parque de la Constitución, Azuqueca de Henares
9.5.13
28.3.13
25.3.13
My racing car is a shell
Coming soon:
My racing car is a shell, 3 parts special road trip.
PART 1/ SBK drives to Scotland (april 2013)
PART 2/ SBK drives to Spain (may 2013)
PART 3/ SBK drives to Finland (july 2013)