He coded his own web browser, called Le Spectre , which would render websites only as source code, refusing to display images. He used brute-force algorithms to generate "corrupted" versions of classical paintings, which he then printed on thermal paper that would fade to black within weeks. His work anticipated glitch art by nearly half a decade. In 2002, the digital was supposed to be smooth, high-resolution, and invisible. Beaulieu insisted it was ugly, failing, and hungry.
A deeply unsettling portrait of a cracked doll’s head, discovered in a flea market in Montmartre. Beaulieu lights the subject not with the softness of nostalgia, but with the harsh, forensic clarity of a crime scene investigator. The cracks in the porcelain resemble fractures in human bone, forcing the viewer to confront the "uncanny valley" that genre cinema often exploits. etranges exhibitions 2002 benjamin beaulieu
: There were several avant-garde art exhibitions in France in 2002 (notably at the Palais de Tokyo, which reopened that year) that focused on "strange" or "relational" aesthetics. He coded his own web browser, called Le
In 2002, the internet was still a relatively unregulated frontier of Flash animations, GeoCities ruins, and early Photoshop culture. It was in this interstitial moment—between analog surrealism and digital native aesthetics—that French-Canadian artist presented Étranges Exhibitions (Strange Exhibitions). The piece functioned simultaneously as a virtual gallery, a CD-ROM installation, and a net-art project. In 2002, the digital was supposed to be
En 2002, Benjamin Beaulieu présente une série d’expositions qui bouleversent le paysage de l’art contemporain francophone. Alliant une esthétique de l’étrangeté à une réflexion sur la mémoire, l’objet et l’espace, ses travaux interrogent la perception du spectateur et redéfinissent la relation entre œuvre et lieu d’exposition.
, a successful businesswoman who becomes suspicious of her secretary,