Julien Fournet
For more than fifteen years, Julien Fournet has been developing hybrid artistic projects that combine performing arts, playful concepts, interactive installations, and performative readings. In his work, he explores the relationships between art, play, and collaboration by devising new forms in which the audience often plays an active role rather than merely watching. The productions he has collaborated on have been presented in numerous theaters, at festivals, and in art institutions across Europe and beyond, notably in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Poland, Brazil, and Japan. After studying philosophy and gaining diverse artistic experience — including balls, city walks, cabarets, and open-air performances — he created the show Cheval in 2007 together with Antoine Defoort, which was performed at the Avignon Festival, among other venues.
This experience marked the beginning of a journey dedicated to the performing arts and experimentation with artistic forms at the intersection of performance, play, and collective research. His work today develops along two complementary tracks:
The first approach is collective, epic, and experiential: it takes the form of site-specific installations in which the audience is invited to play, discover, or participate in artistic adventures — treasure hunts, mazes, carnivals, or a performance package (France Distraction, 2012 – La Chasse, 2015 – On traversera le pont…, 2017 — L’Enfance majeure, onderzoek 2022 – 2025)
The second approach is more solitary and reflective: through staged readings or unique art objects, she explores philosophical questions related to joy, contexts, or political imaginaries (Le Jeu de l’oie du spectacle vivant, 2013; Les Thermes, 2015; Amis il faut faire une pause, 2016 – 2020; La force politique de l’enfance, 2025).
These two approaches — collective and speculative — together form a single artistic inquiry: creating situations that can unfold reality in a different way, through experience, play, and shared thinking.
Julien Fournet is also a co-founder of L’Amicale, a cooperative for the production of artistic projects established in 2010. Over the years, this organization has developed various tools and methods inspired by collective intelligence, with the aim of renewing forms of collaboration in the art world and experimenting with more horizontal and collaborative creative forms.
In addition to his own creations, he also develops projects for hybrid artistic events, often focused on hospitality and collective dynamics, notably within the framework of the Effervescences festival in Clermont-Ferrand (2017 – 2019) or through formats such as Les Rendez-vous Secrets or Le Grand Marché, which were established in collaboration with various cultural institutions in France and Belgium.