Julie Batteux’s painting is dedicated to the female body. She approaches it in the context of its representation in selfies and digital media. One of the artist’s aims is to visualize the sociological effects of the use of social networks on our own body image. This is because social networks, in which influencers, among others, define the beauty standards of the flawless, fit and resilient body, create social pressure and implicitly demand that we conform to these images. This quickly leads to feelings of inadequacy and disturbances in body image.

The Aachen-born artist comments on and counteracts these unrealistic ideal images on the internet and in advertising with paintings in which she shows her own body in grotesque perspectives, in distorting reflections or in close-ups. Her canvases themselves take the form of smartphones or camera lenses, becoming large-format settings in space and thus symbolically showing the overarching presence of the subject.

In connection with her artistic exploration of the female body and its classifications and attributions, the painter, who trained in Nuremberg and Vienna, repeatedly encounters other, related subject areas. For example, the taboo of depicting female pleasure or the unjust evaluation and disciplining of the body through physical education are motifs that can be found in her works.

The title of the exhibition Safer Space refers to physical or digital spaces in which people should feel safe regardless of their origin, orientation or appearance and in which they can exchange ideas and empower each other. Unlike the term Safe Space, the word Safer Space makes it clear that there are no completely safe spaces. Insecurities, self-doubt or comparison with other people cannot be handed in at the door like a coat, but accompany you, sometimes more explicitly, sometimes more implicitly.

At the Kunstmuseum Heidenheim, Julie Batteux will embed her paintings in a spatial installation developed especially for the venue and create a space that is intended to encourage critical reflection on our current treatment of bodies and their nature.

About the artist

Julie Batteux (*1996 in Aachen) studied Fine Art Painting and Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg between 2014 and 2022. She completed an Erasmus year in Vienna at the University of Applied Arts and became a master student of Prof. Susanne Kühn in 2022.

She has received several awards, including the Graduate Prize of the FREUNDE der Akademie e.V., the Leonhard and Ida Wolf Memorial Prize, the Förderpreis des Bezirks Mittelfranken, the Bayerischer Kunstförderpreis and the Residence NRW+ residency scholarship in Münster.