JOSEPH BEY
APOLLONIA VENUE, STRASBOURG
25 OCTOBER – 7 DECEMBER 2025
Tuesday-Sunday 2-6 p.m.
In this exhibition, Joseph Bey transforms the space with new installations, paintings, videos, and objects, conceived as fragments of a shared memory.
The canvases reveal faded silhouettes, half-vanished figures whose lingering presence continues to question us. Bodies lie embedded in dark matter; others stand, fragile yet persistent. These images are ghosts – but ghosts that refuse to be silent.
Upon entering, the visitor is greeted by a forest of suspended garments. They bear the traces of singular lives and, together, form a silent community hovering above our steps. In response to this density stands the installation of a charred boat, surrounded by a multitude of small black boats. Fragile and aligned, they evoke departures, exiles, migrations. They speak of waiting, of loss, and of the stubborn persistence of hope.
The exhibition also finds its origin in a journey undertaken by the artist across the Japanese island of Shikoku, renowned for its pilgrimage linking hundreds of temples and monasteries. This inner passage deeply nourishes his work, imbuing it with a sense of quest, silence, and endurance. It flows through the paintings and installations presented here, which unfold like stations along a spiritual and memorial path.
Paintings, objects, videos, installations – together they compose a landscape where absence becomes presence, where forgotten memories regain their voice. The Murmur of Souls invites us to enter this fragile space, to walk among the shadows, and to recognize, in every trace, a fragment of our shared humanity.
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Video editing & post-production: Luc Maechel
Photos from Shikoku: Norman White
Digital processing: Rémi de Carmantrand