DAVID DE BEYTER
Born in Roubaix (France) in 1985.
Lives and works in Paris (France).
David De Beyter is an artist photographer. His approach to photography is both conceptual and documentary with anthropological concerns. His artistic work is mainly based on the concept of landscape practice(s). He is inspired by anthropological approaches to approach these subjects and generate plastic gestures. These artistic projects, whether photographic, video or sculptural, develop a reflection around the question of community or groups at the margin, refining his reflection and his plastic proposals around the notion of obsolescence. They are presented in an exhibition in the form of an immersive space.
THE SKEPTICS
The Skeptics is an artistic research project that draws its inspiration from an amateur practice derived from ufology: scientific ufology. This marginal community of thinkers brings together around a hundred amateurs around the scientist Juan Vicente Ballestros in Spain and Erling P. Strand in Norway. But since the 1970s, it has been in the United States that it has been most prolific, centred around the famous sceptic Philip J. Klass.
There are three main strands to her artistic research. The first is conceived as a photographic survey of the volcanic landscapes of Spain and the United States, known in the scientific jargon of ufology as 'magical places'. The second R.O.T.G focuses on the iconographic backgrounds of this amateur science of emergence, scientific ufology. Flash Blindness, the final section, is an experimental investigation into the very materiality of photography and its speculative dimension. This part of the research will engage a reflection and a double discourse around the image, that of the limit of photography and that of the limit of the representation of the elsewhere.
The Skeptics is a series that can be seen as a reflection on the obsolescence of a belief, on the collapse of a myth. By focusing on this community of sceptical ufologists, the project will seek to reveal the forgotten contemporary practices that have “sculpted” the imaginary of geological chaos. Jean Rouch once said that "the role of anthropology is to put disturbing objects into circulation". By focusing on these successive waves of apparitions in the 80s and 90s, the project offers us a reflection on the loss of utopias and the question of progress, and questions in depth the mythology that scientific ufologists are trying to deconstruct: the governance of our reality by the goddesses of technology.
BIG BANGERS
Big Bangers is a long-term project combining film, photography and sculpture. It is based on an amateur practice derived from auto-cross, the Big Bangers, a popular practice of destroying cars found in northern France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. The beauty of the gesture and the philosophy of the community lies in the fact of destroying ordinary cars by violent impacts that compress engines and bodies. An aesthetic of destruction where, in amateur jargon, the wreckage that results from the impact is called a "self-sculpture".
The Big Bangers project focuses on three research areas.The first, the transfiguration of the landscape through the amateur practice of destruction, is a notion intrinsically linked to the project. The second, the inertia of chaos, attempts to explore the limits of the sculptural gesture. Inspired by the performative acts carried out by enthusiasts on the periphery of the practice, this research reflects on the ambiguity of the status of a destructive gesture, imbued with profound violence and yet totally devoid of any political, social or moral claim. The third theme is that of the archive/document, and plays on the ambiguity of image registers. Although they call them "self-sculptures", fans of Big Bangers generally keep only the images. Archives, fanzines, videos and amateur photos are the starting point for this third research project, both as subject and medium, with the idea of making archives.
“The Big Bangers project seeks to reveal, in the representation of a practice of destruction, a reflection on obsolescence and dematerialisation. Through its anthropological approach, it confronts us with a kind of brutal and chaotic culture, in which the ruined car becomes a trophy. By deliberately extracting from this practice a whole series of forms akin to sculpture, he challenges the notion of progress and plunges us into what seems to be an echo of a society that produces its own ruins.The whole project suggests the disarticulation of a world that is recomposed in fragments in the exhibition space. I see the exhibition space as an immersive space.
As a musician, I'm also influenced by the live concert experience of the post-hardcore scene in which I play. These communities share certain similarities on several levels. So what I'm trying to capture in the immersive, perhaps aggressive, space is the result of the experience of destruction as observed backstage at the car races. The exhibition space offers a fragmented reading, like a hypothesis that brings together photographs, films, archives and sculptures in the same space”.
Group show
42 rue de Montmorency 75003 PARIS
June 18 - 21, 2026
PARIS PHOTO 2025
Main Sector - BOOTH C43
David De Beyter, Thomas Devaux & Marc-Antoine Garnier
Paris, France
David De Beyter
London, United Kingdom
May 15 - 18, 2025
Booth G06
FRANCE
Group show
12 sept. - 2 nov. 2024
David De Beyter, Thomas Devaux, Bérangère Fromont & Jonathan Sullam
Paris, France
Paris, France
FRANCE
David De Beyter
FRANCE
David De Beyter, Julie C. Fortier, Pascal Jounier Trémelo
Paris, France
Shanghai, China
NETHERLANDS
Group show
ART ROTTERDAM 2023
Rotterdam, Netherlands
FRANCE
David De Beyter
FRANCE
Group show
FRANCE
Group show
D'OÙ RAYONNE LA NUIT
NETHERLANDS
David De Beyter x Raphael Denis
FRANCE
David De Beyter
CV
Born in Roubaix (France) in 1985. Lives and works in Paris (France).
EXPOSITIONS PERSONNELLES / SOLO SHOWS
2027
Last Rites, Galerie Bacqueville, Lille, France
2026
Sky's the limit, Galerie Bacqueville Hors-les-murs, Brussels, Belgium
Belief Defect, Contretype/Mois de la photographie Bruxellois, Brussels, Belgium
The Skeptics, RVB Books, Paris, France
2025
Photo London, Galerie Bacqueville, London, United Kingdom
2024
Paris Photo - secteur Prismes, Galerie Bacqueville, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2023
Layers of Belief, Galerie Bacqueville, Lille, France
The Skeptics, Institut pour la Photographie, Lille, France
Les Analogues, Maison du Patrimoine, Comines, France
2022
Mass, Galerie Bacqueville, Lille, France
Build and Destroy, RVB Books, Paris, France
2021
Around Video Art Fair, Galerie Bacqueville, Lille, France
Unbound Exhibition / Unseen, Galerie Bacqueville, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Unseen, Galerie Bacqueville, Westergas Klonneplein, Amsterdam, Netherlands
D'où rayonne la nuit, Galerie Bacqueville - Pays-Bas, Vlissingen, Netherlands
2020
The Skeptics, Galerie Bacqueville, Lille, France
2019
Unseen, Galerie Bacqueville, Westergas Klonneplein, Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Skeptics - New Discovery Award - Les Rencontres photographiques, Arles, France
David De Beyter & Paco Rabanne, Galerie Lafayette, Paris, France
Big Bangers, La Halle aux sucres, Dunkerque, France
Photo London, Galerie Bacqueville, London, United Kingdom
2018
Damage Inc., Salon a ppr oc he, Galerie Bacqueville, Paris, France
Damage Inc., RVB Books, Paris, France
2017
Fleeing The Field, Galerie Bacqueville, Lille, France
2016
Build and Destroy, Centre Photographique d'Île-de-France, Pontault-Combault, France
Nothing Else Matters, Still Gallery, Anvers, Belgium
Concrete Mirrors, Atelier des FuCam, Mons, Belgium
Nothing Else Matters, Centre d'art Imatge/Image, Orthez, France
Concrete Mirrors, Forum des halles, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
2015
Just a Good Crash, Centre d'art le BBB, Toulouse, France
2014
Archéologies du futur, Le Fresnoy - Studio national, Tourcoing, France
EXPOSITIONS COLLECTIVES / GROUP SHOWS
2027
Le Temps de l’invention, exposition des lauréat.e.s la Bourse du Collège international de Photographie 2026-27, Paris, France
2026
Paris Photo, Galerie Bacqueville, Grand Palais, Paris
Nous ne sommes pas seuls. Images extraterrestres, cur. : Philippe Baudouin, Croisière, Les Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France
Il faut le croire pour le voir, cur. : Julien Frydman, Les Collatéraux, Les Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France
Subsidence, cur.: David De Beyter, Galerie Bacqueville Hors-les-murs, Paris, France
2025
Paris Photo, Galerie Bacqueville, Grand Palais, Paris
Dreams are made on, The Goat Farm Arts Center, Atlanta, USA
2024
Paris Photo, Galerie Bacqueville, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Private Choice, Étincelle du regard, Paris
Private Choice, Rayonnement/Radiance, Paris
PhotoFairs Shanghai, Galerie Bacqueville, Shanghai, Chine
Art Paris Art Fair, Galerie Bacqueville, Grand Palais éphémère, Paris, France
Exemplar X, Biennale Dusseldorf Photo, Dusseldorf, Allemagne
Car Crash, Centre culturel de Liévin, Liévin, France
No Body, Arthotéque de Pessac, Bordeaux, France
2023
Paris Photo, Galerie Bacqueville, Grand Palais éphémère, Paris, France
Art Paris, Galerie Bacqueville, Grand Palais éphémère, Paris, France
Art Rotterdam, Galerie Bacqueville, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2022
Festival L’été photographique, Lectoure, France
Corps célestes, Biennale de la photographie, Mulhouse, France
Art Rotterdam, Netherlands
Dystopia, Galerie Bacqueville, Lille, France
2021
Art Paris, Galerie Bacqueville, Paris, France
2020
Mouvements, Galerie Bacqueville, Lille, France
Un autre monde /// Dans notre monde - Frac Grand Large - Hauts-de-France, Dunkerque, France
2019
Auf Kollision, Kunstverein Ingolstadt, Germany
Unseen, Westergas Klonneplein, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Red Eye, Hangar Art Center, Bruxelles, Belgium
Remodel the World, Pearl Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2018
The Wind of Time, Festival Lianzhoufoto, China
The Present Moment. Body in a Context, Berthold Art Center, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Festival Viva Villa, Marseille, France
Foam Talent, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Francfort, Germany
The Hobbyist, Les Rencontres de la photographie, Arles, France
Stratégies de ré-enchantement, Institut Français, Madrid, Spain
Festival de Serralongue, France
Collaborate Photoworks - Free Range, Londres, United Kingdom
Foam Talent - Beaconsfield, London, United Kingdom
Hors Piste - La Vallée, Bruxelles, Belgium
Foam Talent - Red Hook Labs, New York, USA
Biennale de l'image possible, Musée de La Boverie, Liège, Belgium
The Hobbyist, Fotomuseum de Winterthur, Switzerland
2017
25 ans D.C.A - L'Art au centre, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
YIA Art Fair, Galerie Bacqueville, Paris, France
Biennale des arts de Valence, Galerie Del Tossal, Valencia, Spain
Foam Talent, Fotomuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Estampa Art Fair, Madrid, Spain
Busan International photography Festival, Busan Culture Center, Korea
Prix Voies Off - Les Rencontres d’Arles, France
Construire / Déconstruire, Roubaix, France
Nouvelles acquisitions, Artothèque Les Arts au mûr, Pessac, France
2016
Dog Day Cabinet II, Le Clignoteur, Bruxelles, Belgium
La Samaritaine, Paris, France
L'Espace des possibles, Arthothèque de Pessac, France
The Gods Must Be Crazy, Part III, Anvers, Belgium
2015
The Gods Must Be Crazy, Part II, Center De Directeurwoning, Roeselare, Belgium
Nouveaux Mondes, Festival d'art de Dieppe, New Haven, United Kingdom
Distant Fictions, Centre d'art Jerwood Gallery, Brighton, United Kingdom
Entre-Temps, Espace le carré, Lille, France
Paysage, corps, contemplation, Lux / Scène nationale, Valence, France
A Specter From the Land of If #3, Galerie Stilll, Anvers, Belgium
2014
Au-delà de l'image, Galerie Estraro/Escougnou, Paris, France
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Landskrona Museum, Sweden
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Museum of Fine Arts, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Exposition Air, Arras, France
2013
Manifesto, Festival de photographie, Toulouse, France
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, USA
Géomorphismes - Restitution projet de résidence, Auch, France
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Rosphoto, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Devos Art Museum, Marquette, Michigan, USA
2012
Stratégies des espaces - Séquence 2, Centre d’art le BBB, Toulouse, France
Burning Up !, La Cambre Photographie, Art Brussels Off, Bruxelles, Belgium
Festival Circulation(s) - Carte Blanche de Christine Ollier
Images du temps qui est le nôtre, Galerie Christian Boltanski, Blanc-Mesnil, Paris, France
2011
Made in Choi, Atelier Choi, Paris, France
All Hell Broke Loose, Festival Art et la ville, Tournai, Belgium
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary
Nord : Regards croisés, Lille, France
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Caochangdi PhotoSpring Festival, Pékin, China
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Galerie Azzedine Alaïa, Paris, France
Carte blanche au Fresnoy, Fondation Sofilm, Sofia, Budapest
Infinite Nature, Fotomuseum, Vienne, Austria
Borders / No Borders, Centre culturel les chiroux, Liège, Belgium
Facing Forward, Forward Thinking Museum
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Preus Museum, Horten, Norway
Ososphère, Festival d’arts numériques Strasbourg, France
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Aperture Foundation, New-York, USA
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italy
Pla(t)form, Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Switzerland
Passages, Festival accè)s( Anciens Abattoirs, Pau, France
2010
Borders / No Borders, European Month of Photography, Kommunale Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Centre Gallery, Miami Dade College, USA
Regeneration 2 – Tour, International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Les Rencontres de la photographie, Arles, France
Regeneration 2 – Tour, Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
Festoval F/Stop, Leipzig, Germany
Panorama 12 - Le Fresnoy - Studio national, Tourcoing, France
Fantasmagories, Château de Capdeville, Toulouse, France
Coups de coeurs, Triennale de La Cambre, Bruxelles, Belgium
PRIX & BOURSES / AWARDS & GRANTS
2026
Bourse de recherche, Collège International de Photographie
Bourse du CNAP - Photographie documentaire
2025
Finaliste C/O Berlin Talent Award
Lauréat Fonds Émergence Pictanovo - Hauts-de-France
2024
Lauréat Ph Museum Prize- Bologne / Italie
2023
Finaliste du Prix MAIF pour la sculpture
Bourse de la région Nord Pas-de-Calais
2020
Bourse de recherche Institut pour la Photographie, Lille
2019
Finaliste, New Discovery Award, Les Rencontres d’Arles, France
Nominé, C/O Berlin Talent Award, Berlin, Germany
Bourse de la région Nord Pas-de-Calais, France
2018
Lauréat, Foam Talent, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2017
Finaliste, Prix Voies Off, Les Rencontres d'Arles, France
2016
Présélectionné, Prix Levallois, Paris, France
Présélectionné, Prix Jeune Création Le Bal / ADAGP, Paris, France
2014
Bourse de la région Nord Pas-de-Calais, France
Bourse de la FNAGP, Paris, France
2012
Aide à la création, DRAC Nord Pas-de-Calais, France
2011
PLat(t)form - Fotomuseum de Winterthur, Switzerland
Aide à l'installation, DRAC Nord Pas-de-Calais, France
Lauréat, Prix Facing Forward, Forward Thinking Museum
2007
Lauréat, Prix Emerging Talents - View Magazine
RÉSIDENCES / RESIDENCIES
2025
Eden Summer Institut, North Carolina, USA
2020
Institut pour la Photographie, Lille, France
2018
Casa de Velázquez, Madrid, Spain
2015
Frac Franche-Comté
2014
Diep Haven
2013
Saint-Martin du Gers
2011
Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France
CONFÉRENCES / TALKINGS
2026
Observatoire de Meudon - Séminaires de restitution art-science à l’observatoire de Meudon.
Frac Occitanie Toulouse - Journée d’étude sur les méthodes d’enquête en art..
2025
Louis Lumière - Presentation of The Skpetics project.
2024
Paris Photo, avec Michel Poivert - Experimental photography: works like any others?
Jeu de Paume - Conférence croisée avec Théodora Barat - Jeu de Paume Paris
2021
Institut pour la photographie - Dialogue avec le sociologue des sciences Pierre Lagrange autour du projet The Skeptics.
Frac Grand Large - Paysages analogues / Dialogue avec le sociologue des sciences Pierre Lagrange autour du projet The Skeptics.
2019
Unseen Amsterdam - Présentation du projet The Skpetics.
Frac Sud - Dialogue avec Emilie Flory - Big Bangers / Les Gladiateurs des Flandres.
2018
Festival Viva Villa - Présentation du livre Damaged Inc et du projet Big Bangers.
Le Bal - Présentation du livre Damaged Inc et du projet Big Bangers.
Les Rencontres d’Arles - Présentation du livre Damaged Inc du projet Big Bangers.
Frac Franche-Comté - Journée d'études sur la photgraphie comme territoire d'expérimentation.
2016
La Cambre - Conférence ‘the Gladiators of Flanders’.
COLLECTIONS
Neuflize OBC
CNAP - Collections nationales du Centre national des Arts Plastiques, Paris, France
Foam Photography Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Fotomuseum Winthertur, Switzerland
Photo Élysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
Casa de Velázquez, Académie des Arts de France, Madrid, Spain
Arthothèque de Pau, France
Arthothèque de Pessac, France
Arthothèque de Bordeaux, France
PUBLICATIONS / BOOKS
2018
Damage Inc, RVB Books
2022
Build and Destroy, RVB Books
2026
The Skeptics, RVB Books
PRESSE / PRESS
2026
C/O Berlin, Finalist C/O Berlin Talent Award
The Skeptics, by RVB Books, La Photographie spéculative, par Gil Bertholeyns
The Skeptics, by RVB Books, Illumination profane, par Michel Poivert
2025
Kunstforum International, Essay on Burning car in Art, par Gunnar Schmidt
Les Cahiers du Collège de photographie, Neo Analog, par Michel Poivert
Le Monde, Photo London & The Skeptics, par Claire Guillot
2024
Chinese Photographers, Portfolio, par Loria Han
2023
Connaissance des Arts, The Skeptics / Institut pour la photographie, par Agathe Hakoun
L’oeil & Journal des arts, Portrait, par Christine Coste
2020
Art Press N°474, En quête d'images, par Etienne Hatt
2019
Numero Magazine, Les Rencontres d’Arles, par Yasmine Lahrichi
L'oeil de la photographie, Viva villa, retour sur expérience
2018
M Le Monde, Portfolio Crash, par Roxana Azimi
2017
Lens Culture, Interview par Alexander Strecker
Foam Magazine Talent #48, par Jorg Colberg
Art Press 2, La Photographie à l’épreuve, par Étienne Hatt
Mouvement, Gladiateurs des Flandres, par Carole Bailly
2016
L’Œil, Une esthétique de la destruction, par Christine Coste
Art Juice, Big Bangers, par Martin Norest
La Gazette Drouot, Build and Destroy, par Zaha Redman
Le Quotidien de l'art, Les Frontières du lisible, par Natacha Wolinski
France Fine Art, Interview par Anne-Frédérique Fer
Libération, Plein Cadre, par Clémentine Mercier
The Steidz, Paysages de destruction, par Camille Tallent
Art Press, Introducing, par Etienne Hatt
2012
Ephemera, Centre d’art le BBB
The Word Magazine, présentation de la photographie belge
Urbanautica, présentation Portfolio
La Libre Belgique, Burning Up !, par Jean-Marc Bodson
Festival Circulations
2011
Pays-Bas Français, par Filip Luyxck
Revue 50°Nord #2, Concrete mirrors, par Raymond Balau
Forever Young, par Fabrice Bousteau, Galerie Vallois
Regeneration 2, par Aperture
2010
Borders / No Borders
Regeneration 2
Soft Machine
Panorama 12, par Le Fresnoy – Studio national
Fantasmagories
2009
L’Art même N°44