Bétonsalon is a centre for contemporary art and research. An art centre that aims to provide hands-on experience of creativity in all its forms. A centre for research in action and in theory, where the forms of research and those of its sharing are to coincide and nascent languages develop. A source of situated practices and knowledge which, in collaboration with the Université de Paris Cité, generates new angles of approach, as it addresses common or divergent perspectives. A situation offering a pathway through uncertainty, where testing and decentring are resources capable of inventing ways of bringing us together. A reflexive, inclusive, feminist, anti-racist art institution, actively combating all forms of discrimination and of necessity required to provide proof of the implementation of its stated ideals. A place receptive to its surroundings, both locally and as part of international networks of allies. A welcoming site where the collective dimension is a daily commitment. A workplace where quality of life is paramount and hospitality is the concern of all. A living archive, free for reading and writing, where many art histories are being written. A training hub contributing to the professionalisation of the sector. A room of our own, so to speak, a collective version of the prerequisite – together with an income – for a creative existence, as stipulated by Virginia Woolf in 1929. A room for us, for an open community made up of all the people – the team, the artists, the authors, the audiences, the partners – gravitating around this public amenity. A refuge where bodies and voices find their place, where several languages are spoken, and where we can think, see, hear, feel, imagine, share and enlarge on a multitude of worldviews. These perspectives can create solidarity by making us invent specific ways of doing and acting. Starting out with the commitment they demand of us, we will gradually establish the preconditions for getting our different messages across perceptually. Then we will have an art centre that will come up with a way of embodying the forces for freedom which are important to us.

Gabrielle Balagayrie, Coordination assistant, internship
Camille Bouron, Mediation and public outreach growth officer
Vincent Enjalbert, Head of exhibitions
Maud Jacquin, curator and researcher associated with Bétonsalon
Romain Grateau, Stage manager
Maha Kays, Administrator
Zoé Lauberteaux, Communication assis­tant, apprenticeship
Elena Lespes Muñoz, Head of public outreach
Émilie Renard, Director

Gabrielle Balagayrie, Coordination assistant, internship
Gabrielle Balagayrie studied art history and museology at the ENS in Lyon, the École du Louvre and the Université de Montréal. Her academic research is currently focusing on issues of representation, imaginary and appropriation of popular culture, which she is studying through examples from the contemporary art scene in Marseille. She has co-curated some contemporary art exhibitions, including one in partnership with the IAC, Villeurbanne. In 2024, she joined the artist’s collective Diamètre 15 for a curatorial residency at la Tour Orion, Montreuil, to work as part of a duo on an exhibition and an alphabet book, a sensitive archive of the place she was invited to. She writes for the online media 99magazine. She is currently doing an internship as exhibition production assistant at Bétonsalon.

Camille Bouron, Mediation and public outreach growth officer
Camille Bouron is a cultural outreach officer with a double degree in geography and art history from Sorbonne University, and a Masters in Heritage and Exhibition Mediation from Sorbonne Nouvelle University. Her academic research has focused — and continues — on decoloniality in museums and contemporary art centers, as well as on mediation practices that highlight the memory of colonization and the transatlantic slave trade through the associated display devices. After developing her cultural outreach practice by working with the Palais Galliera, l’Espace Monte-Cristo — Fondation Villa Datris, and Lafayette Anticipations, she has been in charge of cultural outreach and public development at Bétonsalon since 2024.

Vincent Enjalbert, Head of exhibitions
A graduate in art history and museology from the École du Louvre and in curatorial studies from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Vincent Enjalbert co-curated the exhibition Sans feu, ni lieu (Poush/Galerie Journiac, 2021) with Rencard Collectif and co-organised, as part of the curatorial residency at the Théâtre des Expositions (2021-2022), two exhibitions, Misfire and Speed Dating, as well as the event Nous ne sommes (toujours) pas quelque part (with Festival d’Automne) in 2022 with students from the Beaux-Arts de Paris and the Faculdade de belas artes in Lisbon.
Alongside his curatorial activities, he was Head of studies at the École nationale supérieure d’arts de Paris-Cergy in 2022, lecturer in modern and contemporary art at the École du Louvre (2021-2023), and in charge of the Art Explora x Cité internationale des Arts residency programme (2023-2024). He coordinated and moderated a transdisciplinary seminar on the cultural scene in the Western Balkans (Réveil sur Mars) at the Gaité Lyrique in 2023, and took part in the seminar L’entour: Histoire et technique de la scénographie d’exposition and the 15th symposium on scenography organised by the Pavillon Bosio. He joined the Bétonsalon team in 2024 as Head of exhibitions.

Maud Jacquin, curator and researcher associated with Bétonsalon

Romain Grateau, Stage manager
Romain Grateau (1991, Ancenis, Loire-Atlantique) lives and works in the Parisian suburbs. He is graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts d’Angers and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and holds a master’s degree in visual arts from HEAD Geneva. Since 2019, he is part of Pauline Perplexe, an independent artist-run space based in Arcueil (Val-de-Marne). Romain Grateau works by juxtaposing seemingly intangible fragments of poetry with massive sculptural form. He is equally interested in inscription techniques and media as he is in words themselves. While he has a keen interest in all forms of technology, whether handmade or mechanical, ancient, modern or contemporary, he is most interested in exploring the fantasies of mastery, power or luxury — that surround it. In keeping with this research, his practice is based on samples, hijacking and site-specific installations, that highlight the way words and things always stray from their original functions when used.

Maha Kays, Administrator
Maha Kays has collaborated with cultural institutions in Lebanon, France, and internationally for over eighteen years. Before joining Bétonsalon as Administrator, she led the research program at the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) and was Programs and Operations Manager at the Arab Image Foundation (AIF). She co-curated a cultural program in partnership with the Beaux-Arts de Paris and La Maréchalerie CAC. Her research and writing have been published in various works, and her artistic work has been exhibited in France, Lebanon, Greece, and Japan. Kays taught at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA), offering research seminars. A graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Paris, she also holds a Master’s degree in cinema studies from Saint-Joseph University of Beirut.

Zoé Lauberteaux, Communication assis­tant, apprenticeship
Zoé Lauberteaux is a graphic designer. She is a graduate of DN MADE Visual Identity and Publishing from Chaumont, Haute-Marne since 2022 and of DNSEP Publishing at the Ecole Supérieure d’Art et de Design of Le Havre since 2024. During her studies, her research led her to focus on the role of graphic designers in the redevelopment of industrial wastelands in France. Through a range of different practices, such as audiovisual installations, photography, and the collection and layout of archives, she explores the link between collective and individual memory, trying to find matching media and forms. She is currently in charge of communication at Bétonsalon, completing an apprenticeship with the Creative Direction in Graphic Design master’s program at the Fonderie de l’Image, Bagnolet.

Elena Lespes Muñoz, Head of public outreach
Elena Lespes Muñoz is an art historian and curator. After a field research in South America, during which she conducted interviews with art historians and artists on “conceptualisms”, she carried out doctoral research on the history of exhibitions at the University of São Paulo’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC-USP) during the 1970s. She trained as a project coordinator in contemporary art at KADIST (Paris), Artesur (dedicated to contemporary art from Latin America) and at the Aline Vidal gallery. At the same time, she has conceived and accompanied projects as curator for Bétonsalon, CAC Brétigny, Salle Principale, Palais de Tokyo and Frac Sud. After working at CAC Brétigny, she joined the Bétonsalon team as Head of public outreach in 2022. She has contributed to various magazines, such as Zérodeux, Switch on paper, Insert and Marges; and teaches at University Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis.

Émilie Renard, Director
Since 2000, Emilie Renard has been working as a freelance curator, an art critic and teacher as well as a director, first at the art center of Noisy-le-Sec from 2012 to 2018 and then at Bétonsalon since 2021. Here in Bétonsalon, she is developing a program about sensitivities policies in collaboration with Maud Jacquin, curator and research associate, being very concerned to ensure that the intentions of the programs are aligned with the practices and ways they are carried out. Since 2023, she has been co-president of DCA (the association for the Development of Art Centers in France) along with Victorine Grataloup and Isabelle Reither. She is also a member of various cultural public institutions’ committees (CNAP for the support of creative work, DRAC Île-de-France), of the education and research council at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs (Paris) and the Paris Cité University’s “History, Language, Literature and Images” doctoral school. From 2009 to 2012, she was associate curator for the ‘Intense Proximity’ Triennial with Mélanie Bouteloup, Claire Staebler, Abdellah Karroum, and Okwui Enwezor, its artistic director. From 2002 to 2010, she co-founded the art-journal “Trouble” with Boris Achour, Claire Jacquet, François Piron and Guillaume Désanges. From 2001 to 2006, she joined Public>, an independent exhibition place in Paris with Aurélie Voltz and Giovanna Zapperi.

Bétonsalon – Centre for Art and Research is supported by the City of Paris, the Île-de-France Regional Board of Cultural Affairs – Ministry of Culture, and the Île-de-France Region, with the collaboration of Université Paris Cité.

Bétonsalon – Centre for Art and Research is a cultural institution of the City of Paris, certified institution of national interest by the Ministry of Culture.

Bétonsalon – Centre for Art and Research is member of d.c.a. / association for the development of art centers in France, Tram, réseau art contemporain Paris/ Île-de-France, and Arts en résidence – Réseau national and BLA! – national association of mediation professionals in contemporary art, as well as a partner of the Souffleurs d’Images service for access to culture for blind and visually impaired people.

President: Laure Adler, Journalist, biographist, essayist, publisher, radio and television producer
Vice-president : Etienne Bernard, Director of FRAC Bretagne
Treasurer: Vanessa Desclaux, freelance curator
Secretary: Manuel Segade, Director of Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, represented by Jérôme Coumet, Mayor of the 13th district of Paris
Laurent Roturier, Director of Île-de-France Regional Board for Cultural Affairs – Ministry of Culture
Édouard Kaminski, President of Université de Paris Cité
Kamel Ait Bouali, Headmaster of the Cité Scolaire Paul Bert (Paris, 14th)
Eva Barois de Caevel, Independant curator
Neil Beloufa, Artist
Françoise Vergès, Political scientist

Consulter l’historique des équipes depuis 2003 et la constitution du conseil d’administration de 2005 à 2020:

Les rapports d’activité du centre d’art sont disponibles à la consultation ci-dessous: