In 2008, the artist duo Feipel & Bechameil started to work together. Martine Feipel was born in 1975 in Luxembourg, Jean Bechameil in 1964 in Paris.  

Feipel studied visual arts at the Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg, at the Berlin University of the Arts, and finally at the Central St. Martins College of Art & Design in London, where she graduated with a Master’s degree in Fine Arts in 2002. Between 1990 and 1992, Bechameil trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and thereafter at the academy Willem de Kooning in Rotterdam. Since 1990, he has worked as an independent sculptor. He began to work on many sets of plays and films in Paris, in Copenhagen for a dozen years, before continuing throughout Europe. In 2008, the two artists moved to Esch-sur-Alzette and, since 2016, they have been living in Brussels.

Feipel and Bechameil developed their creativity together in the same direction that Feipel had already pursued individually and independently as a multidisciplinary visual artist. Their main subject was the analysis of human beings in their environment. Their artistic approach focused on transforming meanings and recycling historical elements, favouring the creation of installations. They often changed the spatial reference points to create a particular universe with new orders and rules. To this end, they have played with elements of space, time, physical matter, history and human existence.

In this way, they have produced disturbing artworks (an immersive experience giving rise to new and unusual perceptions and generating interior landscapes) like the Cercle Fermé at the Venice Biennale in 2011. Aware of art history, the duo found stylistic inspiration in various art movements, including Cubism, Dada, De Stijl, Surrealism (following the example of Magritte in their 2014's Plague and Cholera), Bauhaus functionalism, Constructivism, Modernism and Arte Povera. Their formally accomplished works sometimes reflect a symbolic, mystical and playful, but also a critical, political and engaged approach. They have used various means of expression in their creations: drawing, sculpture, engineering, staging, set design and sound. The dimension of time is an essential element in their work. They have created sculptures and installations that respond to the location or the geographical and historical contexts in which they are embedded. This displays in their kinetic constructions, a kind of industrial robotics that were on display in the exhibition Automatic Revolution in 2019.

Several monographic exhibitions have been dedicated to the artist couple, for example in Copenhagen (2010) and at the Centre d’Art Nei Liicht in Dudelange (2010), different exhibitions in Berlin (2012), London (2012), Zurich (2013), Marseille (2013), Thiers, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Paris (2014). In 2015, the following two exhibitions took place in Luxembourg: Melancholic Dislocation at the Cercle Cité and Moonlight Solitude at the Zidoun & Bossuyt Gallery, afterwards in Amsterdam (2015) and Brussels (2016). After presenting the monographic exhibition Theater of Disorder in Marseille and Amsterdam, Casino Forum d’art contemporain Luxembourg showed it in 2017. It then travelled to Brussels and Nantes, where parts of the exhibition were displayed. Afterwards, the artists designed the store windows of the Hermès store in Luxembourg (2021) and in Tokyo (2019). They exhibited at the Centre Wallonie Bruxelles in Paris (2022) and at the MUDAM – Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean Luxembourg (2022). The same year they also had a solo exhibition in Dubai. In 2023, they had a monographic exhibition at the Orangerie de Bastogne and the Centre d'art contemporain de Châteauvert in France.

In 2009, they presented a work at the Biennale Kunst & Zwalm and the Cercle artistique de Luxembourg (CAL). In 2011, they represented Luxembourg at the 54th Venice Biennale. In the following years, the duo was invited to take part in numerous international exhibitions and cultural events, for example at the Triennale for contemporary art by the sea in Belgium (2012), the Kunstmuseum in Bonn (2013), the Kunsthalle in Mulhouse (2014), the Pavillon de l'Arsenal in Paris (2015), Lustwarande '15 in Tilburg in the Netherlands (2015), the Nuit Blanche in Paris (2019), Museum Voorlinde in the Netherlands (2020/2021), the Anglet Biennial (2021) and the Biennale Internationale Saint Paul de Vence (2021). In 2022, as part of Esch2022, the European Capital of Culture, they participated in several exhibitions in Esch-sur-Alzette, but also in Laethem Saint-Martin, Saarbrücken and Abu Dhabi. In 2023, they participated in the exhibition Grandeur Nature of the English Garden of Fontainebleau.

Feipel studied under professor Christiane Möbus at the Berlin University of the Arts.  In 2007, she initiated the project The Game of Life presented in Belgium, Germany and  at the occasion of the cultural year in Luxembourg.

Bechameil participated in the production of several film sets by Lars von Trier, including Manderlay, Dogville, Dancer in the Dark and Antichrist film for which the couple showed their first collaborative creation on an advertisement.

The duo's works can be found in numerous collections in Luxembourg, e.g. at the Musée national d'archéologie, d’histoire et d'art (MNAHA), MUDAM, Ministry of Culture, National library of Luxembourg (BNL), Œuvre Grande-Duchesse Charlotte, Centre des Arts Pluriels Ettelbruck (CAPE), ING Bank, and ATOZ. Major international collections also hold their work, for example in France FRAC Lorraine, in Metz, Commanderie de Peyrassol in Flassans-sur-Issole, Museum Voorlinden in the Netherlands, the London Institute collection in England and La Baloîse in Switzerland.

Together, the two artists have created a large number of works for public spaces, both in Luxembourg (e.g. the European School Luxembourg II) and abroad (Nantes, Tokyo). During the Nuit blanche in 2011, the performance Crash Park took place in the Mairie de Metz (‘Metz city hall’). In 2021, the artists participated in La Littorale - Biennale d'Art Contemporain d'Anglet. In 2022, several works were inaugurated in Nantes, Rumelange and Luxembourg-City.

The duo has made a commission for the Œuvre Grande-Duchesse Charlotte (2014). They have worked together with La Patinoire Royale, Galerie Valérie Bach (Brussels), Galerie Gourvennec Ogor (France) and Katz Contemporary (Zurich). They are currently represented by Zidoun & Bossuyt Gallery (Luxembourg) and Fontana Gallery (Amsterdam).

The artist duo participated in the artist-in-residence programme of the Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris, 2012), in the Public Art Experience project "BeHave" (Luxembourg, 2016) and the artist residency at Ses Notze Daus (Ibiza, 2016 and 2018). They won the scholarship Francis-André (Luxembourg, 2019). They were awarded the Coal Prize, special prize of the jury for their project Cité d'Urgence – Apus Apus. This lead to an artist residency at Fondation Sommer, organised in collaboration with the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Paris, 2018). In 2023, they were resident artists at the Woning van Wassenhove in Laethem-Saint-Martin (Belgium).

From the very beginning, the joint work of Feipel & Bechameil has attracted great interest of the public as well as that of national and international critics. The collaboration of the two artists, whose skills perfectly complement each other, was noticed right from their first creations. It gave new impulses to the Luxembourg art scene, especially their work on the passing of time, on imperfection and the elimination of established references, the desire to experiment with different materials in combination with technical know-how (Conrad n. pag.). For the Luxembourg Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2011, they created an installation called Le Cercle fermé, representing a "labyrinthine and disorienting path" through the spaces, a poetic transformation of the historic site dating from the fifteenth century (C. page unknown). According to art critic Paul Virilio, the Luxembourg pavilion is "an architectural manifesto" of the new millennium, which "promises to be disorientation (…) at an ecological, economic (…) geopolitical and cultural level" (Kockelkorn). The curator of the exhibition describes a Legenda Nera a closed circle, which is a negation of our expectations (Kockelkorn). In 2017’s Ballet de la destruction, mechanical elements were added to recycled objects, presenting man as machine in a theatrical setting (Ciocârlie 27). In 2020, the catalogue of the exhibition Automatic Revolution mentions their work as being at the crossroads of installation and living sculpture. With a socio-historical, poetic and political approach, they have not stopped questioning life and making us think about our contemporary society ("way of life, consumption, governance and the dealing with architectural, industrial and urban heritage") (Darde 53). Kevin Muhlen, curator of the exhibition Theater of Disorder, highlighted the power of robotic technology over modern humans in the duo’s works (Lecompte 11).

To understand the world they are living in, the two artists have decided to produce constantly evolving, deeply humanist and ecological creations as a kind of critical mirror of our contemporary society.

Works cited

C. "Un ‘cercle fermé’. La participation luxembourgeoise à la Biennale de Venise 2011."Luxemburger Wort 20.07.2010 : unknown. Print.

Chariot, Constantin. Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil : Un monde parfait : Exposition du 28. 02. 2014 - 12.04.02014. Zagreb (Croatia): Kolorklinika, 2014. Print.

Ciocârlie, Corina, and Le Fonds Belval. Public Art Experience 2015/2016: BeHave. Esch-sur-Alzette: Le Fonds Belval, 2017, 27. Print.

Conrad, Daniel. "Lebenswelten auf dem Prüfstand: Martine Feipel spielt mit den Unwägbarkeiten im CAPe." Luxemburger Wort 09.03.2010: n.pag. Print.

Darde, Jenna, Feipel, Martine, and Jean Bechameil. Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil: Automatic Revolution. Nantes: Le Voyage à Nantes, 2020, 53. Print. Exhibition catalogue.

Dorscheid, Sabine. "Raus aus der Wohlfühlecke.“ D’Land 07.08.2009,15. Print.

Feipel, Martine. "Re: Questions Bio. Feipel/Bechameil LKA." received by Malgorzata Nowara. 26.09.2023. E-mail.

Hansen, Josée. "Le futur est notre seul objectif. Portrait-rencontre." Arts et Lettres : publication de la Section Arts et Lettres de l’Institut Grand-Ducal, Luxembourg (2022) :169-183. Print.

Lecomte, Jeremy, Kevin Muhlen, Fabien Simode, Eva Wittocx. Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil: Theater of Disorder. Luxembourg: Casino Luxembourg. 2017. Print. Exibition catalogue.

Lefèvre, Jérôme. Melancholic Dislocation - Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil. Luxembourg: Cercle Cité, 2015. Print. Exhibition catalogue.

Nowara, Malgorzata. Telephone Interview with Martine Feipel. 22.09.2023.

Kockelkorn, René, Virilio, Paul, Casino Luxembourg, and Biennale Di Venezia. Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil - Le Cercle Fermé : Exposition/exhibition : Casino Luxembourg - Forum D'art Contemporain, 4.6. - 27.11.2011. Luxembourg: Casino - Forum D'art Contemporain, 2011. Print.

Zidoun & Bossuyt Gallery. "Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil: CV. 2021." . Web. Accessed 28.10.2022.

Zidoun & Bossuyt Gallery. "Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil : Biography. "N.d. . Web. Accessed 29.03.2023.