
Pierre Coulibeuf
A pioneering filmmaker and visual artist since the 1980s, Pierre Coulibeuf has shifted the boundaries of disciplines and shaken up creative codes.
Updated on 10/09/2019
2 min
Holding a PhD in Modern Literature, Pierre Coulibeuf wrote a thesis dedicated to the literary greats Pierre Klossowski and Léopold von Sacher-Masoch. His first film Klossowski, painter-exorcist (“Klossowski, peintre-exorciste”) (1987) depicts the artistic and literary universe of Pierre Klossowski, who would go on to significantly influence his work.
In 1991, the Centre Pompidou presented a first retrospective of Pierre Coulibeuf's cinema work at the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Two years later, in 1993, the artist won the Leonardo da Vinci grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a residency in Italy. He was appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2001.
From dance to architecture, cinema, photography and writing, contemporary creation in all its forms is at the heart of Pierre Coulibeuf’s thinking. His research is focused on encounters: encounters between film genres, from fiction to the experimental, and also between artistic disciplines. A fact which is evident in Dédale (“Maze”) (2009), a film-installation composed of four moving images and a disorienting series of photographs whose subject is a labyrinth.
Pierre Coulibeuf’s installations and films also draw their wealth from the worlds of major artistic figures, such as poet Michel Butor, visual artists Jan Fabre and Michelangelo Pistoletto, performer Marina Abramović and choreographers Meg Stuart and Angelin Preljocaj. Pierre Coulibeuf creates disconcerting universes, reflecting the sense of alienness which humans can maintain when confronting the world.
In 2004, a retrospective of seven Pierre Coulibeuf films created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs travelled around the world. The following year, the artist was invited to attend the 5th edition of the Mercosul International Contemporary Art Biennale in Brazil. His films have also been shown at international film festivals, from the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, the Rotterdam International Film Festival in the Netherlands and the Göteborg International Film Festival in Sweden, to the São Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil.
In 2019, he was one of the winners of the Institut français's Custom Residences for Rouge Carpaccio, a two-month research project in Venice, adapted from a script and story written by Michel Butor and Mireille Calle-Gruber.
- 1988
1988
Pierre Coulibeuf directs his first film, Klossowski, peintre-exorciste.
- 1991
1991
The Pompidou Centre devotes a first retrospective to Pierre Coulibeuf's films at the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris.
- 1993
1993
Pierre Coulibeuf is awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Fellowship by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Italy.
- 2001
2001
Pierre Coulibeuf is named Chevalier Of the Order of Arts and Letters.
- 2019
2019
Pierre Coulibeuf is one of the recipients of an Institut français Custom Residency for his project Rouge Carpaccio.

Pierre Coulibeuf benefited from the support of the Institut français through its Custom Residencies programme, which allowed him to visit Venice 2019 for his Rouge Carpaccio project. Learn more about the Institut Français residency programmes