Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine
Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine are the founders of architectural film maker Bêka & Lemoine. Bêka & Lemoine have been on the international architectural scene for almost 20 years through cinematographic work known for its innovative nature and its tender and biting humour. Thanks to an authentic artistic perspective on architecture, Bêka & Lemoine open new horizons to the relationship between architecture and cinema.
Presented by The New-York Times as the "cult figures in the European architecture world", Bêka & Lemoine's work has been acclaimed as "a new form of criticism" (Mark) which "has deeply changed the way of looking at architecture' (Domus). Their complete work was acquired in 2016 by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York for its permanent collection. Their latest series Homo Urbanus: A City-Matographic Odyssey portrays a harrowing journey across multiple cities in the world. With their intuitive, tong-in-cheek style, Bêka & Lemoine make us watch people with them, reflecting on how our cities shape our behaviour as humans but mostly, it speaks about human behaviour in its most universal form.
Their films have been presented in major biennials and international cultural events such as The XII Architecture Biennial of Sao Paulo in 2019 and The Venice Architecture Biennale (2008, 2010, 2014). Their films are also frequently exhibited in museums and international cultural institutions, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Barbican in London. Bêka & Lemoine's films have largely been selected and awarded by some major film festivals such as Cannes Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival (Venice) and Locarno Film Festival.
Bêka & Lemoine are regularly invited to lecture and teach in universities: GSD / Harvard University , GSAPP Columbia University, Mendrisio, Switzerland, and HEAD, Switzerland. They taught the design Studio Diploma 16 (M.Arch.) at the Architectural Association School in London from 2019 until 2021. Since 2018 they have been laureates of Villa Kujoyama, French residency program for artists in Japan, and Ila Bêka has been laureate Italian Fellow at the American Academy in Rome.
