Carla Adra Brings Participatory Performance to 18th Lyon Biennale
Born in Toronto in 1993 to a Lebanese father and a French-Argentine mother, Carla Adra rose to prominence at the 2019 Lyon Biennale with her project Bureau des pleurs, where she gathered and restaged accounts of injustice from individuals in Lyon. This initiative was motivated by her own wrongful arrest. During the 18th Lyon Biennale, which takes place from September 19 to December 13, 2026, she presented Je suis ta fm at Les Grandes Locos. Her upcoming film, Carlos au pays de Millevaches (2026), showcases her as Carlos, engaging with strangers. Adra is an alumna of Beaux-Arts de Reims and Lyon, with recent works including Mamans (2025) and Ça te colle à la peau (2023). She operates from her studio at Poush in Aubervilliers.
Key facts
- Carla Adra was born in 1993 in Toronto to a Lebanese father and a French-Argentine mother.
- She gained recognition at the 2019 Lyon Biennale with Bureau des pleurs, based on two months of collecting injustice testimonies in Lyon.
- Her wrongful arrest and hours-long interrogation by police inspired the Bureau des pleurs project.
- For the 18th Lyon Biennale opening, she performed Je suis ta fm at Les Grandes Locos, repeating live radio for one hour.
- The 18th Biennale d'art contemporain de Lyon runs from September 19 to December 13, 2026.
- She performed a version of Je suis ta fm at the Palais de Tokyo in 2022, voicing art-world employees' grievances.
- Her 2026 film Carlos au pays de Millevaches features her as a wealthy golfer interacting with strangers in rural France.
- She studied at the Beaux-Arts de Reims, completed a post-diploma at the Beaux-Arts de Lyon, and met curator François Piron there.
Entities
Artists
- Carla Adra
- François Piron
- Marie-Mam Sai Bellier
- Antoine de Maximy
Institutions
- Poush
- Beaux-Arts de Reims
- Beaux-Arts de Lyon
- Palais de Tokyo
- Biennale de Lyon
- Grandes Locos
- macLyon
- IAC
- Beaux Arts Magazine
- BeauxArts.com
- Montessori
Locations
- Toronto
- Canada
- Lebanon
- Argentina
- France
- Aubervilliers
- Lyon
- Creuse
- Le Mans
- Montpellier
- Mexico