Violette Bule

Excited to share the video documentation of Hydra On view at Artpace, San Antonio, through July 19th Grateful to the talented @walleyfilms for their thoughtful video work @artpace #americanpolitics #massincarceration #prisonindustrialcomplex

Sharing a rough cut of Geometric Failure, presented last Thursday at @aurorapictureshow I am deeply grateful to the Aurora team and my collaborators—this work wouldn’t exist without you 🔥❤️ I’m honored to have worked with you all, and everyone who joined us that night. My heart feels complete, and I remain hopeful about finding new ways to bridge our differences and similarities. More documentation soon Camerawomen @beatrizbellorinart & @andreacanonphotography ♥️🙏 #geometricfailure #venezuela

Dear friends in San Antonio ❤️ If you already signed up, don’t forget our date — Being for Others begins this Saturday from 1–4 PM at Artpace. And if you haven’t signed up yet, we are officially full — but I can always make space for you. I’m so excited to share this experience with you and create together. Being for Others is a participatory workshop where memory becomes image, language, and sound. Very grateful to @artpace , @saladiazsatx , and @sacontemporary at Blue Star for helping bring this project together.

Join us as Artpace, Sala Diaz, and Contemporary at Blue Star come together to bring Being for Others, a project by Violette Bule. Being for Others is a participatory workshop where memory becomes image, language, and sound. Guided by Spring 2026 Artpace International Artist-in-Residence Violette Bule, the project unfolds as a three-phase experience: participants rewrite a shared poem through their own memories and language, then reinterpret it through image, text, sound, and objects—expanding individual narratives into a collective mapping of experience. The work created will culminate in a river projection at Echo Bridge along the San Antonio River, co-created with local artists and community members, and will be documented as part of an upcoming process-based exhibition at Presa House Gallery. 📅 Artist Workshop Dates May 16, from 1-4 PM at Artpace San Antonio May 23, from 1-4 PM at Contemporary at Blue Star (registration details TBA) This workshop is free and open to all; no experience necessary. Space is limited - sign up for the 5/16 workshop through the link in our bio! 🔗

On View Now | Violette Bule, 𝘏𝘺𝘥𝘳𝘢 𝘏𝘺𝘥𝘳𝘢 immerses visitors in a space shaped by systems of control, surveillance, and political rhetoric surrounding immigration and incarceration. The title evokes the mythological Hydra, a creature whose many heads regenerate when cut, suggesting systems that endure even when challenged. Through irony, repetition, and participation, Bule’s installation draws connections between past and present political discourse. Humor and discomfort coexist, allowing the work to confront serious political realities while preserving moments of sharp tension. As visitors move through the space—reflected, projected, and observed—they become part of the structure the work examines. 𝘏𝘺𝘥𝘳𝘢 is on view at Artpace through July 19, 2026. Artpace is open seven days a week, and admission is always free. Free parking is available at 513 N Flores. Photos: Michael Cirlos

“Shows like Bule’s are often described as “bearing witness” to our current grotesque epoch, where the slide into abject authoritarianism is as smooth and alarming as the rapid growth of an unattended carp, and it certainly does. But it conjures something stranger, more elusive, and more interesting —a truly confounding psychic state. It is not unlike John Berger’s chapter in Ways of Seeing about glamor and advertisements. Berger uses an example of two adjoining pages in a magazine: on the left, a news story on suffering in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh); on the right, an ad for liquor. The mind freezes and cannot process the two before ultimately choosing comfort, glamor, the dream. And so the cage becomes the crib, the barbwire becomes party decorations, the turnstile keeps spinning, welcoming you home.” — Neil Fauerso Thank you, @nfauerso for the thoughtful feature @glasstire Photos by Michael Cirlos, courtesy of Artpace Read the full Spring 2026 article on the artists-in-residence at @artpace via the link in bio.

Taking a moment to share one of my favorite posts as I slowly recover from everything—my recent installation, Hydra at Artpace. I always aim to create spaces where people can see their own reflections. But none of this happens alone—I’m grateful to work alongside brilliant, generous minds who not only understand the work but also trust it. To my dear friends, BIG THANK YOU! This project wouldn’t have been possible without you, and I’m honored to have worked with all of you. Especially my dear friend Catherine McCaully @neodadrock who dedicated a month and a half to working with me and held space through all the intensity. Assistant Producer, Coordinator, and Preparator—and somehow, after a miscalculation in the weaving process, she gathered a group of people in Houston to weave razor wire. Half of that group are my dear Houston friends, whom I admire, respect, and love: Nancy Rios, Garrett Griffins, Isela Aguirre, Saran Alderson, and Lau de Leon. The other half were Cat’s friends: Abi Ogle, Taylor Luna, Carlos Aguilar, Iva Kinnard, Schuyler Shireman, Robert Blumrick, Matthew Lacamu, Winona Li Zinola, Josh Libro, Cat Ingrid Leeches, and KB the inspector 😺 Also, my new friends from San Antonio—the reason I didn’t want to leave: Grace Ann Dailey, Pat Kay, Silas Garcia, Madelynn Mesa, Aolani Tagle, Joseph Schell, Izzy Carriedo, Jozi Sierra, Mateo Rodriguez, and Cayman Robinson. My recurring collaborators and dear Venezuelan colleagues: Nicolas Gerardi — AV, animation, and interactive components assistant; Juan V. Manrique — video editor assistant; Eleonora Rodriguez — digital drawing assistant. And of course, to the beautiful, generous Artpace team: Rhys, Ray, Lisa, Diana, Cristina, Madison, Chloe, Eidalis, and Riley. Feeling very thankful ✨❤️🔥 Music: El viaje / Vitalic Coming up: opening documentation @cowboy__20 @josiahbarrios @eidalisv @dianarochaart @rios.ceramics @garrettgriffins @the__isela_aguirre77 @bleuran @butta_bites @odd_dead_eggs @europa8_studio @textvra @juanvmanrique @artbygrann @trytakinganap @rhysmunro.art @pattkay @lanitriangle @silasnick_ @madison.vrazel

Art creates space. Space to pause. Space to reflect. Space to connect beyond differences. This is part of Artist With Purpose. Featuring Violette Bule @violettebule Interviews by @perezdaza & @elizabethschummer 🎥 @atunpro @louani.rivero @evvav Discover more at coexpace.org Visit @hispafest @coexpace_ @espacioannafrank

My entire YouTube channel was taken down because of the political content in my work. After uploading these six videos, I've been blocked. Anyway, they are now displayed at Artpace in San Antonio, TX. Last photo: (no relation, but related.) Talking with Officer Melissa from HPD about showing the shared humanity beyond the police uniform. (These are overlay voice videos - non-real) Hydra, 2026 #legacy #patern #americanpolitics

We’re excited to share Violette Bule’s project de la LLECA al COHUE: Photography in Venezuelan Penitentiaries Join us this Friday at 6 PM for a presentation with Violette, followed by a conversation with Tim Johnson, founder of Marfa Book Co. Between 2010 and 2012, Violette led a series of free, voluntary photography workshops in five Venezuelan prisons, engaging over 300 incarcerated individuals. Through trust-building, negotiating power dynamics, and fostering mutual agency, participants explored photography as a tool for experimentation and self-expression—creating an extensive archive that has been carefully safeguarded over time. Come hang, listen, and be part of the conversation

Last week, we welcomed guests to experience the opening of our Spring 2026 International Artists-in-Residence exhibitions, celebrating the debut of new works by Violette Bule, Mel Chin, and Việt Lê, curated by Dr. Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander. Together, the three exhibitions open a space for reckoning, remembrance, and revelation. Thank you to all who joined us for an unforgettable preview and opening reception. If you weren't able to join us for the curator talk, visit our link in bio to watch a recording. 🔗 Three works are on view through July 19, 2026: 𝘏𝘺𝘥𝘳𝘢 by Violette Bule 𝘏𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘓𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘳 by Mel Chin 𝘵𝘳𝘢̆𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘳𝘢̆́𝘯𝘨 | 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘬 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯 by Việt Lê And save the date for a special performance by Việt Lê on July 16, from 6–8 pm!

Hydra incorporates detention, migration control, and circulation within a constructed landscape where persistence and deterrence coexist. Modular tiles tressed with razor wire turn into a garden-like floor pattern, where thresholds and restricted paths define a terrain of containment and repetition. In this strictly organized environment, coercion is built into the design and maintained through routine management, framing confinement and limited movement as a means of controlling labor and the economy of resources. The system evolves as political agendas shift, after the 13 th Amendment, from convict leasing to today’s private detention industries, showing that what seems like a crisis often functions as a prevailing form of governance. Evoking Hydra every four years, a six-headed entity is renewed, always recurring, and adapting when challenged Hydra is on view at @artpace through July 12.