NAFAS Guests: Hélène Deléan / Clément Caignart

The Invisible Dog (New York City) and BUoY Arts Center (Tokyo), in partnership with Institut Français du Japon / Villa Kujoyama, are thrilled to invite artists Hélène Deléan and Clément Caignart for an informal presentation of their current research project. 

This work in progress is part of NAFAS, an international festival exploring the relationship between art and food with an exhibition of 70 artists and a series of performances, workshops and events. Discover the full program here

Hélène Deléan and Clément Caignart are residents at Villa Kujoyama from September to December 2026 with a project called N88DL

N88DL is a speculative fiction that takes shape around the invention, by Momofuku Ando in Osaka in 1958, of instant noodles. An industrial symbol of modern Japan, this “one-person product” is typical of a society that prioritises optimisation and convenience. Instant noodles become the vector for a critical exploration that merges food anthropology with digital escapism and visual speculations. Inspired by Tatsuro Fujikura’s The Noodle Narratives and by spaghettification — the powerful stretching of objects near black holes —, Deléan and Caignart imagine noodles as altered artefacts, survivors of symbolic and social collapse. Like falling into cosmic soup. In an alternative reality, instant noodles are the relics of a world in which youth, absorbed by immersive universes, flee the expectations society forces on them. A distorted, unstable reality which, like a reflection in a bowl of soup, is endlessly recomposed.

NAFAS gives them a “Carte Blanche” to present their work in progress.

Since 2016, Hélène Deléan and Clément Caignart have pursued a joint practice as Irma Name. Their work plays with forms of performance and video, combining theory and fiction, improvisation and co-creation.

Hélène Deléan studied at École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Sciences Po Paris and Akademija Likovnih in Sarajevo. Clément Caignart studied at École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and Cooper Union School in New York. Their work has been shown at La Ferme du Buisson Centre d’Art Contemporain, Bétonsalon Centre d’Art et de Recherche, Centre Pompidou Paris, Parc St-Léger Centre d’Art Contemporain and Mountain School of Art in Los Angeles. They made their first film, Rois d’Asile, in 2022 as part of the Nouveaux Commanditaires programme and in 2023 were awarded an ADAGP/Bétonsalon production grant.

Hélène Deléan & Clément Caignart are on Instagram

Villa Kujoyama is an institution of the cultural cooperation network of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Operated by Institut français du Japon, Villa Kujoyama works in coordination with Institut Français, and is supported by its main patron the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation.

Villa Kujoyama is on Instagram

Location
BUoY Arts Center
49-11, Senju-Nakacho, Adachi-ku,
Tokyo

Admission:
Free

Date
Friday September 25, 2026
6-7pm

Posted in 2026, Around Nafas, Event, Nafas Festival, NAFAS Tokyo, Performance