Jean Benoît

Jean Benoît was an artist known as "The Enchanter of Serpents", most famous for his surrealist sculptures.

He was born in Quebec, Canada, in 1922 and studied art at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, where he met Mimi Parent, whom he married in 1948. He met André Breton in 1959, and joined the Surrealist group that same year. In 1959, he also performed Exécution Du Testament Du Marquis De Sade, for which he made costumes. The dark, grotesque characters wore sharp, seemingly mechanical pieces mixing biomorphic, animalistic shapes that make the humans look like torture devices. Breton mentioned Benoit in Surrealism and Painting: "STAND ASIDE to let the Marquis de Sade pass 'in his own likeness' and reinvented by Jean Benoît with all his powers." One sculpture called "Book Cover for Magnetic Fields" features demonic figures ripping an egg from a book. Magnetic Fields was the name of the book Breton wrote with Philippe Soupault, which Breton called the first surrealist book. Many of his works include demonic figures, brutal sexual images, exaggerated phalluses, and so on.

Jean-Benoît Dunckel

Jean-Benoît Dunckel (born 7 September 1969) is a French musician best known for being one half of the French music duo Air, along with Nicolas Godin.

In the 1980s, he formed the band Orange with Nicolas Godin, Alex Gopher and Xavier Jamaux. He studied mathematics and physics and taught at a middle school in Paris, before embarking on a career as a professional musician. Since 1995, he has been one of two members of the band Air, along with Nicolas Godin.

Working under the name "Darkel" he released his first solo album, Darkel, in September 2006 ("dunkel" is the German word for "dark").

In April 2009, a concert was held in Paris to launch the release of MaJiKer's first album, Body-Piano-Machine, with guest vocalist Camille and a DJ set by Dunckel.

In 2011, he formed the electronica side project Tomorrow's World with Lou Hayter of New Young Pony Club. Their first album, Tomorrow's World, was released in 2013.

Dunckel collaborated with Icelander Barði Jóhannsson under the name Starwalker and released an E.P. in March 2014 featuring "Losers Can Win" and "Bad Weather". A new song not featured on the E.P. was issued in November 2014, called "Blue Hawaii".