Paris – Every year since 2011, BMW Art Culture
has given an artist the opportunity to produce a photography project
in a three-month residency. The project is undertaken at the GOBELINS
School of Visual Arts, which has been involved in the Residency for
the past two years, following a six-year partnership with the
Nicéphore Niépce Museum.
The BMW Residency results in the production of works created with the
support of the artistic director, François Cheval and GOBELINS staff.
A selection of works produced during the Residency will be exhibited
at two major photography events for which BMW is a partner – the 2020
Rencontres d’Arles* (between the opening week in July and the end of
August) and 2020 Paris Photo fair*.
Works produced during the BMW Residency will be presented in a book
included published by éditions Trocadéro, in the BMW Art Culture collection.
The BMW Residency will take place between September and December 2019.
Projects submitted by applicants for the BMW Residency
must be meaningful with a focus on innovation and
experimentation offering a fresh vision of our world in motion using
technical, narrative, documentary, and comic techniques as required,
and drawing on GOBELINS resources and François Cheval’s expertise.
Projects must be original and exclusive to the BMW Residency and must
not have been presented, even partially, at the time of application.
Moreover, they must not be exhibited prior to the 2020 Rencontres
d’Arles* or Paris Photo fair*.
The call for applications for the next residency will be available on
the BMW and GOBELINS websites from December 13th, 2018:
www.bmw.fr/candidatures-residencebmw-2019
www.gobelins.fr/residencebmw2019
BMW offers the winner of the Residency a 8000 € grant, access to
support from an artistic director and professionals with expertise in
the fields of image, publishing and scenography, two dedicated
exhibitions at the Rencontres d’Arles* and Paris Photo fair*,
publication of a book sold in bookshops, and support with PR.
The artist is chosen by a selection committee based on his/her
application submitted in response to the call for applications. The
selection committee includes key figures from the world of photography.
A selection of works chosen jointly by the artist and the artistic
director of the BMW Residency is produced in three batches:
– the first exhibition set is given to the artist
– the second batch is a selection of works given to BMW for its
corporate collection
– the third batch, consisting of the image chosen for
publicizing the winner’s project, is given to GOBELINS
Applications should include a biography, a file presenting the
artist’s general approach, sets of completed works as well as a note
of intent on the planned artistic project.
Ten photographers will be preselected. They will be asked to ensure
that they are available for half a day for an interview with the jury
and to present photographic prints and past work.
Candidates must submit their applications digitally on Picter.com
though the link: https://contests.picter.io/bmw-residency-2019
by 11.59 pm CET on March 29th, 2019.
This call for applications can be downloaded from the following websites:
BMW Group France: https://www.bmw.fr/candidatures-residencebmw-2019
GOBELINS School of Visual Arts: https://www.gobelins.fr/residencebmw2019
The jury will meet in May to announce the winner. Shooting should be
completed by the end of December and the deadline for production is
March 1st, 2020.
*the events mentioned are not contractual and may be subject to change.
The BMW Group’s commitment to culture.
On November 28, 2018, , the BMW Group Cultural Engagement was awarded
with the prestigious Corporate Art Award® in a ceremony hosted within
the European Parliament, for their “long-term engagement in hundreds
of cultural initiatives worldwide.
The “Art Patrons of the XXI Century” awards recognizes
institutions, corporations and private investors who actively
contribute to the development of the arts and the society.
Maximilian Schöberl, Executive Vice President, BMW Group: “We
are all honored and delighted to receive the Corporate Art Award 2018.
The award acknowledges our sustainable and long-term cultural
engagement. Together with the arts, we will explore new cooperations
in the fields of technology and digitalization. Our cultural
commitment is not about mere budgetary transactions as seen in
traditional sponsorship, but rather about collaborative interactions
based on curiosity, a shared interest and mutual appreciation.”
Thomas Girst, head of cultural engagement, BMW Group: “Corporate
Citizenship is a guiding principle of a company’s value system. What
can we return to a society which enables our business success? The
Corporate Art Award also honors our know-how and network which we are
encouraged to bring to the table every time we are engaging in a
dialogue with artists or cultural institutions for the past 50 years.”
For almost 50 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in
over 100 cultural cooperations worldwide. The company places the main
focus of its long-term commitment on contemporary and modern art,
classical music and jazz as well as architecture and design. In 1972,
three large-scale paintings were created by the artist Gerhard Richter
specifically for the foyer of the BMW Group’s Munich headquarters.
Since then, artists such as Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Daniel Barenboim,
Jonas Kaufmann and architect Zaha Hadid have co-operated with BMW. In
2016 and 2017, female artist Cao Fei from China and American John
Baldessari created the next two vehicles for the BMW Art Car
Collection. Besides co-initiatives, such as BMW Tate Live, the BMW Art
Journey and the “Opera for All” concerts in Berlin, Munich,
Moscow and London, the company also partners with leading museums and
art fairs as well as orchestras and opera houses around the world. The
BMW Group takes absolute creative freedom in all its cultural
activities – as this initiative is as essential for producing
groundbreaking artistic work as it is for major innovations in a
successful business.
BMW France and photography.
Daring to create and innovate has always been hard-wired into the BMW DNA.
BMW is a great believer in aesthetics and technological innovation.
The car brand has chosen to support photography as an original,
distinct art form and an invention that contributed to the advent of
the modern age in much the same way as the automobile.
This commitment first came to fruition in the BMW Paris Photo Award
for the 2003 Paris Photo fair. Awarded for 8 years, this prize became
an international benchmark taking pride in the work of artists
presented by galleries and contributing to the renewal of photographic
language. BMW has been an official partner of the Paris Photo fair
since then and a partner of the Rencontres d’Arles since 2009.
This commitment was reinforced in 2011 when the BMW Residency was set
up. After six years of partnership with the Nicéphore Niépce Museum,
BMW France reoriented the BMW Residency by entering a new partnership
with the Gobelins School of Visual Arts in Paris to give winners
access to an environment with a total emphasis on innovation,
transmission, and new technologies.
This new phase of the BMW Residency chimes perfectly with the
forward-looking vision of the hundred-year-old group, which is based
on innovative concepts combining technology, design, and creativity.
BMW supports contemporary creativity by giving the winner complete
artistic freedom.
The school’s innovative approach to education and experimentation,
and the transfer of knowledge between experts, the prize winner, and
students are the perfect illustration of the philosophy that BMW has
set out for the future.
GOBELINS School of Visual Arts.
GOBELINS plays a central role in the creative industries, having
established itself for over 50 years as the benchmark school for
creative visual disciplines, covering the whole process from image
design to production. As a member body of the Paris Region Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, GOBELINS offers training in photography, print
and multimedia communication, graphic design, interactive design,
animation, and video game design. The school trains over 1,000
students every year, including 495 apprentices and 2,000 trainees in
continuing education.
GOBELINS: “genuine experiences”
GOBELINS teaches students to “develop their own unique visual
identity”! For over 50 years, its photography department has been
passionately teaching students who go on to lead successful careers in
creative photography. With its finger on the pulse of conceptual and
technological developments in contemporary photography, GOBELINS
trains photographers as ‘project managers’ through its 3-year program
(a bachelor’s degree at Level 6 under the European Qualifications
Framework). It transforms them into professionals capable of shooting,
printing, touching up photos, creating 3D images, and shooting and
editing videos (short format). GOBELINS encourages knowledge transfer
by offering its students workshops led by professional photographers
such as Jean-François Bauret, Christophe Huet, Dominique Issermann,
Payram, Paolo Roversi, and Cyrille Weiner.
Graduates of the school include the following famous photographers
and rising stars: Raphaël Dallaporta whose work features in
prestigious collections in France and worldwide – Sacha Goldberger, an
advertising executive, artistic director, and photographer – Mathilde
Fanet, winner of the 2018 Industrial Photography Award – Margaux
Senlis, winner of the 2017 Marc Grosset Award – Pascale Arnaud, winner
of the 2017 Picto Fashion Award – Laura Bonnefous, winner of the 2015
Picto Fashion Award with a talent grant – Charlotte Abramow, winner of
the 2014 Picto Fashion Award and special distinction at the Photo
Folio Awards at the Rencontres d’Arles for her book Maurice,
tristesse et rigolade [Maurice, sadness and fun], – Fanny
Viguier, winner of the 2012 SFR Young Talent Award, – Maia Flore,
winner of the 2015 HSBC Photography Award, etc.
Past winners of the BMW Residency – 2011 to 2018
The BMW Residency has enabled work produced by past prize winners to
be showcased to photography professionals and the wider public.
–
In 2011, Alexandra Catière was the winner of the
first edition of the BMW Residency at the Nicéphore Niépce Museum.
This Belarusian artist is renowned for the delicacy and intelligence
of her work, which successfully combines traditional and avant-garde
techniques. The work she produced during her residency culminated in
the series Ici, par-delà les brumes [Here, beyond the mist]
in 2012, which was subsequently presented at the Moscow Museum of
Modern Art and BMW Museum in Munich.
In 2012, BMW supported French photographer Marion Gronier
as she tackled a personal project on the human face. Her
series Les Glorieux [The Glorious Ones] captures the moment
when the human mask breaks down and the disembodied face empties
itself of all expression.
–
In 2013, the selection committee was unanimous in its
decision to select the project by Elise Mazac and Robert
Drowilal, which explores the imagery of the Wild Style
in mass culture and its use in consumer society. The work
produced during their residency was presented at the 2014 Rencontres
d’Arles and Paris Photo fair. It was also exhibited at Paris Photo Los
Angeles in 2015.
–
In 2014, Natasha Caruana, a young British artist,
devoted her time in the Residency to seeking the truth of “love
at first sight”. Over a three-month period, she took her
inspiration from her own life and drew on popular myths and scientific
surveys to get closer, through photography, to the truth of this
eternally inexplicable phenomenon.
–
In 2015, Alinka Echeverría, with her “Fieldnotes
for Nicephora” project, examined the historic, technical and
philosophical links between photography and ceramics. Her project took
us into the museum’s archives.
–
In 2016, Dune Varela, produced work on landscape and
its representation. Based on photographs of temples and caves taken
from the archives of the Nicéphore Niépce Museum, the Internet, and
her own photographs, she examined the fragility of photography as a
medium through her project Toujours le soleil [Always the Sun].
–
In 2017, Baptiste Rabichon, produced work on the
theme of experimentation for his project En ville [In the
City]. He built his message around the use of complex tools and
manufacturing protocols combining new and traditional techniques.
While wandering Paris, he took photographs of eight balconies, the
only internal part of Parisians’ apartments that they expose to the
outside world. These key features of the work are completely
transformed by the photographer, who has altered the images using
various traditional and modern techniques.
–
In 2018, the current resident, Emeric
Lhuisset, was selected by the jury for a project concerning
migration, its symbolic vision and symbolic dimension. His project
smashes the taboo of immediacy and urgency and instead provides a
photographic narrative over the course of people’s lives.
For further information, please contact:
Maryse Bataillard
Corporate Communications
+ 33 (0)1 30 43 93 23
maryse.bataillard@bmw.fr
Maud Prangey
Press officer
+33 (0)6 63 40 54 62
mprangey@gmail.com
Chantal Nedjib
L’image par l’image
Tel.: +33 (0)6 40 23 65 10
cnedjib@chantalnedjibconseil.com
Nathalie Milon
GOBELINS Brand Director
+33 (0)1 40 79 92 45
nmilon@gobelins.fr
BMW Group in France
BMW Group has four locations in France: Montigny-le-Bretonneux
(headoffice), Tigery (training center), Strasbourg (international PRA
center) and Miramas (international technical test center). The BMW
Group employs more than 5,000 employees in France with its commercial
and financial subsidiaries as well as its exclusive distribution
network. In 2017, BMW Group France registered 87,748 cars of the BMW
and MINI brands and 16020 motorcycles and scooters of the BMW Motorrad brand.
The annual volume of BMW Group purchases from French equipment
manufacturers and suppliers amounts to billions of Euro. Among the
mare Dassault Systèmes, Faurecia, Michelin, Plastic Omnium, St
Gobainand Valeo. The cooperation with PSA on 1.6-liter engines is a
great success. As part of its electro-mobility strategy, BMW Group
created the BMW i brand and introduced the revolutionary BMW i3 and
BMW i8.
BMW Group France also pursues an active and permanent sponsor’s
hippolicy with renowned cultural actors such as the Rencontres de la
Photographie, Arles, Paris Photo and Gobelins, the school of visual
Art where the BMW Residence is held for photography emerging. For more
than 30 years, BMW Group France has been financing public utility
projects through its Foundation under the auspices of the Fondation de
France: currently road safety for young drivers. The social commitment
of the BMW Group also comes with its partnerships in the French sport:
French Golf Federation (FFG), and the French Rugby Federation (FFR)
and the XV of France.
www.bmw.fr
Facebook: facebook.com/BMWFrance Twitter: twitter.com/BMWFrance
Instagram: instagram.com/BMWFrance/ YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/BMWFrance
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bmw-group-france
The BMW Group
With its four brands BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad, the BMW
Group is the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and
motorcycles and also provides premium financial and mobility services.
The BMW Group production network comprises 30 production and assembly
facilities in 14 countries; the company has a global sales network in
more than 140 countries.
In 2017, the BMW Group sold over 2,463,500 passenger vehicles and
more than 164,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax in the
financial year 2017 was € 10.655 billion on revenues amounting to €
98.678 billion. As of 31 December 2017, the BMW Group had a work force
of 129,932 employees.
The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term
thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established
ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain,
comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to
conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy.
www.bmwgroup.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BMWGroup
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BMWGroup
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/BMWGroupview
Google+: http://googleplus.bmwgroup.com