Paris – Every year since 2011, BMW Art Culture
has given a photographic artist the opportunity to produce a
photography project over the course of a three-month residency. The
project is undertaken at the GOBELINS School of Visual Arts, which is
now in its fourth year as BMW Residency partner, following a six-year
partnership with the Nicéphore Niépce Museum.
The BMW Residency
culminates in the production of works under the artistic direction of
François Cheval with support from the GOBELINS team.
The BMW Residency will take place between September and
December 2020.
A selection of works produced during the residency will be
exhibited at two major photography events for which BMW is a partner:
the Rencontres d’Arles International Festival and Paris Photo* 2021
editions.
Works produced during the BMW Residency will be
presented in a book included in the BMW Art Culture collection.
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 transition
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
Rencontres d’Arles or Paris Photo 2021*.
BMW offers the winner of the Residency at GOBELINS an
€8,000 grant, access to support from experts, production of two
exhibitions at prestigious venues for the Rencontres d’Arles and Paris
Photo*, publication of a book, a set of exhibited photographs, the
support of artistic director, François Cheval, and support with
communications.
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.
*The events mentioned are not contractual
and are subject to change.
The works chosen jointly by the artist and the artistic
director of the BMW Residency are divided into three batches:
The first batch, which is the set used in the exhibition, is
given to the artist.
The second batch given to GOBELINS consists
of a digital version of a work.
The third batch is submitted to
BMW France. It comprises a selection of works chosen jointly by the
artist and BMW France. This selection must include all works that are
representative of the experimentation and work performed during the
Residency (including photographic images/objects used for publicizing
the exhibition).
Applications should include a biography, one or more
sets of completed works as well as a note of intent on the planned
artistic project.
A selection of applicants will be shortlisted.
They will be asked to ensure that they are available for half a day
for an interview with the jury to present photographic prints and past
work. The interview can be done on site, in GOBELINS or by videoconference.
The call for applications for the BMW Residency will be
available to download from the BMW France and GOBELINS
websites from January 15th, 2020: www.bmw.fr/fr/topics/univers/bmw-art-et-culture/candidatures-residence-2020.html
www.gobelins.fr/residencebmw2020.
Applications should be completed in English or French
on the platform by the deadline of 23:59 (CET) on March 31, 2020:
residencebmw.plateformecandidature.com/
Please email the following address with any questions regarding
applications: candidatures.residencebmw@GOBELINS.fr
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. In France, the company 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 recognizing artists’ work exhibited
in galleries and helping to refresh photographic language.
BMW has been an official partner of Paris Photo since 2003 and
became a partner of Rencontres d’Arles in 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, knowledge transfer,
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, prize
winners, and students are the perfect illustration of the philosophy
that BMW has set out for the future.
Past winners of the BMW Residency – 2011 to 2019.
The BMW Residency has brought prize winners’ work to the
attention of professionals and the wider public.
In 2011, Alexandra Catiere was the winner of the first edition.
This young Belarusian artist is renowned for the delicacy and
intelligence of her work, which successfully combines traditional and
avant-garde techniques. Book co-produced by BMW Art Culture and
éditions Trocadéro. BMW Residency Collection, Alexandra Catiere 2012.
In 2012, BMW supported the young French photographer Marion
Gronier as she tackled a personal project on the human face and its
masks. Her photos capture the moment when the outward mask slips and
the face, now disembodied, empties. Book co-produced by BMW Art
Culture and éditions Trocadéro. BMW Residency Collection, Marion
Gronier 2013.
In 2013, the duo Mazaccio Drowilal attracted a very wide
audience with the “Wild Style” project, questioning animal
imagery in mass culture. Book co-produced by BMW Art Culture and
éditions Trocadéro. BMW Residency Collection, Mazaccio Drowilal 2014.
In 2014, Natasha Caruana, a young British artist, focused on
seeking the truth of “love at first sight” during her
residency. 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.
Book co-produced by BMW Art Culture and éditions Trocadéro. BMW
Residency Collection, Natasha Caruana 2015.
In 2015, with her “Fieldnotes for Nicephora” project,
Alinka Echeverría, examined the historic, technical and philosophical
links between photography and ceramics. Her project took us into the
Nicéphore Niépce Museum’s archives. “Fieldnotes for
Nicephora” was exhibited at the Rouen Ceramics Museum and the
Capture Festival in Vancouver, Canada. Book co-produced by BMW Art
Culture and éditions Trocadéro. BMW Residency Collection, Alinka
Echeverria 2016.
In 2016, in her “Always the Sun” project for the BMW
Residency Dune Varela examined various means of representing landscape
photographed through various temporalities. She reflects on the
deterioration and fragility of photography as a medium, and the
incorporation of the process of disappearance into produced images.
Book co-produced by BMW Art Culture and éditions Trocadéro. BMW
Residency Collection, Dune Varela 2017.
In 2017, “In the City”, by Baptiste Rabichon examined
experimentation. His message is conveyed using complex production
tools and processes combining new technologies 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. Book co-produced by
BMW Art Culture and éditions Trocadéro. BMW Residency
Collection, Baptiste Rabichon 2018.
In 2018, Emeric Lhuisset worked on “The Other Shore”,
a project exploring migration, its humanist vision, and symbolic
dimension. He attempted to smash the taboo of immediacy and urgency,
replacing this with a life-spanning photographic narrative. At
Rencontres d’Arles, he exhibited “When the Clouds Speak”,
which considers how to depict what cannot be seen and the limits of
images. At Paris Photo, he exhibited “The Other Shore” with
his “Theaters of War” series featuring Kurdish fighters
subsequently pictured as refugees in his series of cyanotypes. Book
co-produced by BMW Art Culture and éditions Trocadéro. BMW
Residency Collection, Emeric Lhuisset 2019.
In 2019, Lewis Bush was selected for his project “Ways of
Seeing Algorithmically”, exploring the way in which machines view
and understand the world. He uses augmented reality technology, itself
a form of computer-aided vision. Bush is updating John Berger’s
legendary book “Ways of Seeing”, which examines ways in
which art can be seen and understood, with a virtual book enabling the
original work to be read through the eyes of a computer. This virtual
book will be available as a free download, which anyone with access to
a copy of the original “Ways of Seeing” can use to give the
book a virtual update.
BMW Group, a patron of the arts
BMW supports over 100 cultural projects all over the world, in
modern and contemporary art, jazz and classical music, and
architecture and design. As such, it contributes to the dissemination
of knowledge and the arts.
In each of its partnerships, BMW Group
guarantees artists absolute freedom, as this is as essential to the
success of innovative artistic work as it is to the emergence of major
innovations in a successful company.
The story began in 1972,
when artist Gerhard Richter was commissioned to produce three very
large paintings “Rot”, “Gelb” and “Blau”
for the headquarters of the BMW Group in Munich. During this period,
BMW and Hervé Poulain introduced the collection of BMW Art Cars
designed by globally renowned contemporary artists, such as Alexander
Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Olafur
Eliasson, and Jeff Koons. In late 2016, the 19th BMW Art Car by John
Baldessari was presented at Art Basel Miami Beach and placed 8th in
the GTLM classification at the 24 Hours of Daytona (USA). In 2017, the
BMW Art Car, designed by Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei, was shown
in Beijing and raced in November at the 24 Hours of Macao.
BMW
supports museums and awards, such as the Munich Academy of Fine Arts,
the Goethe-Institut, the “Premio de Pintura” in Spain, the
Berlin Biennial, and the Tate Modern in London, where BMW has created
the “BMW Tate Live”. In addition, partnerships with
international fairs have intensified in recent years: alongside the
abc (art berlin contemporary), Gallery Weekend Berlin and the Berlin
Biennial, BMW is involved in events such as Art Basel in Basel, Miami
Beach and Hong Kong, Frieze Art Fair and the Frieze Masters in London
and New York, Paris Photo, Kyotography, the Korea International Art
Fair and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India. Since 2015, Art Basel
and BMW have been supporting emerging artists through the BMW Art
Journey, which sends winners on a journey around the world, with the
emphasis on discovery, exchange and creativity.
Finally, the
“BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors” features 270
private collections taking the reader on a journey to over 45
countries and 196 cities often in areas that are off the beaten track,
each offering a unique experience.
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 of which 495 are apprentices, as well as 2,000 trainees who
are enrolled in continuing education courses.
GOBELINS: “genuine experiences”.
At GOBELINS, students learn to “develop their own unique
visual identity”! For over 50 years, its photography department
has been passionately teaching this to 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 and video makers 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.
For further information, please contact:
Maryse Bataillard
Corporate Communications
BMW Group
France
+ 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
Elise Mathieu
Communications
GOBELINS
+33 (0)1 40 79 92 45
emathieu@gobelins.fr
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 31
production and assembly facilities in 15 countries; the company has a
global sales network in more than 140 countries.
In 2019, the BMW
Group sold over 2,520,000 passenger vehicles and more than 175,000
motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax in the financial year
2018 was € 9.815 billion on revenues amounting to € 97.480 billion. As
of 31 December 2018, the BMW Group had a workforce of 134,682
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
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/bmwgroup
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bmwgroup/