Four artists were chosen through a process of nomination and then selection: Maxime Guédaly, Constantin Schalchter, Sixtine de Thé and Elliott Verdier. Each one has their own background, subjects and modus operandi. Yet there is a common trait that unites them: the first line that would have been drawn on the page of their artistic journey, the one that each of them strives not to interrupt, even if it sometimes seems to turn in on itself or pause before starting up again with renewed vigour. This line, which must be allowed to run freely, is the one that underlines what artists share: not giving up, not giving up on understanding, and in order to understand, not giving up on representing. 

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By what means can we construct a representation of the world that lives up to our most intimate experience of it? Since it is a question of finding the representation that formulates with clarity and a kind of evidence that the experience of the world is a complex thing, and that the paths we take are more winding than we imagine, each of the artists seeks to find their own way to trace their itinerary in conscience and freedom.

As part of its participation in the FUTURES platform, the Centre photographique Rouen Normandie has set up the Frutescens programme. Dedicated to the French photography scene, it aims to support its authors and increase the circulation of their work on a European scale. They are selected on the basis of nominations made by leading figures from the world of photography. This year we selected Hélène Bellenger, Rebekka Deubner, Léonie Pondevie and Rebecca Topakian as our four artists due to the consistency and maturity of each of their works, as well as the timeliness of the moment in their careers. For each of these artists, the time spent on research and its maturation, and on encounters and the unexpected, is the foundation of their creation. Constructed by protocol and method, their works are nonetheless porous and flexible, and personal experience is central to all of them.

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As part of its participation in the FUTURES platform, the Centre photographique has developed the Frutescens program, dedicated to the French photographic scene. For this 2023 edition, we have chosen to surround ourselves with personalities from the photographic world, chosen for their complementary views and perspectives on photographic creation. With Nathalie Giraudeau (Centre photographique d'Ile-de-France, Pontault-Combault), Emilia Genuardi (a ppr oc he, Paris), Marie Magnier (Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris), Jordan Alves (Éditions Xavier Barral, Paris), Julia Gelezova and Angel Luis Gonzalez (PhotoIreland, Dublin), Françoise Paviot (galerie Françoise Paviot, Paris) and Baptiste Rabichon (photographer, Paris), we have selected four photographers who are active in France: Arno Brignon, Damien Caccia, Marc-Antoine Garnier and Nina Medioni.

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Looking for the common thread between authors with diverse backgrounds and views, we often get lost in simplifying the singularities and asperities of each of the works presented tend to be polished by dint of generalities. Let us risk the exercise with the four artists selected here and let us simply observe: they share, with us, a world held in uncertain balance of which the precarious condition is reminded us at each moment. It is on this slight thread that these artists move forward and build individually a work woven of troubles. Thus each in his own way, impregnated with this context of shared fragility, reconsiders the technical and relational processes at work in photography. In Arno Brignon's work, uncertainty is lodged at the heart of the raw material by recycling outdated silver film; in Damien Caccia's work, the permanence of the medium is thwarted by the systematic alteration of the recorded image; in Marc-Antoine Garnier's work, the photographic dimension is perpetually put at risk, and in Nina Medioni's work, the relationship between the photographed and the photographer is constantly reassessed.

As part of its inclusion in FUTURES, the Centre photographique Rouen Normandie has created the Frutescens programme, which will distinguish four photographers from the French scene. Anaïs Boileau, Nolwenn Brod, Pauline Hisbacq and Coline Jourdan have all developed work with very distinct subjects and formal biases over the last ten years. What they have in common is that their approach is already well established, with a wealth of previous projects that inform their current research and already outline an artist's path. Their practice is sometimes carried out exclusively in the field of research, while at other times it is divided between commissioned and personal work. Whatever the case, they all have a specific place in their practice where they engage with collaborative processes or the idea of community. They act in the world, each seizing their tool in a singular way. It was particularly important to us that this selection, and the networking it triggered, came at the right time: knowing their respective backgrounds, each seemed to us to be at an important stage in the development of their work. 

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