The Member
Centre photographique Rouen Normandie
Today, the Rouen Normandy Photographic Centre has been awarded the title of "Centre d'Art Contemporain d'Intérêt National" and is continuing a story that began 30 years ago. It was the first place dedicated to photography in Normandy and one of the pioneers in France, at a time when photography was still a medium in the process of gaining artistic recognition in France. The Centre photographique Rouen Normandie is a place that exhibits and supports photographic creation and accompanies the public in the discovery of its multiple facets. The Centre has an annual programme of 3 to 4 exhibitions, complemented by off-site events in partnership with regional and national institutions (art centres, schools, hospitals, etc.) and a programme of artistic residencies. The Photographic Centre has an artistic line that places aesthetics as a vector of commitment at the heart of its programming and a cultural line that places a point of honour on the materiality of the work and what physical presence implies: the author's choice, the spectator's time.
Nominations
Discover the artists selected by
Centre photographique Rouen Normandie
since
2022
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.
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 selected four photographers who are active in France: Arno Brignon, Damien Caccia, Marc-Antoine Garnier and Nina Medioni.
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 simply observe instead: 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.
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 distinct concerns over the last ten years. What they share, though, is that their approach is well-established, with a wealth of previous projects that inform their current research.
Occasionally, their distinct practices are rooted exclusively in the field of research; at other moments, they divide their time between commissioned and personal work. Whatever the case, a specific commitment to engaging with collaborative processes, or with the idea of community, is a core principle; they are all actors in the world, applying their artistic tool in a unique way.
It was important to us that this selection, and the networking it triggered, came at the right time for the chosen artists. Given our familiarity with their respective backgrounds, each seemed to be at an important stage in the development of their work.
