BMW Art & Culture announces the launch of its tenth call for applications for the BMW Residency at the GOBELINS School of Visual Arts.

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.

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