BMW Group France presents “Le corps vitré” (Vitreous body) by the winners of the BMW ART MAKERS programme at Rencontres d’Arles. Leading international photography festival and BMW France celebrate 16 years of long-term partnership dedicated to contemporary creation and the visual arts.

Munich/Arles. At Rencontres d’Arles press conference, announcing the programme for its 57th edition, Christoph Wiesner, the Festival’s Director, presented the project “Le corps vitré” (Vitreous body), which forms part of the “Sensitive lives” section of this year’s festival. This provided an opportunity to highlight this unique and experimental project and to outline its key themes.

“Le corps vitré” (Vitreous body): A project coming to life.
Six months after their appointment, the new winners of the BMW ART MAKERS programme – artist Lara Tabet and curator Yasmine Chemali – present “Le corps vitré” (Vitreous body). This artistic project is a new experiment, born out of their collaboration, which will culminate in a brand-new exhibition to be shown as part of BMW’s long-standing partnerships with Les Rencontres d’Arles and Paris Photo.

With “Le corps vitré” (Vitreous body), Lara Tabet unveils a new series, an extension of her ambitious project “Personal mapping of intertwined toxicities”. Through new artistic installations, she explores living organisms as a porous and interdependent network, drawing on a sensory mapping of the waters of Marseille.

Fountains, streams, estuaries, the Old Port or simple puddles: her samples, taken on the urban fringes, reveal water as a medium of circulation, mixing and contamination. Her method, based on collaboration with micro-organisms, allows bacteria to develop before being fixed onto film using coloured gelatine. Prints on glass, bioplastics and ‘living’ images thus form works in which living organisms become co-authors: “I create the conditions, then the living organisms draw.” Lara Tabet.

Inspired by histology, the elongated forms sketch out a counter-monument to water, echoing the Palais Longchamp, built in 1869, and the city of Marseille’s main historical source of drinking water. Through the metaphor of the vitreous body - that gelatinous substance which fills the eye’s cavity - the exhibition questions the way we see and broadens our perception of living things.

Rooted in feminist thought, Lara Tabet’s approach affirms a world of interdependencies, where humans and non-humans coexist in balances that are as fragile as they are interdependent.

BMW ART MAKERS programme.
For 16 years, BMW Group France has supported Les Rencontres d’Arles, affirming its key role in cultural creation. Through the BMW ART MAKERS programme, BMW funds and promotes innovative artistic projects while highlighting emerging talent. In line with its environmental strategy, BMW also supports the festival with a fleet of electric vehicles, illustrating its commitment to more sustainable, premium mobility. This long-term partnership embodies BMW’s desire to combine art, innovation, and social responsibility.

“At BMW, we are deeply convinced that artistic patronage is a major source of innovation and cultural expression. The BMW ART MAKERS programme, by supporting both the artist and the curator, illustrates our commitment to supporting ambitious projects that push the boundaries of contemporary creation. By providing a framework of freedom, resources and expertise, we celebrate the diversity of talent and foster a fruitful dialogue between art, science and society. This unique partnership is essential for bringing major works to life, from the initial idea to their realisation, and for enabling these creations to shine on the national and international art scene”, Maryse Bataillard, Head of Corporate Communications and CSR, BMW Group France.

Lara Tabet and Yasmine Chemali say: “We are delighted with this appointment, which recognises a long-standing collaboration fueled by a shared migration journey, from Beirut to the south of France. To mark the Bicentenary of Photography, we are delighted to be able to develop a project that explores the permeability of bodies through a feminist approach which shifts the focus away from the human scale whilst celebrating the hybrid nature of the photographic medium, right from its origins.  The BMW ART MAKERS programme, which emphasises collaborative work by a duo, strikes us as the ideal context for bringing to life a curatorial and artistic project that resonates with the challenges of life, the image and contemporary ecologies.”

Les Rencontres d’Arles and BMW: a long-standing partnership.
The partnership between Les Rencontres d’Arles and BMW has been in place for 16 years. This exemplary collaboration has helped to support contemporary photographic creation by showcasing emerging talent and promoting access to art for all. It enriches our photographic heritage whilst stimulating diversity in contemporary expression and encouraging ongoing reflection on our times. This approach leads to the creation of a collective narrative and the redefinition of our perception of the modern world.

Beyond creativity, this partnership forms part of an active approach to knowledge-sharing. Every year, BMW hosts educational visits as part of the “Back-to-school in Images” programme, organised by Rencontres d’Arles team. More than 400 school classes are invited to discover contemporary photography, develop their critical thinking and reflect on their relationship with images.

Practical Information.
The exhibition “Le corps vitré” by the winning duo of the BMW ART MAKERS programme will be on display at the Cloître Saint-Trophime from 6 July to 4 October 2026.

Biographies of the BMW ART MAKERS winners 2026.
Lara Tabet is a Lebanese medical biologist and visual artist based in Marseille, whose work combines life sciences, technology and visual arts. She uses experimental photography, bio-art, video, installation and sculpture to transform scientific protocols into creative tools, exploring the interactions between biology, technology and the environment. Trained in clinical pathology in Beirut and photography in New York, she has exhibited internationally and received several awards, including the Prince Claus Mentorship Award in 2022. A laureate of the European STARTS for Water II programme, she has taken part in various artist residencies and has taught photography in Beirut and Salzburg.

Trained in art history, museology and heritage conservation at the École du Louvre and EHESS, curator Yasmine Chemali has been developing a curatorial practice centred on photography, archives and contemporary issues of representation for over ten years. She has curated the Fouad Debbas collection, which specialises in 19th- and 20th-century photography, and was head of modern and contemporary art collections at the Sursock Museum in Beirut (2014-2020). Since 2020, she has been director of the Mougins Centre for Photography, which was established to promote contemporary photography through exhibitions, residencies and publications.

Her curatorial approach values marginalised narratives and images as tools of power and resistance and favours understated presentations that encourage a sensitive interpretation of the works. Alongside this, she works as an independent curator and takes part in conferences, whilst serving on the board of trustees of the SARADAR private collection in Beirut.

Retrospective of BMW Group France’s Cultural Engagement.
BMW ART MAKERS winners

• 2025: Raphaëlle Péria and Fanny Robin – Traversée du fragment manquant
• 2024: Mustapha Azeroual and Marjolaine Lévy – The Green Ray
• 2023: Eva Nielsen and Marianne Derrien – INSOLARE
• 2022: Arash Hanaei & Morad Montazami – Hantologie Suburbaine

BMW Residency winners (2011 to 2021)

• Almudena Romero – The Pigment Change
• Lewis Bush – Ways of Seeing Algorithmically
• Emeric Lhuisset – Quand les nuages parleront (When the clouds speak)
• Baptiste Rabichon – En ville (In town)
• Dune Varela – Toujours le soleil (Always the sun)
• Alinka Echeverría – Nicephora
• Natasha Caruana – Coup de Foudre (Love at first sight)
• Mazaccio & Drowilal – Wild Style
• Marion Gronier – Les Glorieux (The Glorious Ones)
• Alexandra Catiere – Ici, par-delà les brumes (Here, beyond the mists)

The BMW Group's Cultural Engagement, with exclusive updates and deeper insights into its global initiatives can be followed on Instagram at @BMWGroupCulture.