Each year since its launching in 2016, six to seven photographers were selected to be part of the national photographic commission, Regards du Grand Paris, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture to the Ateliers Médicis, in partnership with the Centre national des arts plastiques (National Center of plastic arts).
Generating multiple, sensitive, slightly off-kilter perspectives on a territory undergoing a massive transformation, and inviting the artists to contribute their stories and their points of view of these changes in the metropolitan area: this was the intent of the national commission for the Regards du Grand Paris.
Spanning a ten-year period (2016- 2026), commissioning a minimum of six artists per year, the commission is part of the development of this project dealing with urban and social representations of the Paris area.
The commission is building, year after year, a significant stock of images and writers’ perspectives on the development of ‘le Grand Paris.’ The images will be visible in public spaces, in exhibitions or in publications or works which are part of the Fonds national d’art contemporain (National Fund of Contemporary Art), a collection managed by the Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap).
Each year, a call for applications is sent out in July, based on a pre-selected theme. The chosen artists have ten months to finish their projects, after which their work is incorporated into the Fonds national d’art contemporain.
2017 — Grand Paris — City-world
Artists : Julie Balagué, Raphaël Dallaporta (in collaboration with Philippe Vasset), Gabriel Desplanque, Patrizia Di Fiore, Julien Guinand, Karim Kal, Olivier Menanteau, Sandra Rocha, Bertrand Stofleth, Chenxin Tang.
2018 — Translation: toward the same or toward the other?)
Artists : Camille Ayme, Hannah Darabi and Benoît Grimbert, Sylvain Gouraud, Gilberto Güiza-Rojas, Francis Morandini, Po Sim Sambath.
2019 — Grand Paris, true fiction
Artists : Lucie Jean, Mana Kikuta, Baudouin Mouanda, Maxence Rifflet, Anne-Lise Seusse, Zhao Sun.
2020 — What shared future?
Artists : Aurore Bagarry, Mathias Depardon and Guillaume Perrier, Lucas Leglise, Geoffroy Mathieu, Khalil Nemmaoui, Alexandra Serrano and Simon Pochet, Luise Schröder.
2021 — Observing our distances
Artists : Sylvain Couzinet-Jacques, Alassan Diawara, Assia Labbas, Marion Poussier, Marie Quéau, Rebecca Topakian.
2022 — The scale of time
Artists : Yasmina Benabderrahmane, Vincent Ceraudo, Pauline Hisbacq, M’hammed Kilito, Nina Medioni, Ambroise Tézenas.
2023 —
Call for applications on july at ateliermedicis.fr