Among the workshops of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts, three of them are currently directed by photographs (Patrick Faigenbaum, Eric Poitevin, Patrick Tosani). If one can obviously see photography in their work, they never exclude other practices (installation, sculpture, performance, edition, writing), nor take an exclusive orientation on (questioning the image or the documentary and the whole range of intermediary positions). In addition, the photographic practice is not restricted to these workshops and it is possible to notice the use of this medium in resonance with others, at different steps of the elaboration of a project. It is this varieties of approaches of the photography that we are here willing to account for, through the few workshops who will, during a short period of time, agree to give their walls to the hanging of a selection of images gathered by families, affinities, themes, that we will keep an eye on in order to find echoes and reciprocal answers. Wether completed, in progress, or falling within the scope of an other type of realisation, seing them close on the wall is certainly an important step in their understanding. Likewise, it allows to think about what makes photography today.
Beaux-Arts de Paris
The École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts is a vast architectural complex, opposite the Louvre Museum, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, between the quai Malaquais and rue Bonaparte. Public establishment with an administrative nature, under the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the ENSBA's primary mission is the education of students intending to artistic high level creation.
Heir to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture founded in the XVIIe century by Louis XIV, it remains a top meeting place for the creation, heritage and history, and plays an essential role in the artistic and cultural scene.