A PHOTOGRAPHER IN RESIDENCE AT THE MUSEUM:
Isabelle Ha Eav Ruiz As part of its 10th anniversary, the Regards de Provence Museum is organizing its first "Residence for research, creation and production", from June 13 to July 22, 2023. The museum has the ambition to embody not only a place of exhibition and reception of the public but also a place of creation open to emerging artists, painters and photographers.
Meeting with the public:
The next meetings with the artist are Wednesday 12, Thursday 13, Friday 14, Saturday 15, Sunday 16, Thursday 20, Friday 21 (from 10.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.), Saturday 22 to 3 p.m. for the final public restitution of his work done at the museum.
Residency for research, creation and production
As part of its 10th anniversary, the Musée Regards de Provence wanted to develop its approach to supporting contemporary artists by launching a call for applications for its first “Residence for research, creation and production” at the middle of a showroom. Its ambition is to embody not only a place of exhibition and reception of the public but also a place of creation open to the young generation of artists – painters and photographers, holders of a DNSEP of 5 years or less and installed in the South Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region.
This initiative is part of the desire to reaffirm its commitment to contemporary artists in the area, its anchoring in the city and its contribution to the identification of Marseille as a territory of innovation and creation. The objectives are to promote contemporary creation, to support artists at the start of their career in the process of creation and exhibition and to accompany them in their professional integration. The culmination of this residency is an experience nourished by contacts with other artists, the public, schoolchildren, cultural operators, and gives rise to a return to the museum during Art-o-Rama at the end of August 2023.
The hosted artist must restore his plastic vision of the evolution of the Regards de Provence museum in 10 years, of its anchoring in the city and its positioning in a local cultural context and in an area with a strong tourist and cultural vocation. The intention of this residence is to experience a new approach to the city, its coastline, its port landscape, its heritage and the geographical location of the museum. It thus anchors the creation in its relationship to the place, to its building, to the space, to the population, to its history, its environment and its evolution in 10 years. The presence of an artist on site makes it possible to make new audiences aware of contemporary creation and to interact with the museum by promoting it.
First edition 2023, winner ISABELLE HA EAV RUIZ
Isabelle HA EAV RUIZ was selected from around ten applications to carry out this first residency. The artist explores the history of photography with particular attention to its materiality. This translates into contemporary experiments in dialogue with the use of old techniques, including that of bichromate gum (a technique invented in the 19th century), combining the processes of photography and painting. For the residency with the Regards de Provence Museum, she produced a series of photographic prints, between June 12 and July 22, 2023.
Course of the residency at 4 weeks:
Since her arrival at the museum, the artist has mainly conducted her research around two stages: The first focused on documentation on the collection of the Fondation Regards de Provence where she discovered paintings by Provençal artists, mainly from the 19th century where the heritage of the landscape marked it. She mainly retained the contemplation of the landscape shaped by the hand of man, combined with close-ups of scenes of life and scenes of work. This documentation led her to the second stage of work: that of film photography. For this stage, she wondered how a painter from Provence would approach the landscape, a century later; what our landscape was made of.
The question of the traces of the past turned out to be obvious: that we had to think about our contemporary landscape, with a look at the elements that these painters noted, and which are today part of our present. Her research has taken her to different places in Marseille: around the Museum district, La Joliette, as far as Aygalades and La Viste. She has selected a series of around ten photographs, which will be presented in gum bichromate prints, a dialogue between the contemporary and the light of the past. The third stage in which it is located today is the development of these prints.
Meeting with the public:
Such a residence is designed as an immersion in the field that inspires and creates links. In agreement with the artist and in forms compatible with his approach, the residency creates opportunities for diverse encounters with Marseille audiences.
The next meetings with the artist are Wednesday 12, Thursday 13, Friday 14, Saturday 15, Sunday 16, Thursday 20, Friday 21 (from 10.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.), Saturday 22 to 3 p.m. for the final public restitution of his work done at the museum.