In 2026, the 7th edition of the BPM – Biennale de la Photographie de Mulhouse invites visitors to explore terrestrial and mental geographies, drawing on notions of sedimentation, stratification, matter-flow, and the plasticity of collective and individual memories.
The theme is linked to the geographical situation of Mulhouse, the festival city. Thirty-three million years ago, the Alsace plain was a seabed. This sea deposited thick layers of limestone and marl around Mulhouse. This perpetual action of combined flows and sediments, this living geological organism, has marked the territory and its inhabitants in its topographical expression, as the backdrop to many lives. These phenomena of sedimentation are part of a living, collective, and cultural history. The inhabitants use them as mineral resources to create their shelters, but also to explore their own histories and narratives over the millennia.
Like these phenomena of sedimentation, this 7th edition of the BPM brings together photographers who explore the past, interested in geological excavations as much as in excavations of memory. Mining, excavating, and digging are all methodologies of investigation, allowing for the exploration of the earth but also of the mind. The exhibitions intertwine collective narratives and the interconnections between individual and collective, human and non-human histories.
Organized by the association l’Agrandisseur, the BPM – Biennale de la Photographie de Mulhouse is a festival that gives space to photographers’ singular visions of our world and, in this sense, supports contemporary creation. Indeed, in addition to its commitment to cross-border exchanges and to greater respect for our environment, this event hosts artists in residence to enable them to deepen their research or produce works.
The Biennale pursues a dual vocation: to open the photographic spectrum internationally while detecting and showcasing emerging photography. In this regard, just as it disseminates the work of already established photographers, the Biennale also provides a framework for identifying artists who will become recognized talents on a national and international scale.
Every two years, the festival presents around a dozen photography exhibitions as well as events linked to Mulhouse and the surrounding area.
BPM 2026 in figures
12 free exhibitions including 6 solo exhibitions: Jenia Fridlyand, Tiago Casanova, Roselyne Titaud, Jean-Claude Figenwald, Pablo Castilla, Manuela Marques
54 artists presented, as well as 70 students from higher art schools in the Grand Est region
6 associate exhibition curators: Magali Avezou, Nigel Baldacchino, Bénédicte Blondeau, Ange-Frédéric Koffi, Camille Rey & Eva Kallenberger
3 opening days on June 5-6-7, in the presence of the photographers and exhibition curators
1 event program around the photobook: the Photobook days, on June 6 and 7 at the Musée des Beaux-Arts
BPM 2026 : SÉDIMENTATION(S)
June 5 – July 5, 2026
Opening days on June 5-6-7
www.biennale-photo-mulhouse.com/2026
