This year, BMW France, official sponsor of Paris Photo, presents Nicephora by Alinka Echeverria, winner of the 2015 BMW Residency. This British-Mexican artist, fifth winner of the BMW Residence at the musée Nicéphore Niépce, developed a project during her three-month residency at Chalon-sur-Saône, from September through November 2015, that examines the photographic medium (invention, reproduction, image transfer) and its media outlets. She was inspired by Nicéphore Niépce and his founding act, the invention of photography with the first heliography.
Interested in women’s representation in the history of art and photography, she weaves historical, technical, and philosophical links between the museum’s collections and ceramics. She uses a vase as a symbol of femininity, as a vector of mythological allegories, and questions the way that different image reproduction techniques have steered the view of women. Her anthropological training made her passionately penetrate musée Nicéphore Niépce’s collections. Her vision of the world is introspective , in search of alternative reasonings. Alinka Echeverria works on the interaction between the image and the viewers to lead them to understand the world differently.
The exhibition, provided by BMW Art & Culture, is accompanied by a monograph coedited with Éditions Trocadéro and by a film directed by François Goizé revealing what happens behind the scenes of the residency and the world of the photographic artist. For Paris Photo, the public is able to preview the project and also the first works created by Dune Varela, the 2016 winner, as a part of the BMW Residency started in September 2016 at the musée Nicéphore Niépce.
Alinka Echeverria, Nicephora
At Paris Photo
From November 10 through 13, 2016
Grand Palais
Paris, France
