As part of its participation in the FUTURES platform, the Centre photographique Rouen Normandie has set up the Frutescens programme. Dedicated to the French photography scene, it aims to support its authors and increase the circulation of their work on a European scale. They are selected on the basis of nominations made by leading figures from the world of photography, chosen for their complementary views and perspectives on photographic creation. Working in France in the fields of galleries, publishing, fairs and exhibitions, and still photographers (previous winners were themselves invited to nominate artists), they have in-depth knowledge of the artists and issues involved in contemporary photography. The consistency and maturity of their work, as well as the timeliness of the moment in their careers, guided our choices and led us to select Hélène Bellenger, Rebekka Deubner, Léonie Pondevie and Rebecca Topakian this year.
When you meet them, the rigour of their work – understood in the sense of the work that each of them develops as much as in the sense of the constant labour that they put in to make it happen – is striking. For each of them, the time spent on research and its maturation, on encounters and the unexpected, is the foundation of their creation. Constructed by protocol and method, their works are nonetheless porous and flexible. They allow themselves to be blown through by the winds of doubt, sometimes to the point of losing the plan only to return to it later. Personal experience is central and always transformed: In Léonie Pondevie’s work, a father’s interest in meteorology becomes the starting point for an exploration of our relationship with the measurement of climate; in Rebecca Topakian’s work, a fragmented family history is the point of contact with the past and present of a collective trauma; In Rebekka Deubner’s work, the body – her own and those of loved ones – is the point where representations of loss, desire, femininity and masculinity rest and regenerate; in Hélène Bellenger’s work, the collection and recycling of archive images and out-of-use materials are the anchor for a re-interpretation of our visual culture. While the materials and techniques used differ, what each artist patiently and solidly constructs are buildings of memory, which they invite us to visit.