In Nice, the Satellite image festival celebrates the power of the collective in contemporary photography

The only festival in the Alpes-Maritimes dedicated to contemporary photography, L’image Satellite chose for this third edition to focus on the collective forms of creation. For this, three exhibition routes are offered until October 15 in several places: “In tune!” in Nice, “The inventory” in Vence and “Don/Counter-donation” in Mougins.

In Nice, the 109 (the former slaughterhouses of the city of Nice converted into a Center for Contemporary Cultures) offers In tune ! a journey between different collaborative practices of the still image. Two collectives of photographers are in the spotlight: Fuzzy Trend et VOST.

The first presents sixteen photographic accounts gathered under the title Fragile. Sixteen photographers question the world, growth and its often disastrous consequences for the planet. A look without concession but not devoid of poetry and in which the imagination can find its place.

Among these looks, we can cite that of Gilles Coulon. As early as 1990, this French photographer found a powerful source of inspiration in Africa. “He worked on the district of Guet Ndar (Editor’s note a fishing district) in Saint-Louis in Senegal by taking the opposite view of the images that we usually see on Africa”, comments Orphée Grisvard-Pontieux, artistic director of the L’image Satellite festival. “He didn’t work with dazzling lights but with something very dark, very tenuous. He went to the neighborhoods in the evening to settle down for a long time with his camera to be able to build his frames.

From 1990 to 2002, Gilles Coulon devoted several photo reports to Africa and in particular to Mali. (Gilles Coulon)

VOST is the other collective present in this exhibition route. The six artists of this collective imagined a joint installation called Meteors. Both photographic and sculptural, evolving and modular, it questions our collective memory with simple questions: what is a historical event? How does it resonate today and what hopes can we place in the future? A final question that seems terribly topical in view of the issues that are transforming the world into a vast battlefield.

Other proposals, often off the beaten path of photography, are discover in the course In tune ! Sunder the title magnetic fields, we discover the works of seven photographers who have been associated with various research laboratories in the humanities and social sciences. Ces artists have looked on issues related to questions of gender, identity, discrimination or relationship to the living.

The second course is titled The state of play. It brings together photographic proposals that each question the urban space in their own way. At the gallery of the Charles Nègre photography museum, the public can discover the work of the young visual artist Amandine Mohamed Delaporte. She carried out documentary research on the Nice expressway (also called Autoroute Urbaine Sud or Voie Pierre Mathis from the name of its designer) by combining archives, photographs and installations around this impressive work due to its many works of arts.

Third and last route: Donation/Counter-donation. It offers visitors to sail between Vence and Mougins, two other cities hosting the festival. The Irishman Tom Wood is thus in the spotlight at the Center de la photographie in Mougins. This autodidact passionate about experimentation surveyed Liverpool and the banks of the Mersey between 1978 and 2001 equipped with his Leica 35, painting a portrait of the city and its inhabitants.

Finally, it is from the angle of transmission that the fixed image is declined with the restitution of an audiovisual workshop carried out in 2022 at the Nice remand center with detainees, by the associations Sept Off (organizer of the Satellite Image Festival) and He was a trick… For a week, they asked six participants to make a photographic film that questions the relationship between images, gestures, steps, approaches, objects and stories. Walking is a matter of freedom is the (pretty) name of this project to be discovered at the low fountain gallery in Vence.

It should be noted that this festival L’image Satellite is part of an unprecedented initiative in Nice. baptized The Autumn of the image, it celebrates the time of a season (from September 23 to December 4) cinema, photography and video, on the scale of a territory. The Autumn of the Image brings together several festivals and events dedicated to still and moving images: Satellite image until October 16; the 22nd Nice European Short Film Festival from October 7 to 14, 2022; Cinema and Video Meetings from November 24 to 26 and OVNI (for Objectif Vidéo Nice), international video art festival from November 18 to December 4.

Le 109 – center of contemporary cultures – 89 Route de Turin – Nice until 15.10 Wed > Sat 2 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Gallery of the Charles Nègre photography museum1 Place Pierre Gautier – Nice until 6.11 Mar > Sun 10 a.m. – 12.30 p.m. & 1.30 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Lower fountain gallery in Vence -2 Place Antony Mars – Vence until 5.11 Mar > Sat 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. & 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Photography center in Mougins – 43 rue de l’Eglise – 06250 Mougins every day except Tuesdays 11 am to 8 pm