The Premiers Films festival was born from an observation: the desire to show one's own work and to see the work of others and then to discuss it. But then arose the difficulty of finding a projection space where it is possible to take the time necessary for sharing and discussion. One question remained unanswered: where to find this space, which is not only reserved for experienced filmmakers or artists? The Premiers Films festival was therefore born out of a great curiosity to discover the work of others and the difficulty of finding a space to do so.
Fabrice
Vannier
Studio professor
Born in 1963, in Savigny (France). Lives and works in Paris.
Has taught at the Beaux-Arts since 2005.
After studying Iberian and Latin American literature and civilisation at the Paris IV-Sorbonne, Fabrice Vannier studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris and at the Facultat de Belles-Arts de Barcelona.
Based on enigma and paralipse, his work reveals, like a system of correspondences and poetic, mythical and biographical reminiscences, an intimate Mediterranean space whose imagination is in turn developed, deviated or denied. This appears in works such as Premières stances sur le nom de Louganis (2005), Lithographies (2008-2010), Elles persistent (2012), Victoire des petites Aphrodites (2017), often presented in situ, in connection with nature, architecture or museum collections, notably at the Louvre, Évreux and Aegina (Greece) museums...
His disturbance with fragments, his approach to the notion of the fragmented image (from the abacus to the digital pixel), as well as his mastery of the processes of "mosaic work", are the bases of a teaching which - linked to painting or to an anti-pictural party - is resolutely oriented towards innovative artistic proposals, it is nourished by the history of mosaics, by the links which unite it with other disciplines and by the influence which it exerts on the creation of major artists.
Fabrice Vannier directs the Matter/Space Laboratory with Götz Arndt and Philippe Renault.
Philippe
Renault
Studio professor
Born in 1961, Philippe Renault lives and works in Paris.
Silicone, plaster, wax, resin…whichever the material, its plasticity, its light absorption capability, its porosity, density or scale, Philippe Renault understands its material intricacies and knows how to cast it.
Initiated into the art of molding and casting by his father in 1978, he started working at the porcelain factory of Villeneuve-la-Grande the following year. At Beaux-Arts de Paris, Robert Nogues taught him the secrets of his art since 1983. Philippe Renault opened his own studio in 1987 and began to work as a restorer and a mold creator. He was commissioned by rigorous institutions such as the French Department of Historical Monuments or the French National Heritage: the Assemblée Nationale, the Reims and Amiens Cathedrals, the Banque de France, the Grand Palais, the Plaza Athénée Hotel, the Ambroisie restaurant, the Musée Bourdelle and the Musée Maillol, the Dina Vierny Foundation… He also works with contemporary artists such as Anne and Patrick Poirier, Etienne Martin, Robert Couturier, etc.
He runs the materials / space lab along with Fabrice Vannier and Götz Arndt.
Götz
Arndt
Studio professor
Born in 1962 in Germany, Götz Arndt lives and works in Paris. A stonecutter in Bavaria, he graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1992 and runs the materials / space lab with Fabrice Vannier and Philippe Renault.
His artistic concerns are primarily with contextualized sculptural interventions, namely those situated in public space and that probe the history, use and attributes of their sites. The means used are economical, the aim being to integrate his sculpture ensembles in such a way as to bring out slight discrepancies between them and the existing architecture, discrepancies understood to hone our perception of space. His studio explores materials, their challenges and shaping, while taking space, lines, density and forms’ multiple variations into account. Götz Arndt has done public commissions in Germany, Luxembourg and France and he exhibits in Europe and Asia. His works are represented in public and private collections.
Julien
Prévieux
Studio professor
Julien Prévieux is a French artist whose multidisciplinary work is regularly exhibited in art centers, galleries and museums, in France and abroad. The economy, politics, cutting-edge technologies, the cultural industry are all “worlds” in which his artistic practice is involved. Like these Letters of non-motivation that he sent to companies for 7 years in response to advertisements seen in the press, detailing the motivations which led him not to apply. A keen observer of individual and collective behavior, the artist takes a critical and humorous look at society. In various forms – videos, sculptures, installations, performances, drawings – his works appropriate the mechanisms of the sectors of activity they invest in to better update their dogmas and excesses.
He has recently produced a number of performances, including Of Balls, Books and Hats presented at the Actoral festival in Marseille, at Usine C in Montreal, at the Ménagerie de verre in Paris and at T2G in Gennevilliers. He has presented his work in a number of solo exhibitions at the Art Sonje art center in Seoul, the MAC in Marseille, the RISD Museum of Art in Providence, the Center Pompidou in Paris or the Blackwood Gallery in Toronto. He has participated in multiple group exhibitions at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, at the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing, at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, at the Lyon Biennale in 2015 and at the 10th Istanbul Biennale.
He received the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2014.
Photo credit: © Adrien Thibault
Estelle
Zhong Mengual
Inhabiting the landscape: artistic practices of hospitality for living things
Estelle Zhong Mengual is an art historian. A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure and holder of a doctorate from Sciences Po Paris, she teaches in the Master d'Expérimentation en Art et Politique (SPEAP), created by Bruno Latour at Sciences Po Paris.
Her research focuses on the relationship between art, past and present, and the living world. In particular, she is working on the development of an environmental history of art, proposing a new way of looking at the representation of the living world in art, using the tools of environmental humanities and the most contemporary natural sciences. She is the author of numerous books, including Apprendre à voir. Le point de vue du vivant (Actes Sud, 2021), which won the EcoloObs prize for the best essay on environmental thought in 2021, and Peindre au corps à corps. Flowers and Georgia O'Keeffe (Actes Sud, 2022).
Fabrice
Bourlez
Troubles, alliances and aesthetics
A Belgian national, Fabrice Bourlez studied in Italy, where he obtained a doctorate in philosophy (Università degli studi di Pisa).
His research focused on the cinematographic work of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Since then, he has taught in art schools and at Sciences Po Paris. With a degree in clinical psychology (Paris 7), he has long worked in the field of mental health as a clinician. He is now a psychoanalyst. He writes for a number of scientific journals on gender, psychoanalysis and cinema. His writing is inextricably linked to his activism on behalf of sexual minorities. His publications include Pulsions pasoliniennes (Les presses du Réel/ Franciscopolis, 2015) and Queer psychoanalysis (Hermann, 2018).
Elie
During
Science
Elie During is a former student of the ENS, agrégé in philosophy, and lecturer in philosophy at the University of Paris Nanterre. His research focuses on contemporary figures of simultaneity at the intersection of science, art and metaphysics.
Among his publications: False connections: the coexistence of images (Actes Sud, 2010), The Future does not exist (B42, 2014), several volumes of the critical edition of Bergson's works at the Presses Universitaires de France (Duration and Simultaneity : about Einstein's theory, 2009; The Memory of the present and false recognition, 2012), as well as co-edited books or journal issues, devoted to cinema, contemporary art or current research in metaphysics: Cinéphilosophie (Revue Critique, 2005), In actu: experimental art (Presses du réel, 2009), What is contemporary art thinking? (Revue Critique, 2010), Things in themselves: metaphysics of realism (PUF, 2018).
Photo credit: © Moritz Wehrmann
Jean-Yves
Jouannais
Contemporary Art
Editor-in-chief of the magazine Art Press (1991-1999), member of the editorial committee of the Revue Perpendicule (1995-1998), Jean-Yves Jouannais taught contemporary art at the University of Paris 8. Among other exhibitions: Topographies of war, Le Bal, Paris, 2011; La Force de l’art, Grand Palais (with J.-L. Froment and D. Ottinger), 2009; L’Idiotie, Pommery Experience #2, Reims, 2005; History of Infamy, Venice Biennale, 1995; A contemporary art from South Africa, La Défense, 1994. Among other publications: Artists without works (1997); Idiocy (2004); The Use of Ruins (2012); MOAB, Epic in 22 songs (2018).
Since 2008, he has devoted himself to the “Encyclopedia of Wars” conference cycle, a monthly event at the Center Pompidou.
Photo credit: © Adrien Thibault
Véronique
Teyssandier
French FLE
Véronique Teyssandier holds a DEA (post-graduate diploma) in French literature and a maîtrise (master's degree) in French as a foreign language.
She has been teaching French language and culture to a variety of audiences for over twenty years. She has worked for IES Abroad (an American university programme), the Beaux-Arts de Paris, the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, the Université Paris-Dauphine and Fresnes prison. She is particularly interested in the teaching of culture and civilisation, which she considers to be inseparable from the teaching of the language itself. With her passion for theatre and cinema, she aims to give her students the linguistic and cultural tools they need to make the most of their stay and deepen their knowledge of French society.
