Announcing Artist Residents and Partnerships for Villa Albertine

Welcoming more than 80 artists and thinkers for its inaugural season, the French cultural institution will host residents in 10 major American cities and will explore intersections between culture and the urgent questions of our time.

The French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs announces artist residents for its inaugural season of Villa Albertine in the United States. The 80 selected artists and thinkers from France and around the globe have proposed projects that examine the key issues of our time through the exploration of the American landscape. Co-curated by 40 French partnering cultural institutions, the residencies present a diverse group, both in terms of the profiles selected and disciplines represented. A collective film project will also be produced, involving one resident based in each of the 10 Villa Albertine cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Participating residents are decorated and innovative artists and filmmakers including Alice Diop, Yann Gonzales, Valérie Massadian, and more.

Among the first group of residents is (LA)HORDE, a three-artist collective who will work in New York City and Los Angeles to explore the extraordinary richness of contemporary depiction of bodies – on social media, in the public sphere, and on the stage. Art historian Anne Lafont will offer a historical investigation based on two emblematic figures: Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable (founder of the city of Chicago) and Marie Laveau (voodoo priestess), as anchoring points of an American history through the prism of French and Black experiences. Nicolas Floc’h will develop a several month-long exploration of the Mississippi River, photographing the varying colors of its water and geography.

The cohort of cultural partners includes many of the most influential, respected, and innovative organizations and institutions on both sides of the pond, from the Centre Pompidou and Théâtre national de Bretagne, to Lincoln Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Doc Lab, and many more.

The full list of artists and partnerships is here: