Curatorial Award

 

 

 

 JIMEI X ARLES CURATORIAL AWARD FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AND MOVING IMAGE

 

The Jimei x Arles Curatorial Award for Photography and Moving Image was co-launched by the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre and CHANEL in 2021. It’s mission is to support young creative forces in photography and moving image art: to discover and nurture outstanding young Chinese curators and researchers. Through a series of measures including an open call for curatorial proposals, professional jury selection, master courses on curation, and project-funding support, the award aims to engage outstanding curators in interdisciplinary research and curatorial practice.

 

Since 2021, the award’s open call has attracted more than 196 proposals; 15 finalist proposals lighted out and were presented as a group exhibition during the Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival, engaging in dialogue and exchange with the public and media; Award winners Jiang Feiran, Wang Shuman, and Gan Yingying & Zhou Yichen were able to realize their exhibition proposals with the support of the project at the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing. The exhibition outcomes of this award have also been showcased at ZiWU, and Fotografiska Shanghai. Additionally, each year's winners have access to an academic visits and exchanges programme held annually and a cash prize of RMB 100,000 provided by the award.

 

• The academic visits and exchanges programme, as part of the Award's support for its awardees, provides strong assistance in expanding their international perspectives and establishing close connections with scholars in the field of photography and moving image art. The awarded curators of the 2021 and 2022 editions embarked on visits and exchanges in Europe for a period of twenty days. The itinerary included multiple initiations such as the Les Rencontres d'Arles, The Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Cartier-Bresson Foundation, and exchange activities at independent artist studios. the 2023 awarded curatorial group will embark on the programme in the summer of 2024.

 

• Jimei x Arles Curatorial “Master Courses” initiated in 2023, offers free courses to all participants. It aims to deepen the long-term support and cultivation of Chinese curators in the photography and moving image. The program invites four senior curators from home and abroad and provides online sessions, assisting emerging curator in broadening their global academic perspectives and deepening their curatorial potential. In 2023, the project offered four sessions of public benefit courses in the field of photography and moving image curation. The invited mentors include curator and art critic Fumio Nanjo, artist, researcher, and publisher Sergio Valenzuela Escobedo, art historian and professor at the University of Chicago Hung Wu, and art historian, writer, curator Taous Dahmani, and 8th Yokohama Triennale artistic directorLiu Ding & Carol Yinghua Lu, .International Programmes curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) Lisa Springer, the academic director at the Xie Zilong Photography Museum (XPM) Dong Bingfeng, and  CHANEL lead curator for moving image at M+ Museum Silke Schmickl.

 

• To further deepen the cultivation of talent in the field of curatorial studies for photography and moving images, this year's Jimei × Arles International Photo Festival has launched the innovative "Curatorial Seminar" program. Building on the foundation of the existing award selection and the online course "Curatorial Masterclass," this new initiative aims to foster exchange and learning in curatorial practices. The program is led by renowned art historian and curator Carol Lu, who oversees the course design and activities. Additionally, 12 guest experts from curatorial, photography, and local cultural research fields were invited to share their professional insights and practical experiences with the participants.

 

 

Project Schedule 

• June – August
  Open call for proposals.

 

• August – September
  Preliminary selection of proposals, proposal presentation, scholarly communication and final evaluation and review.

 

• November - January of the following year
  5 finalist proposals will be presented at the “Jimei × Arles Curatorial Award for Photography and Moving Image Finalist Exhibition”during the Jimei × Arles International Photo Festival in Xiamen; The final evaluation and award ceremony will be held during the opening week.

 

• The following year
  Further development of the award-Winning proposal, exhibition presented to the public in Beijing, Shanghai, or oversea;
  Overseas academic visits and exchanges programme for the awarded curator(s).

 

 

---

 

 

About the Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival

Jointly organised by Three Shadows Photography Art Centre and Tianxia Jimei Media, the Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival was launched in Xiamen's Jimei District in 2015. Since then, Jimei x Arles has presented more than 300 exhibitions from China and the rest of Asia, as well as a selection of shows from Les Rencontres d'Arles photography festival in France. The exhibitions are primarily presented in the Jimei Art Centre and the Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre, as well as other sites across the island of Xiamen and Fuzhou. During the festival, vistors have access to enjoy a variety of events including portfolio reviews, lectures, guided tours, performances, screenings, workshops and study tours.

 

About Three Shadows Photography Art Centre

Three Shadows Photography Art Centre is China’s first independent institution specialised in contemporary photography. It was co-founded by the influential Chinese contemporary photographer RongRong and his wife, the celebrated Japanese photographer inri, in June 2007.  Three Shadows Photography Art Centre has been the country’s premiere platform for the presentation, promotion and international exchange of photography by hosting high-calibre exhibitions, lectures, educational activities, publications, artist residencies and other independent events and programmes. It is comprised of two spaces, north and south: one is situated in Beijing’s Caochangdi Art District and the other in Xinglinwan, Jimei District in the southern Chinese city of Xiamen. Aside from its exhibition spaces, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre is also home to +3 Gallery, image production facilities, a photography library, a photography education centre and a photography bookstore.

 

About CHANEL

 

Chanel is a private company and a world leader in creating, developing, manufacturing and distributing luxury products. Founded by Gabrielle Chanel at the beginning of the last century, Chanel offers a broad range of high-end creations, including Ready-to-Wear, Leather Goods, Fashion Accessories, Eyewear, Fragrances, Makeup, Skincare, Jewellery and Watches. Chanel is also renowned for its Haute Couture collections, presented twice yearly in Paris, and for having acquired a large number of specialized suppliers, collectively known as the Métiers d’Art. Chanel is dedicated to ultimate luxury and to the highest level of craftsmanship. It is a brand whose core values remain historically grounded on exceptional creation. As such, Chanel promotes culture, art, creativity and “savoir-faire” throughout the world, and invests significantly in people, R&D, sustainable development and innovation. At the end of 2023 Chanel employed more than 36,500 people worldwide.

 

 

For more information, please contact:
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (Brand Communications)
Amber/Rongjia Tang
Email: capmi@threeshadows.cn