France launches a Villa Medici in the United States

DIPLOMACY – Cocorico in America. France announced, on July 2, 2021, that it would inaugurate the Villa Albertine in the fall, a place of residence and creation for French artists in the United States, in the tradition of the prestigious Villa Medici in Rome.

Major innovation: this new showcase of French culture will no longer be concentrated in a single place, but will be available in ten major American cities, from the east coast to California. “The Villa Albertine is first and foremost the challenge of bringing the new transatlantic momentum to the field of culture and ideas” after the “misunderstandings” of the Trump era, declared French Foreign Minister Jean -Yves Le Drian, by unveiling the project at the Quai d’Orsay.

Explore the United States

It will allow French creators “to explore American realities” but also to “influence the way in which our culture is perceived in the United States”, he explained, stressing how “cultural influence has become. a power lever ”.

More than three centuries after the creation of the Académie de France in 1666 in Rome, which has since become the Villa Medici, the Villa Albertine will offer a new haven for young artists, in direct contact with American culture and the era of “ creative industries ”. “If there is one country which occupies the place that Italy occupied in the 17th century, it is the United States”, notes Gaëtan Bruel, director of the Villa Albertine (his name refers to one of the “Young girls in flower” by Proust).

France will now have four artistic residencies in Rome, Madrid (Casa Velázquez, inaugurated in 1928), Kyoto (Villa Kujoyama, 1992) and the Villa Albertine in ten American cities simultaneously. Ten places symbolizing American diversity and drawing on French cultural networks in the United States: New York, Washington, Boston, Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“We are part of the tradition of the Villa Medici, but in a deeply renewed pattern,” noted the French Ambassador to the United States, Philippe Étienne. “Residents will be more immersed in the places that welcome them,” he told AFP.

Immersive work for the French

Exit the prestigious setting of the Villa Medici, with 16th century palace, park and Italian garden, sometimes considered too elitist and too far removed from reality. In Los Angeles, residents will be greeted by Hollywood producers and major art collectors. In New York, they will choose the neighborhood and the type of place (workshop, exhibition space, etc.) in which they wish to immerse themselves.

The writer Constance Debré, who will carry out an investigation into the American counter-culture, will thus reside in a New York apartment. Photographer Nicolas Floc’h, who focuses on the representation of water, will explore the Mississippi and its changing colors aboard a boat.

Quentin Zuttion, comic book author, has chosen a roaming by train from New York to Los Angeles to paint a portrait of the new American youth. “It’s a huge gift, blessed bread”, declared the designer, who will make his “road trip” in April-May 2022 around the figure of the “Prom Queen”, the prom queen, elected by his student peers at the end of their university cycle.

Three other artists, visual artist Josefa Njtam, double bass player Sélène Saint-Aimé and Franco-Senegalese director Alain Gomia, will sign this inaugural season of the Villa Albertine. Sélène Saint-Aimé explained that she wanted to do “research, composition and creation” work in New Orleans to “strengthen the links” between jazz and Caribbean music, from which she originates.

They will be 60 term residents, for stays of one to three months and at an average cost of 20,000 euros, or a budget of 1.2 million per year, co-financed by private sponsorship, including the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation. The Villa Albertine will also offer around fifteen support programs for museum curators, screenwriters, video game writing or the promotion of French digital creation in the United States.

See also on The HuffPost: The second Statue of Liberty loaned by France has arrived in the United States

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