In 2014, Parmigiani Fleurier signed a partnership with the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne. This partnership is part of a long-term commitment to support the art of photography and the emerging talent of the future. It links two brands that share the same desire to preserve the legacy of the past while encouraging learning and development among future generations.
With that aim in mind, in 2014 the Musée de l’Elysée and Parmigiani Fleurier created the Prix Elysée, which supports creativity in the field of photography. This competition rewards one talented photographer every other year, allowing them to produce and exhibit a new large-scale photography project. Selected from among 440 candidates, eight nominees were unveiled during the Nuit des Images in June 2016. They then devoted themselves to their photography projects, which were presented in January 2017 in the Nominees Book exploring the artistic direction taken by each one. These projects were individually judged by a prestigious jury. The winner will be announced on 24 June 2017 during the Nuit des Images which, every year, marks the conclusion of one cycle and the start of the next.
The eight nominees for 2016-2018 and their project
Isabelle Blanc and Olivier Hilare (Switzerland and France) – "La Vérité de Mr Truth"
The True Truth’s Stories is a collection of new photographs based on the codes of the literary work (preface, chapters, epilogue, narrator). It is made up of a succession of narratives mixing true and fictional stories, within which the artists play with truth and falsehood with the help of archival and contemporary images.
"What’s hiding behind the polished sheen of images, both public and private?"
Elina Brotherus (Finland) – "Meaningless Work"
Elina Brotherus has an ambitious photographic mission: a project to produce images from her own interpretations of the preparatory scores and scripts of Fluxus artists in the 1960s and 1970s.
"How can a piece of work that seems insignificant be transformed into a project that will have significance in years to come…?"
Matthias Bruggmann (Switzerland) – "A haunted world that never shows"
Building on the framework of his prior work on contemporary conflicts, Matthias Bruggmann continues a long-term photographic project launched in 2012 documenting the conflict in Syria. Respecting the numerous constraints inherent to photojournalism, his work aims to challenge our own moral assumptions and bring to the surface a greater understanding of the violence that underlies the conflict.
"If the tens of thousands of images of torture captured by Syrian photographers don’t get the attention of the Western public, what can a foreigner who doesn’t even speak Arabic achieve?"
David Jiménez (Spain) – "Omen"
In his photographic project Omen, David Jiménez seeks to play with the limits of our perception. He works toward the completion of this ambitious visual exploration which aspires to transcend time, space and culture to become a poetic visual abstraction that leads us closer to a higher meaning.
"A vast world opens up once our beliefs are abandoned to a stable and objective reality"
Sofie Knijff (Netherlands, Belgium) – "Tales"
Creating a dialogue between the fictional and real, Sofie Knijff will explore the influence of fairy tales and their meaning in different cultures today. Focusing on the genre of portraiture, she will work with children, bringing their favourite fairy tales to life. It is her hope that this project will inspire a new vision of how we perceive the "other" in the world today.
"I’d like for my work to use the world of fairy tales to provide a different understanding of how we see the Other"
Jim Naughten (UK) – "The Mountains of Kong"
Jim Naughten proposes to travel through time to a fabled place where only the best images can be made. Acting as an explorer, scientist and photographer, he sets out to discover a world that existed in popular consciousness and maps for over a hundred years, the Mountains of Kong.
"The changeability of history and the way in which myths are born, grow and then disappear completely fascinate me"
Emeka Okereke (Nigeria) – "As We Recede"
Between the periods of 1950 and 1970 most African countries gained independence from colonial rule. With this came the task of self-actualisation and construction of nationalist consciousness. Emeka Okereke explores the sociopolitical entity of contemporary Nigeria with a multimedia project, encompassing photography, video and sound to revisit the history and eventualities of the Nigeria- Biafra War, giving a fresh perspective on the nuances of this impactful conflict.
"The creative process is a thought process"
Robert Zhao Renhui (Singapore) – "Natural History"
For Robert Zhao Renhui, nature conservation and appreciation is and always has been about fulfilling people’s need for nostalgic wildness, however contrived and fictitious it may be. He proposes embarking on a photographic project to investigate and document the different ideas we have constructed of nature.
"Zoos might be cruel, but they’re useful for city-dwellers…"
