Saffronart’s Sanjana Gupta on Baptist Coelho’s residency at the Centre International d’Accueil et d’Echanges des Récollets, Paris

Paris: Since 2003, the Centre International d’Accueil et d’Echanges des Récollets in Paris has been organizing an annual residency program that hosts artists and writers from around the world in the historic Récollets Convent in the center of the city. So far, this residency has offered 180 artists from more than 80 countries the opportunity to develop and realize a specific project in Paris over three months.

These projects are required to be developed in Paris, and must also reflect Paris’s cultural environment. The residency program hosts select artists with specific profiles under three disciplines: the visual arts, the performing arts, and literature. Artists and writers who are professionally established in these three disciplines are selected by a consultative committee.

Among the eight visual arts artists selected for the 2012 residency, is Baptist Coelho, an artist from India, who will be living and working in Paris between July and September this year. Born in 1977, Coelho graduated in graphic design from the L.S. Raheja School of Art, Mumbai, in 1997. He then moved on to the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design in the United Kingdom, where he received his Master’s degree in visual communication. His work showcases collaborated personal research from various cultures, geographies and histories, in a wide variety of media such as installation, video, sound, photography and performance.

The idea of having such a residency program was to encourage international talent to engage with the rich culture of Paris. I think residencies like this provide a great opportunity not only for the artists who are able to reflect their creativity in a new, fertile environment, but also for the healthy evolution of the art scene in Paris.

Click here for more information.