The Frac Bretagne–Art Norac Award

Brittany is one of the richest regions in France in the visual arts sector. Its large pool of artists is supported by a committed network of actors and venues throughout the territory. But even if there are plenty of opportunities for artists to produce, exhibit and have their work collected, the development of their practice at the international level remains a challenge.

Frac Bretagne and Art Norac have been engaged in the construction of the artistic landscape in Brittany for a long time, with the goal of revealing the artistic talents and initiatives present within the region in the context of contemporary national and international artistic scenes.

In 2020, Frac Bretagne and Art Norac have chosen to join forces in their engagement with local artists by creating the Frac Bretagne–Art Norac Award. The goal of the award is to help bring artists active in the region to the international scene, in order to promote the professionalisation of their journey beyond the borders of France.

Each year, a partner structure in Europe or the rest of the world that is prepared to welcome an artist living and working in Brittany to produce a personal exhibition will be associated with the program.

2023 Award : the finalists

The 4 finalists of the Frac Bretagne – Art Norac Award 2023 are:

Claire Guetta
Born in 1993, lives and works in Rennes
A 2017 graduate of the EESAB-site de Rennes, Claire Guetta has presented her work at the Mulhouse 019 Biennial (2019), at the Axolotl Gallery in Toulon (2020), at the Suptat Gallery in Brussels (2021) and at the Fiminco Foundation in Paris (2021) At the crossroads of Drag, Cosplay and contemporary art, Claire Guetta embodies characters that make her life more epic, romantic and even dramatic. Drawing freely on the codes of popular culture, she romanticizes her daily life while addressing reflections on feminism and the passage to adulthood.

Louis Guillaume
Born in 1995, lives and works in Rennes
Louis Guillaume graduated from EESAB-site de Rennes in 2019 and was named one of the 10 finalists of the COAL Prize in 2020. In 2022, he was awarded the New Worlds grant. He has participated in various residencies such as #Tempête03 between the islands of Ouessant and Ledenez-Vraz. His work has been presented at the Jardins des Arts, Châteaubourg (2022), at the CCR d’Ambronay (2022), at the Altro Mundo gallery, Manila, Philippines (2022), at the 3CHA Art Centre, Châteaugiron (2023). Her artistic practice can be compared to the Land Art movement.

Céline Le Guillou
Born in 1994, lives and works in Quimper and Courtils
Céline Le Guillou studied at the ESAAA in Annecy, then at the EESAB-site de Quimper where she obtained her diploma in 2018. Attentive to what happens in the studio, to the act of creation as such, her approach is underpinned by the attention given to the materials she uses. She then perfected her skills in clay techniques at the European Institute of Ceramic Arts in the Haut-Rhin. She continued with several exhibition projects, including the residency programme Les Chantiers at Passerelle centre d’art contemporain in Brest and the Minoterie21 residency in Morbihan.

Charlotte Vitaioli
Born in 1986, lives and works in Rennes and Paris
Graduated in 2011 from EESAB-site de Quimper, Charlotte Vitaioli now teaches drawing at EESAB-site de Rennes. In 2018, thanks to a grant from the French Institute, she studied the know-how of weaving and dyeing in Japan. She has presented numerous performance projects at La Station, Nice (2020), La Chapelle des Calvairiennes – Le Kiosque, Mayenne (2015) or at the Normandy Impressionist Festival (2022). In 2020, she was a finalist for the Emerige Prize and exhibited at the Salon de Montrouge where she won the Villa Belleville Prize. She is currently working on a singing and dancing exhibition to be presented at the BF15 in Lyon in 2023.

Their work will be presented at the Frac Bretagne from 13 October 2023 to 14 January 2024 as part of a group exhibition.
During the opening, the winner will be announced and his or her work will be the subject of a solo exhibition at the Instituto Inclusartiz in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2024.

French website

Instituto Inclusartiz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, partner of the 2023 Award

In 2023, the partner venue is Instituto Inclusartiz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Founded in 1997, Instituto Inclusartiz is a non-profit cultural organization based in Rio de Janeiro whose ambition is to promote global contemporary art through an art corridor connecting the Lusophone world with the education of artists, curators, researchers and sponsors at every stage of their careers.

At the head of one of the most prestigious and complete artistic residency programs in the country, Inclusartiz has hosted more than thirty names in the segment, including renowned artists and curators, such as Yuko Hasegawa (Japan), Hans Ulrich Obrist (Switzerland), Amanda Abi Khalil (Lebanon), Gerda Steiner & Jorg Lenzlinger (Switzerland) and Valeska Soares (Brazil), and promising talents such as Maxwell Alexandre (Brazil), Manauara Clandestina (Brazil), Vivian Caccuri (Brazil) and Xadalu Tupã Jekupé (Brazil).

The Winner for the 2022 Award, Fanny Gicquel

Fanny Gicquel
Born in 1992, lives and works in Rennes.

Graduated from EESAB-Rennes in 2018, Fanny Gicquel is a 2021 winner of the Marfa Prize. In addition, her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Hua International gallery in Berlin (2021), at Passerelle Centre d’art contemporain in Brest (2020) and at The left right Place in Reims (2020). She has participated in the group exhibitions Art Souterrain in Montreal (2021), the 10th Prix de la Jeune Création de Saint-Rémy (2021) and Nanjing International Art Fair in China (2020).
Fanny Gicquel develops moving and fine environments within which the viewer’s body is invited to move. Her installations appear as microcosms in which the different elements maintain mutually interdependent relationships.

Whether placed on the floor or hanging from the ceiling, Fanny Gicquel’s objects, made of glass, metal or textile, are an invitation to the touch and aim to create a form of intimacy with the viewer. Her artworks therefore exist in two phases: contemplation and manipulation, allowing her to explore the border between the animate and the inanimate.
This also manifests through experimentation with changing materials such as paraffin and heat sensitive paint that escape a final form, evoking impermanence and the multiplicity of things that surround us.
The installations are always accompanied by scenarios of activation, imagined by the artist and executed by performers. They interact with the objects in a discrete or sometimes almost unnoticeable manner, until they create images close to a living painting, which invites to slow down and contemplate.
For her new installation at Frac Bretagne, the artist draws the outline of a moving and transitory landscape, occupied by sculptures which enter into a direct relationship with the architecture of the venue hosting them. Harmoniously displayed in the space, the artworks create a new synergy, allowing the different materials to subtly communicate with each other and to interact with the viewer’s body.

Elena Cardin, curator of the exhibition

Fanny Gicquel presents a solo exhibition at the Temple Bar Gallery + Studios (TBG+S) in Dublin, Ireland from May to July 2023.

The Winner for the 2021 Award, Corentin Canesson

Corentin Canesson
Born in 1988, lives and works in Brest and Paris.

Graduated from EESAB-Rennes in 2011, he participated to the 21st Prize of Fondation d’entreprise Ricard Le Fil d’Alerte. He has presented solo exhibitions at Sator gallery in Paris (2020), at Nathalie Obadia gallery in Paris (2018), at Crédac – Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry-sur- Seine (2017) and at Passerelle Centre d’art contemporain in Brest (2015).

Corentin Canesson practices painting as one would cover a music standard. Well aware of the medium’s history, he simultaneously works on abstract and figurative canvases, playing with resurgence of more or less confessed or hidden references to the paintings of Bram Van Velde or Philip Guston.

The “figures” inhabiting these series are to be understood here in the sense of “pretexts” to (continue to) paint. Whether the lyrics of a song by Yo La Tengo, the color of a book cover, a bird with a long beak are often the starting point for long series. Never really completed, the series continue to develop over the years, incorporating variables such as the format of the canvas or the exhibition budget.

For Mauve Zone (exhibition of the nominees of the Frac Bretagne-Art Norac Award 2021), paintings made between 2010 and 2017 are displayed side by side along with canvases freshly painted on site, within a triple line. This display lacking unit of time or chronology is like an “ongoing retrospective” highlighting the strange permanence that operates whithin the work of Corentin Canesson where the oldest paintings are regularly brought into play, where abstract series closely rub shoulders with figurative works. As a space porous to music, Corentin Canesson’s pictorial work goes hand in hand with his practice as a guitarist in the experimental rock band The Night He Came Home. Without defined contours, this band constitutes another collaborative space to record and perform alongside other artists.

Corentin Canesson presents a solo exhibition at the Visual Arts Center in Austin, Texas, USA from January 28 to March 12, 2022..

+ More about the exhibition

Art Norac, the award’s sponsor

Art Norac is an organization dedicated to the patronage of the arts, led by the agri-food group Norac. Founded in 2005 by Bruno Caron, Norac’s chairman and founder, the organization supports contemporary creation and participates in its dissemination to the general public and to employees of Norac group companies. For the Norac group, Art Norac provides a mean to actively participate in society and to develop its social responsibility in Rennes, where its head
office has been located for many years. Art Norac notably supports various contemporary art initiatives and actors in Rennes and Brittany (Master MAE, 40mcube, the Archives of Art Criticism…).