July 11 was inaugurated the art center for Bergerac photography, a space of 800 m² (including 240 m² dedicated to exhibitions) dedicated to contemporary photography. Installed in the former Romain-Rolland school on rue Saint-Esprit, the place welcomes the exhibition “Objectives Nouvelle-Aquitaine, revelation of a moving territory”, which presents artists’ projects in collaboration with the Regional Contemporary Art Fund in New Aquitaine (FRAC Méca) and the National Library of France (BNF), recovering the regional territory. The orders “Radioscopy of France: looks at a country crossed by the health crisis” of the BNF and “renew the gaze on the territory” of the Méca (2022-2024) influenced the design of this inaugural exhibition. Among the twelve artists presented, Bruno Serralongue and Jean-Luc Chapin are linked to the collections of Frac Méca while Hélène David and Ambroise Tézenas participated in the photographic order of the BNF.
A residence area is also planned, including accommodation on site. Two associations are accommodated in the premises: the Bergerac photo club, focused on the amateur practice of photography, and photographic heritage in Bergerac, which retains a fund of 500,000 shots documenting life in Bergerac in the 20th century. Managed by the City, the Art Center benefited from a regional subsidy of 360,000 euros.
The management of the center is provided by Benoît Lamy de la Chapelle, art historian, critic and exhibition commissioner, former director of the Delme synagogue, passed in particular by Wiels in Brussels. The mayor of Bergerac supported the creation of the place, despite opposition criticisms concerning the closure of the school.
The work was carried out under the leadership of the architect Leïla Bourdier-de-Tourdonnet, in collaboration with the W-Architecture. Closed in 2021, the school was renovated between 2024 and 2025. The building has kept its original layout, the old classrooms having been adapted to the reception of exhibitions.
Maintaining the school space organization meets the objective of promoting image education, towards school and prevented school audiences. The structure intends to produce two exhibitions and host two residences per year. Programming, still in the experimental phase between local, national and international scales, ultimately targets the label “Center for Contemporary Art of national interest”, issued by the Ministry of Culture. The director also wishes to integrate the diagonal network, created in 2009, which brings together 23 structures engaged in image education.
The Bergerac art center of photography is part of a local cultural fabric in development, alongside the Cyrano quays, the tobacco museum – classified museum of France – and the Dordonha cultural pole.
He joined a limited circle of art centers dedicated to photography, such as the Île-de-France photographic center (labeled in 1989, with an international program turned towards young creation) or the Villa Pérochon, center of contemporary photographic art located in Niort, founded in 2013 and labeled in 2018, whose residences and programming centered on emerging artists present similarities Bergerac.
