FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The ImagineFrance photo exhibition will be shown May 3 & 4, 2017 in Washington, DC at the French Embassy’s Maison Française during the two-day business networking event, France American Business Week. *Please note that exceptionally, the exhibition will not be open to the public.
Launched in 2014, the ImagineFrance project was conceived by the Cluster Tourism and Culture of Atout France in partnership with the Institut Français and Vu‘Agency. This traveling exhibition is the first project of its kind. In the last four years Atout France and partners organized 70 exhibitions in 35 countries with more than 500,000 visitors.
In order to create this photographic series, photographer & artist Maia Flore crisscrossed France for two months in 2013 to visit 25 cultural sites and create a series of - 50 photographs and 10 videos featuring the making of the exhibit and "travel diaries". ImagineFrance offers a new, whimsical and offbeat take on France’s cultural and architectural heritage. The present showing will exhibit 25 of these photos.
In each location, Flore staged a different story creating little vignettes of museums, sites and monuments in which she includes herself. ImagineFrance is a unique exhibition that draws international spectators into a universe that is both familiar and unexpected. It is an invitation to discover, or to re-discover the richness of the country’s cultural heritage
Each year, 42 millions of international visitors set out to discover the monuments, museums and festivals that are at the heart of the French cultural heritage. The richness and diversity of this heritage are major reasons to visit France. Everyone recognizes the strong interdependent relationship between tourism and culture; each supports the other, particularly when it comes to creating an attractive environment. In this context, it is essential to continually offer a fresh vision of this heritage, attractive both to repeat travelers and to first-time visitors.
The ImagineFrance exhibition is available online inviting visitors to travel the fantastical voyage of Maia Flore on the site imagine.france.fr. There you will find both the exhibition photos and some exclusive images and the videos.
ABOUT
Maia Flore was born in 1988 in France. In 2011 she signed with Agence VU’. She worked in Sweden, Finland, then continue at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California. Her approach is based on finding the intersection between reality and imagination. She creates a universe from scratch through narratives that are moving and haunting, sometimes bizarre, even surreal. - Click here for details
The Cluster of Tourism and Culture of Atout France, the France Tourism Development Agency, works to develop the tourism industry, the primary French economic sector. Within this agency has been created in 1992, a cluster to help partners promoting Tourism and Culture abroad. There are 50 partners in this cluster in 2017 (Louvre museum, Orsay, Versailles, Mucem, Chambord..etc).
The French Institute is an actor for the Ministry of Foreign affairs, promoting French cultural activities abroad. It contributes to the image of France abroad. The French Institute was mobilized for the choice of the artist and the deployment of the exhibition abroad. Click here for details
Vu Agency created in 1986, VU’ is known as an «agency of photographers» more than a photo agency, showcasing in this way the uniqueness of each of its photographers. They have been working with the artist Maia Flore since 2011. Click here for details
France American Business Week – Second Edition: This B2B event is organized, under the High Patronage of H.E. Gerard ARAUD, Ambassador of France in the United States, by the French American Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. whose mission is to advance fruitful business relationships for its members and support bilateral trade. Click here for details
