Le Saut: Pernod Ricard Arts Mentorship 2022

Pernod Ricard's constant commitment to creation dates back to the origins of the Group under the aegis of the insatiable entrepreneur and artist that was my grandfather, Paul Ricard. The recent opening of the new exhibition space of the Pernod Ricard Foundation, in our Parisian headquarters, is a testament to what remains cardinal to us: art is only meaningful if it is shared.

It is within such a spirit that for the past ten years we have placed photo- graphy at the heart of our artistic actions. This can be seen in the remarkable campaigns carried out every year by some of the biggest names in international photography,and exhibited in recent times at Paris Photo.Reflecting the sense of dynamism and evolution that characterises and drives the Group as a whole, we wanted to give a new dimension to our artistic patronage.

The mentorship programme presented in the following pages is the perfect continuation of all that we have already accomplished: suppor- ting creators, transmitting knowledge, and bringing people together around authentic shared experiences. We look forward to the rich exchanges that are sure to arise from such a programme and we are proud to exhibit the result of this artistic dialogue at the next edition of the Rencontres de la photographie in Arles.

Now, more than ever, we are ''créateurs de convivialité''.

Alexandre Ricard Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Pernod Ricard


The first edition of the Pernod Ricard Arts Mentorship Programme
Pernod Ricard, the world's second largest wine and spirits company, is continuing its support for creativity with a new artistic mentoring programme designed to promote dialogue between artists from different cultures and generations in collaboration with Les Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles.

This artistic dialogue will lead to a multidisciplinary exhibition during the 53 rd edition of the international photography festival at the Commanderie Sainte-Luce, an old Provençal house from the Middle Ages, from July 4 to September 25.

Pernod Ricard long-standing commitment to contemporary art is a legacy of its founder, Paul Ricard, whose passion for creation and art drove his philanthropy.

In 2010, Pernod Ricard Group chose contemporary photography for its annual artistic ''Carte Blanche'' campaign. Thirteen leading names in international photography (Marcos Lopez, Denis Rouvre, Eugenio Recuenco, Olaf Breuning, Vee Speers, Li Wei, Omar Victor Diop, Martin Schoeller, Kourtney Roy, Stéphane Lavoué, Sanja Marušić and Olivier Culmann) rose to the challenge brilliantly, depicting Group employees with complete freedom.

This year, Pernod Ricard Group is opting for a new approach to its artistic sponsorship, launching a long-term programme,further encouraging interactions,sharing knowledge, pooling expertise and experiencing emotions.

This new programme is at the heart of what we are: ''creators of conviviality'', driven by the desire to transmit, innovate and bring people together.

Each year, an artistic committee will select a major figure in contemporary photo- graph to serve as a mentor. The mentor, in turn, will select an artist–whose practice may differ from photography – to develop, hand in hand, a project of international scope. The duo will receive a grant, a production budget, artistic direction, as well as tailor-made support for one year. It will culminate in an immersive exhibition at the Rencontres d'Arles. Pernod Ricard Group is proud to be working with the Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles and to benefit from the expertise of this honoured custodian of photographic creation and practices. The Group hopes that as many people as possible will have the opportunity, on the occasion of this exhibition, to experience the convivialité that embodies its corporate vision.


Presentation of the artists and artistic committee of the 2022 edition
The mentor: Sandra Rocha
Sandra Rocha weaves a labyrinthine poetic narrative based on figurative images. She draws inspiration from fiction and mythological stories, from Ovid to Herman Melville, in a celebration of life, youth, femininity, fauna, and flora. Taking the power of symbolism as the starting point, her gaze explores the border between true and false, and questions forms and identities in order to activate a dreamlike imagination. Making use of both photography and video, Sandra Rocha suggests a peaceful communion between the animal,vegetal,and mineral kingdoms.The face of a teenager on the banks of a river, a bird suspended in flight, the foam on the surface of the sea, or the volcanic rock of the Azores, her native land... Sandra Rocha carefully orchestrates the fragile beauty of the elements.

After two years of biology studies in the Azores,Sandra Rocha abandoned the sciences for photojournalism. A graduate of Ar.Co, a visual art school in Lisbon, she worked for four years for a daily newspaper before returning to university. For a time, she combined courses in Art History and work as a freelance photographer for magazine publications. She co-founded Kameraphoto (2003 – 2012), the first collective of Portu- guese photographers. In 2008, she joined the ''Creation and Artistic Creativity'' programme of the Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian. As her work was deemed ''too artistic for the press and too journalistic for the art world'', as she says, she decided to focus on exhibiting and publishing her work, and approached the Fonseca Macedo Gallery in the Azores. In 2013, she moved to Paris. In 2016, she published Le silence des sirènes (Loco Editions), her first book in France with an essay by Michel Poivert. In 2017, she benefited from a residency at the ''Portrait(s) Festival'' in Vichy. That same year, she took part in the national photographic commission ''Regards du Grand Paris'', which led to the publication of La vie immédiate (Loco Editions), selected for the ''Author's Book Award'', in Arles. The works from this series feature in the collection of the Centre national des arts plastiques, and will be presented from june 24 to October 23 as part of the major exhibition Regards du Grand Paris at the Magasins Généraux, in Pantin. In autumn 2021, Sandra Rocha had her first monographic exhibition in France at the Centre photographique d'Île-de-France (CIPF). She currently works with the Galerie Filles du Calvaire. Sandra Rocha is a professor of photography at the Institut Supérieur d'Arts Appliqués, in Paris. She also teaches as part of the ''CPIF Triple Mix(te)s'' programme, an artistic and cultural education project taught in five high schools across the Île-de-France region, with the support of three contemporary art centres in the département of Seine-et-Marne (the Centre photographique d'Île-de-France, CAC La Ferme du Buisson, and the Parc culturel de Rentilly-Michel Chartier).


Presentation of the artists and artistic committee of the 2022 edition
The Mentee: Perrine Géliot
Perrine Géliot prolongs the brevity of the photographic moment through sculptures that reveal and draw out the time period that precedes and follows the taking of a photo. She uses print photography as a material in its own right, which can be manipulated and converted into a ''photographic object''. The young artist uses her lens like a micro- scope in order to study the landscape, fix time, and analyse its different elements. Following the developing of the image, comes a stage of reflection where the artist thinks about the sculpture so as to provide the image with the most pertinent form possible, and to recreate the conditions experienced during shooting.

After an intensive foundation degree at the Atelier de Sèvres, in 2014, Perrine Géliot was accepted into the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She studied under photographer and visual artist Patrick Tosani, and later photographer Eric Poitevin. During her first three years of studies, she developed a sculptural practice. In 2018, she left for Thailand as part of a five-month exchange with the ''Pain- ting Sculpture and Graphic Arts'' of Silpakorn University in Bangkok. She exhibited her personal project entitled Skyline at the Silpakorn Gallery in the Thai capital. In October 2020, her work 40°16'36.0 N'' – 19°03.29.0 E'' was presented at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. In January 2021, Perrine Géliot showcased the fruit of her plastic research at the Palais des Beaux-Arts as part of the collective exhibition Abès Fabès Kartoflyabès, for the Théâtre des expositions event.


The artistic committee of the Arts Mentorship Programme The mentor is selected by an artistic committee jointly appointed by Pernod Ricard and the Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles.The compo- sition and role of this committee will evolve every year. The profiles of possible mentors are presented by Fany Dupêchez (Art Photo Projects), who accompanies Pernod Ricard in the artistic direction of this mentorship programme.

The artistic project
Two artists, a common territory
Two visions, one exhibition

From Mexico to the Rencontres d'Arles

Sandra Rocha (mentor)explores the image in all its dimensions (photogra- phy, collages, video), and Perrine Géliot (mentee)designs three-dimen- sional photographic objects.They form the first duo of Pernod Ricard's Arts Mentorship programme. This multidisciplinary pair travelled to Chiapas, Mexico, where they drew parallels between the history of the Mayan people and the contemporary Anthropocene era. The collapse of one of the most powerful societies of the ancient pre-Columbian civilization at the dawn of the 9th century is believed to be the consequence of over- population. In order to meet their food needs, this Mesoamerican people are thought to have carried out massive deforestation, furrowing the soil, and cultivating the hills. This intensive farming to the detriment of the tropical forest wreaked havoc on the environment in the region. The two artists embarked on a journey to the heart of a rich heritage, now over- grown by lush vegetation. As the aquatic element is central to their res- pective practices, they decided to focus their exploration around the city of Palenque and its magnificent waterfalls. Both a point of arrival and a new beginning, these waterfalls represent a continuous flow of energy, and strongly embody the idea of perpetual motion. The sumptuous site of the cataracts of Agua Azul thereby symbolizes the beginning of a new natural cycle, a form of infinity that touches on transcendence and the sacred. It is in this harmonious and ritualized setting where humans, animals, plants, and minerals coexist that Sandra Rocha and Perrine Géliot construct a poetic narrative that does away with the course of time. Their immersive exhibition on display at the Commanderie Sainte-Luce, in Arles, will bring together photography, video and sculp- ture, offering a visual, organic, and philosophical experience.