Faire Corps: The Fondation Francès Opens Its Photographic Collection to the Public

For the first time, the Fondation Francès is opening the doors to its photographic collection, bringing together nearly 300 works by more than 50 artists, including some of the most influential names in the history of photography: Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Raymond Depardon, Annie Leibovitz, Nobuyoshi Araki, Gregory Crewdson, Dorothea Lange, Martin Parr and Malick Sidibé, among many others.

Presented across two venues in Clichy and Senlis, Faire Corps brings together approximately 100 works in an unprecedented retrospective celebrating twenty years of acquisitions. The exhibition has received the Bicentennial of Photography label, offering an opportunity to explore both the evolution of the medium and the distinctive trajectory of the Fondation Francès collection.

At the heart of the exhibition is a fundamental subject: humanity and its excesses.

Photography has long been a powerful witness to the ways individuals construct their identities, navigate society and respond to political and cultural change. Faire Corps explores this role through works addressing the fragility of existence, personal and collective identity, family and social structures, political struggles, injustice, artistic commitment and ethics.

Since its first photographic acquisitions in 2009, photography has occupied a central place within the collection, largely because of its ability to capture a moment while placing the human body at the heart of the image. The collection approaches photography through three complementary perspectives: the intimate, where the image becomes a space for self-construction and emancipation; the documentary, where photography confronts social realities and injustice; and the experimental, where artists challenge the medium through new techniques, forms and visual languages.

“Photography is, by its very nature, the medium of our collection: a medium of testimony, memory, reality and engagement,” explains Estelle Francès. “Photography alone reflects the excesses of humanity in all their brutality.”

Art Beyond Traditional Exhibition Spaces

The Fondation Francès has developed an intentionally unconventional approach to exhibiting contemporary art. Rather than limiting its activities to traditional institutional spaces, the foundation offers free exhibitions open to everyone, creating opportunities for direct and immersive encounters with art.

Its two exhibition locations embody this philosophy: a house in Senlis and an industrial building in Clichy. Art is thus encountered in unexpected environments—within the intimacy of a domestic setting or at the heart of a working industrial landscape.

Founded in Senlis in 2009 by Estelle and Hervé Francès, the Fondation d’entreprise Francès grew from the cultural and creative commitments of their respective companies, ARROI and OKÓ. Over the past fifteen years, it has developed into an independent cultural project centered on artistic freedom, accessibility and critical engagement with contemporary society.

Today, the Francès Collection encompasses approximately 900 works, spanning photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, installation and video. Across these diverse practices, the collection examines the tensions and excesses of humanity, bringing together works that challenge conventions and invite viewers to reconsider their relationship with the world and with one another.

Art as an Act of Resistance

For the Fondation Francès, exhibiting art is more than an act of presentation. It is an opportunity to create a space for confrontation, dialogue and freedom.

Throughout history, artists have faced attempts to restrict what can be shown, discussed or imagined. Faire Corps reflects the foundation's belief that art must remain a territory where established ideas can be questioned and perceptions challenged.

The freedom to exhibit, in this sense, becomes an act of resistance: a way of resisting conformity and the standardization of how we see and understand the world.

The Fondation's exhibitions seek to create precisely this space of possibility. By placing challenging and sometimes unsettling works in front of audiences, they encourage viewers to question what they take for granted—and to consider who determines what is visible, acceptable or worthy of being seen.

Towards a Democracy of Vision

Accessibility lies at the core of the Fondation Francès's mission. Its commitment to free exhibitions reflects a broader conviction that art should circulate beyond established cultural boundaries and remain accessible to diverse audiences.

Through Faire Corps, photography becomes both a record of our time and a means of interrogating it. The works gathered in Clichy and Senlis invite viewers to look closely at questions of identity, vulnerability, social injustice, political struggle and the complex relationship between individuals and society.

Ultimately, the exhibition proposes a democracy of vision: not simply making art visible, but allowing images to provoke, unsettle and generate critical thought.

In bringing together two decades of photographic acquisitions, Faire Corps offers a rare opportunity to encounter the breadth of the Fondation Francès's photographic collection while reflecting on the enduring power of photography to testify, challenge and engage.

Artists Featured

Nobuyoshi Araki · Diane Arbus · Richard Avedon · Marcel Bascoulard · Gilles Caron · Gregory Crewdson · Raymond Depardon · Desirée Dolron · Nan Goldin · Mari Katayama · Lebohang Kganye · Dorothea Lange · Nicolas Lebeau · Annie Leibovitz · Vitas Luckus · Thomasz Machciński · Robert Mapplethorpe · Ryan McGinley · Erwin Olaf · Martin Parr · Irving Penn · Gretta Sarfaty · Andres Serrano · Malick Sidibé · Jeffrey Silverthorne · Dash Snow · Louis Stettner · Juergen Teller