In Ernest’s office
Vanessa Bamberger
To 31 January
Artist Residencies on Photography
La Villa Pérochon, a contemporary art center of national interest, is the former home of Ernest Pérochon, winner of the Prix Goncourt in 1920.
In partnership with the Collège international de Photographie du Grand Paris, the Villa Pérochon inaugurates a new cycle of Artist Residencies on photography entitled Open Letters to Photography. It is aimed at established and emerging writers wishing to link their world to that of photography.
Based on the principle of correspondence, their open letters offer the opportunity for a literary experience that can enrich our view of the medium. The residency is performative in nature, inviting the writer to work in Ernest Pérochon’s office at the very heart of the art center.
Vanessa Bamberger is in residence from January 24 to 31, 2026.
” In Ernest Pérochon’s office, I’m writing a letter to a man I never knew: Louis Lumière, my great-great-grandfather. In front of me is a 1930 autochrome of him holding his granddaughter, my grandmother, on his lap. From this image, I imagine a meeting between two contemporaries who never knew each other: the writer and the inventor. I try to understand what this image transmits to me: an atmosphere, a presence, perhaps an inheritance. Between family memory and transgenealogy, I’m looking for correspondences between writing and photography, looking for the origin of my desire to write. ” Vanessa Bamberger