RÉSIDENCE 2021

Héloïse Conésa is a heritage curator in charge of the contemporary photography collection at the Department of Prints and Photography of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). 

A former student of the Institut national du patrimoine (Promotion Umberto Eco, 2008), she was curator for modern art and photography at the MAMC in Strasbourg from 2009 to 2014. There she curated several exhibitions including: Robert Cahen, Entrevoir (2014) and Patrick Bailly-Maître-Grand, colle et chimères (2014). 

At the end of 2014, she joined the BnF as curator for contemporary photography in the Department of Prints and Photography. She has co-curated several editions of the Bourse du Talent from 2014 to 2019 at the BnF as well as the exhibitions Dans l’atelier de la Mission Photographique de la DATAR (Rencontres d’Arles, 2017) and Paysages français: une aventure photographique (1984-2017) (BnF, 2017). In 2019, she curated the exhibition Denis Brihat, de la nature des choses, Ruines, Josef Koudelka (BnF, autumn 2020), Noir et Blanc: une esthétique de la photographie (Grand Palais, autumn 2020), L’épreuve de la matière (BnF, autumn 2022). 

Héloïse Conésa holds a doctorate in art history and in 2017 defended her thesis at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne entitled: La photographie espagnole contemporaine de 1970 à 2010, miroir d’un pays en quête d’identité (Contemporary Spanish photography from 1970 to 2010, mirror of a country in search of its identity), under the supervision of Professor Michel Poivert. She is also a lecturer at the Ecole nationale supérieure Louis Lumière since 2015. Member of several photographic juries (Niépce Prize, Camera Clara Prize, Print Prize…), she participates in portfolio readings in festivals and regularly publishes on contemporary photography.