After 20 years of collective adventure, Transit has undergone its transformation. Becoming a platform for photographic projects in 2022, the Montpellier structure is opening up to new artists and continues to hold residencies, collaborations and exhibitions. Present since the creation of the collective in 2002, Valentine Pignet looks back on the evolution of Transit and her role as project manager and artistic director.
How was Transit born?
The collective was created in July 2002. This is a period when many collectives were formed. Originally, it was the meeting of three photographers: Nanda Gonzague, David Richard and Bastien Defives, then accompanied by others, who shared the same desire, the same approach to photography and who decided to come together to pool their contacts, their equipment and their skills, in particular to ensure better dissemination of their work to editorial offices and festivals.
Did you arrive in this early energy?
That year, I arrived from Dijon for a master’s degree in artistic direction of cultural projects and when we met, we immediately wanted to collaborate. I joined the collective in 2003 as a project manager: I was in charge of programming the Transit space, a workplace regularly transformed into an exhibition space, and cultural projects (residences, workshops) with photographers. . I participated in the creation and development of the collective and the association.
Without being a photographer, were you nevertheless at the heart of the project from the start?
I was really part of the adventure in the same way as the photographers, I worked in the same way. There was a strong desire to create collective energy, to share our vision of photography with the public. Thanks to my involvement in the structure, the activity of the association became sustainable and made it possible to develop links with institutions and with the public who frequented the place.
How did you experience this period?
It was both my first professional experience and a real human adventure. We shared a whole period of life together, like a big summer camp. I learned a lot. My role evolved little by little, from project manager to more artistic direction in parallel with the evolution of the collective and its projects.
And two years ago, Transit changed shape.
There have been 20 years of collective adventure, rich, joyful, enriching. In 2022, the structure has evolved, it has been transformed: it has really become a project platform quite naturally. The idea was to open up to new photographers, new artists, in the form of collaboration.
What are the proposals you are making through Transit?
The primary desire is to support photographic creation, offer research time, support photographers in the writing and development of their project, to offer authors’ perspectives on the territory and its transformations, to present works, perspectives, show the diversity of approaches and practices to the public.
In particular, we offer creative residencies, called Mutation, to document the contemporary evolution of the territories around us. After the photographers Cyrus Cornut and Mathias Benguigui, today it is the photographer Stéphanie Lacombe who is our guest. Shorter research times, the Transitlab where for a month, we make our place, the Transit space, available to local artists to allow them to question a work in progress in all its temporalities, creation, exhibition, edition . For example, Andrea Olga Mantovani was invited to edit her images and think about their scenography in preparation for her exhibition at the Jeu de Paume in Paris next February. In these moments, my role is to encourage meetings with professionals, photographers, iconographers, festivals, publishers, in order to allow them to exchange and support them in their research. Other partnerships are developed with the University of Montpellier, particularly with the establishment of exhibitions and workshops.
Does the fact of having more than twenty years of collective anchored in a territory allow us to continue to carry out projects today, even otherwise?
As Transit is identified in the territory and has been able to build a network beyond the latter, transforming the initial project while keeping the name is a strength for developing projects. It probably couldn’t be done in the same way if it weren’t for what the photographers who made up the collective brought and still bring. Besides, it has always been a collective effort. Today, it’s more me who wears it but we are still in contact, we exchange regularly. There is a community, a family at heart that has been built over these 20 years. Today, she is opening up to others.
How do you see the future of Transit?
I want to keep this eye open to the world, to participate in documenting it and to continue this intersection, these exchanges, with photographers, our cultural partners and the public around the visual arts, in Montpellier and elsewhere.
By being objective, I am in the same situation as many cultural actors with uncertain budgets and therefore a fragile future. Today, in addition to finding a new form for the collective, we are leaving our historic place, but, the project continues, we will move closer to other places, pool our energies with new partners. There is a pool in Montpellier and in the region, I know that we will transform all of its shared desires into projects.
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