A UNIQUE INSTITUTION

The fundamentals of Le Fresnoy:

• A 2-year postgraduate course based on the production of “fully-fledged” works in a wide range of disciplines, with professional supervision, budget and technical resources,
• No permanent teaching staff. Students are supervised by visiting artist-professors and visiting scientists from all disciplines, with national and international reputations,
• Production of each student project is supported by a professional technical and production team,
• Support for the presentation and dissemination of works as part of the annual Panorama exhibition, entrusted to a renowned curator and scenographer,
• Doctorate in artistic creation.

Exhibitions

Le Fresnoy organises two major international exhibitions each year. Panorama isa major creative event curated by a leading contemporary art professional and held in the autumn. Under this generic title Le Fresnoy presents more than 50 new works in the fields of image, sound and digital creation produced at the school over the past year. These include films, videos, installations, performances, photographs and sound works.

A second exhibition in the spring alternates between monographs, thematic subjects and dialogues orchestrated in collaboration with major collections such as the Thyssen Foundation, the Pinault Collection and the Centre Pompidou.

Cinema

Two cinemas offer an eclectic programme for all kinds of viewers. Visitors come to watch a screening in a building that is both historic and a masterpiece of contemporary architecture, a place for teaching and passing on knowledge about images in their many forms. As you walk down the corridors, you may come across a guest director, an established filmmaker or an up-and-coming artist, all of whom are keen to question cinema and invent the forms it will take in the future.

Cinema at Le Fresnoy means a programme of films combining new works, classics and films for young audiences (fiction, documentary, animation), but it also means providing support, education and discussions across a whole variety of events (previews, films with discussions, festivals, film-concerts, etc.) organised with the school’s partner bodies.

Cinéthèque
Cinéthèque screenings at Le Fresnoy are organised as part of the activities set up by the teaching department. Designed first of all for our students, these screenings are free and open to the public every Wednesday at 7pm from October to April. One screening a month is offered in partnership with the Cinémathèque Française. These screenings are an opportunity to see or re-see classics (sometimes in 35mm), experimental films and retrospectives, particularly works by visiting filmmakers.

Cinéfamille
Cinéfamille screenings are family screenings followed by a snack, organised in partnership with the City of Tourcoing. Tickets cost €1.80 and are available on presentation of a voucher, which can be collected from a number of outlets in Tourcoing and presented at the Le Fresnoy ticket office. Cinéfamille takes place every last Sunday of the month at 3pm. To find out where you can pick up a ticket, click HERE.

Research – Conferences / Colloquia

Le Fresnoy is also a place of intellectual enquiry and speculation. Symposiums, conferences and workshops are organised on a regular basis. Philosophers, theoreticians, art historians, scientists and well-known artists are invited to question contemporary arts, but also other fields of thought, particularly scientific– for example, on the question of plasticity or the relationship between art and technology.

The most recent event was the symposium “The Coming Human,” held at UNESCO as part of World Philosophy Day in November 2022.