The BNP Paribas Foundation

Artistic creation is constantly diversifying. Our mission is to discover and promote talents often overlooked by the general public.

THE CORE PHILANTHROPIC FOCUS : SUPPORT FOR ARTISTIC CREATION

When it gets involved in the world of culture, the BNP Paribas Foundation heads off the beaten track, by supporting contemporary dance and new circus arts, for example.

Supporting independent companies at long term

The BNP Paribas Foundation has backed creation in contemporary dance for 33 years and works with creative artists who push the boundaries. Its long-term support makes it easier for companies to research and see their projects through to completion. Eager to contribute to artistic cooperation between cultures, the Foundation supports international residencies at the great dance institutions.

The support the BNP Paribas Foundation has given me has been vital. The Foundation reached out when I started my company, at a time when the project was still at the drawing board stage. It has been there at every major step in our development, right up to my becoming co-director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Grenoble. -Yoann Bourgeois

Renewed support for developing companies, the exemple of Jann Gallois

Consistent with its desire to help young choreographers develop their new works of choreography, the BNP Paribas Foundation was keen to support Jann Gallois with an initial partnership. A free-spirited and bold young artist boasting rare maturity, Jann Gallois blends in-depth research into body language, an openness to off-beat disciplines such as physics and chemistry, and a personal engagement with society.  

The BNP Paribas Foundation is developing a form of philanthropic patronage which listens closely to artists and is very respectful of them. – Dominique Hervieu

Les os noirs – Phia Ménard

Addressing desire is a stumbling block, especially when one deals with death… My relationship with drama is intense, it’s a desire driven intrinsically and necessarily by relevance, which is increasingly mentally taxing. I don’t feel imbued with a mystique but with a concern to squeeze myself into the nooks and crannies of our worlds. (Phia Ménard) 

Supporting circus arts / circus writers / unruly

The objective of the BNP Paribas Foundation is to help their partners bring their projects to fruition, thereby contributing to the vitality of artistic and cultural creation. Firm believers in the full range of hybrid forms and in cross-disciplinary fertilisation, the Foundation also supports artists with a background in contemporary circus.  

THE KEY AREAS IN WHICH THE FOUNDATION SUPPORTS DANCE

From international choreographers to solidarity programmes via innovative digital projects, the Foundation takes a number of approaches to supporting dance.

International deployment

The BNP Paribas Foundation is committed to pursuing its philanthropic efforts internationally, and recently chose to support choreographer Hofesh Shechter. With his London-based company, he creates a collective form of dance which is attuned to the world in a certain state – cacophonous, chaotic, gripped by tension – but which is also driven by a zeal for life and resilience. His pieces are performed all over the world and reach new, younger audiences more familiar with, for instance, live electronic music.  The Foundation aims to back the company’s efforts to open up contemporary dance to new groups and other cultural disciplines. The Foundation acts in the same way as the group to which it belongs: rooted in France but with a very international focus.

barbarians – Hofesh Shechter

An ironic and sombre perspective on the powers that shape society and lead individuals to pursue causes that are beyond them, barbarians is made up of three sequences: a sextet, a quintet and a duet. The Festival d’Avignon is supported by the BNP Paribas Foundation for the first performances of barbarians.

Dance and new technologies

Technological developments are helping to radically alter our world, and with it, artistic creation. For this reason, the BNP Paribas Foundation sponsors artists who use digital technologies to examine the issues they raise for theatrical performance. And the BNP Paribas Foundation wants to use philanthropy to encourage experimentation: particular support has been given to the research conducted by La Maison de la Danse into virtual reality (VR). The Foundation is also lending its support to the co-creation by several European theatres of a Hackathon focusing on dance and new technology in September 2018, during the 18th Biennale de la danse in Lyon.

The long-term support from the BNP Paribas Foundation gives us peace of mind and the freedom to pursue our research without having to produce a certain result. This gives us space to breathe and focus on what’s important. –Collectif (La) Horde

Dance in society – the Dream-Up program

In autumn 2015, the BNP Paribas Foundation began an international solidarity programme entitled “Dream Up”. Set up to help disadvantages children and teenagers, this ambitious initiative aims to help them try out one or more artistic and creative activities. Active in 26 countries on six continents, Dream Up is aimed at young people suffering the effects of social or educational exclusion, economic marginalisation or disability.

Alonzo King’s educational dance project with the Lines Ballet

Dream Up now has a base in San Francisco. It is supporting Alonzo King’s educational dance project, the Lines Ballet. Established in 1982, it is one of the largest dance troupes in America. Through “Dream Up”, the Foundation supports the education programmes in which Alonzo works with San Francisco’s disadvantaged youngsters.

LONG-STANDING SUPPORT

OVER 30 YEARS OF HISTORY

In over thirty years, the BNP Paribas Foundation has lent its support to over eighteen festivals and institutions. 

A sponsorship that engages with the structures of the dance

In Lyon, the Foundation’s backing for everything Maison de la Danse does dates back to 1986. Since then, the theatre has been a beacon for the world of dance and for the public, and the BNP Paribas Foundation provides it with long-term support, including for one-off projects, with a particular focus on digital initiatives.

It also sponsors the Montpellier Danse festival (in 2012), one of the leading choreography festivals in France and Europe, and the Biennale Internationale des Arts du Cirque (PACA-Marseille). 

The BNP Paribas Foundation strives to meet committed personalities and offer them tailor-made support over the long term. In  all its fields of action, culture but also solidarity and the  environment, it seeks to build personal relationships and trust with its  partners.

The BNP Paribas Foundation has provided crucial support to the Himé company since it was established. I welcome the personal commitment every member of the team makes to follow my work with goodwill, curiosity and in-depth knowledge. It makes me feel part of an extended family. –Kaori Ito

Credits

Conception : Numeridanse

Documentation : Marjorie Carre

Photography : Laurent Philippe, Jean-Louis Fernandez, Gregory Batardon