Pernod Ricard announces the first Pernod Ricard Fellows

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The residency programme will take shape within the walls of the Villa Vassilieff, a new cultural institution managed by Bétonsalon in the heart of Paris which will open its doors next February. 

The identities of the first four Pernod Ricard Fellows, each of whom will in-turn spend three months at the Villa, are no longer a secret. Their diverse backgrounds and origins illustrate the richness of the intercultural exchanges the programme seeks to foster. The Fellows are:

THE FELLOWS ARE:

• The Mexican independent researcher and curator Andrea Ancira García; the author of several works on the role of art in contemporary society such as Cultura Pública (Public Culture) (2010), Moda y Politica (Fashion and Politics) (2015) and Ars Machina (2015), Andrea is part of the Technology, Audiovisual Media and Artistic Experimentation Curatorial Research Platform at Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City.
• The Chinese artist and writer Bo Zheng; an Assistant Professor at the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong and a former professor at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China, Bo has written on socially engaged art and been published in numerous reviews and collections. His participatory works have been shown at numerous public institutions in China and other countries.
• The South Korean sculptor Sojung Jun; a graduate of Seoul National Univer¬sity and Yonsei University, Sojung has gained recognition in South Korea for her work combining video and performance art, in particular her One Man Theater solo exhibition at Sungkyun Gallery in Seoul in 2009.
• the Cuban artist and designer Ernesto Oroza; a graduate of the Higher Institute of Design in Havana and a former professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Design in Havana, Ernesto has explored in some depth the notion of the analytical use of contemporary objects. His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts among others.

These first four Pernod Ricard Fellows were selected from among fifty candidates. The artistic committee, composed of leading figures from the arts and culture all over the world, sought to promote artists and researchers known for the maturity of their work and in search of international exposure.

In the three months they will each spend at the Villa Vassilieff, the four chosen artists will reap the full benefits of the encounters and exchanges facilitated by Bétonsalon and Pernod Ricard in partnership with their vast network of cultural institutions including such leading lights as the Centre Pompidou, the Musée Picasso and the Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques. 

Since its creation 40 years ago, Pernod Ricard has become a recognised force both within the French contemporary art scene and internationally. It is a sponsor of numerous institutions: Centre Pompidou, the Saatchi Gallery in London or the Guggenheim in Bilbao; not to mention all the