City Life Org – The International Center of Photography Presents Latitudes: Nuits Balnéaires and François-Xavier Gbré

François-Xavier Gbré, Rubino, from the sequence Radio Ballast, 2024. © François-Xavier Gbré, ADAGP, Paris, 2025

The International Center of Photography | 84 Ludlow Street, New York

On View January 29, 2026–May 4, 2026 | Public Opening January 29, 5–8PM

The International Center of Photography (ICP) is happy to current Latitudes: Nuits Balnéaires and François-Xavier Gbré, an exhibition showcasing new initiatives created by the artists as a part of the Latitudes program developed by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, in partnership with the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson and ICP. Curated by David Campany, Creative Director at ICP, the exhibition brings collectively Gbré’s venture Radio Ballast with Nuits Balnéaires’ venture Eboro, every utilizing completely different strategies of image-making and historic inquiry to replicate on the multifaceted nature of up to date Côte d’Ivoire. By highlighting the modern photographic course of of every artist, Latitudes: Nuits Balnéaires and François-Xavier Gbré exemplifies ICP’s dedication to supporting worldwide and cross-cultural collaboration.

Nuits Balnéaires’ venture Eboro exists in an imaginary area, one which weaves collectively previous with current whereas slipping throughout borders to neighboring territories. The conceptual and thematic starting of the venture is the artist’s uncle, Noel X Ebony, a journalist, poet and playwright who died in unresolved circumstances in Senegal. Ebony’s concern with the tradition and politics of African independence permeates the set up, pulling viewers into the previous whereas asking them to think about what form the long run may take—or whether or not it is likely to be right here already, its fragments ready to be pieced collectively.

Set in opposition to the geographical backdrop of the Gulf of Guinea, Nuits Balnéaires levels photographs that discover the connection between the expertise of his ancestors in exile and his personal perspective on journey and migration. A sequence of brief, color-coded photographic chapters—some intimate, others sumptuously cinematic—are accompanied by a two-channel video projection, the weather combining to evoke an Ivorian creativeness in flux. Eboro, a phrase which means boundary or border, comprises a mixture of references, from films, literature and poetry, to modern model and style, suggesting a life formed as a lot by the communities of on-line tradition as by the older types of nationwide id.

For almost fifteen years, François-Xavier Gbré has photographed the imprints of human exercise on the panorama and structure of the African continent, looking for to uncover the lingering traces—hidden and visual alike—of how historical past has unfolded throughout the land. In 2023, he got down to comply with the railway that runs from north to south by way of Côte d’Ivoire, a line that was constructed in the course of the French colonial period to extract the nation’s pure sources and transport them to the port of Abidjan, then on to the metropole. Gbré’s pictures, firmly rooted within the panorama and political historical past of Côte d’Ivoire, carry a number of, overlapping temporal layers, from the colonial interval to the post-Independence years by way of to current occasions and the modern second. In following the railway by way of the panorama, his pictures reveal the numerous methods it continues to echo all through the constructed setting.

The title of Gbré’s venture, Radio Ballast, refers first to the transmission of data throughout huge distances, whereas ‘ballast’ can be the mattress of crushed rock on which the rails lie. In railway jargon, the time period also can seek advice from rumor, obscure and unfounded information, combined and infrequently contradictory narratives, all reflecting the way in which that historical past and its telling are so typically unsure and shifting.

Inaugurated in 2024, Latitudes broadens the scope of Immersion, the previous French-American pictures fee launched in 2014 as a residency between France and the United States. The new program takes its title from a geographical idea, affirming its ambition to make clear artists from scenes which can be nonetheless underrepresented on the worldwide stage. Côte d’Ivoire is the primary nation to be honored within the two-year cycle inaugurated in 2024. Each venture will probably be accompanied by a photobook in English and French editions, co-published by Atelier EXB and the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès. Radio Ballast was first proven on the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson and, following the exhibition at ICP, Eboro will journey there as effectively.

“Côte d’Ivoire has an incredibly dynamic cross-generational photographic scene,” stated Campany. “Nuits Balnéaires and François-Xavier Gbré exemplify its range, from conceptual documentary work to hybrid blends of fact, remembrance and fiction. ICP is committed to supporting and presenting innovative work from across the globe and the Latitudes program allows us to do this.”

About Nuits Balnéaires

Multidisciplinary artist and poet Nuits Balnéaires was born and raised in Abidjan, right into a household with Akan Agni-Bona and Malinké origins. With intimate connections to each peoples’ traditions, tradition and spirituality, his work creates a parallel space-time past the constraints of geography, whereas embracing the universality of oceans because the connective tissue between worlds.

Nuits Balnéaires cultivates highly effective ties with the vitality of the Gulf of Guinea and its landscapes, therefore the omnipresence of water in his photographic apply, movies and poetry. Haunted by the duality of life and demise and the potential for communication between these states, his works convey a euphoric sense of tranquillity that feels each classical and modern.

In 2019, Nuits Balnéaires settled in Grand-Bassam, Côte d’Ivoire, to develop his creative apply, drawing on his years as a style and conceptual photographer. He secured a one-year bursary in visible journalism with the World Press Photo Foundation and was among the many winners of a 2020 name for initiatives from the Goethe-Institut and the Prince Claus Fund, which helps cultural and creative responses to environmental change. Nuits Balnéaires’ work has been exhibited at Art X Lagos, Paris’ 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, FNB Art Johannesburg and in quite a few exhibitions throughout Côte d’Ivoire, Canada, the United States, the UK, France, the Netherlands and Australia.

About François-Xavier Gbré

François-Xavier Gbré (b.1978, Lille) lives and works between Abidjan and La Rochelle. His work explores the affect of local weather and geography on the language of structure, as a testomony to collective reminiscence and social change. From the vestiges of colonialism to landscapes redefined by present occasions. Gbré explores territories and revisits historical past. In steady dialogue together with his environment, he employs a wide range of scales and show codecs—from small, meticulous installations conceived as in-depth investigations of particular territories, to using architectural settings as sounding-boards for his photographic works and an exploration of their bodily connection to the viewer or the general public area. Represented by the Cécile Fakhoury Gallery, his works have entered the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Tate Modern, London, UK, the Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany / New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France.

About Latitudes

Established in 2024 by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation and the International Center of Photography (ICP), the Latitudes program helps worldwide photographic creation by aiding within the making and dissemination of latest work. Each yr, a laureate chosen by the three companion establishments is awarded a grant to provide an unique photographic sequence. This physique of labor is then exhibited in Paris on the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, in New York at ICP and within the laureate’s house nation. To additional prolong its attain, a devoted publication is co-published with the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès. By supporting artists from areas underrepresented on the worldwide stage, Latitudes invitations us to broaden our views and discover new photographic horizons. In 2024, François-Xavier Gbré turned the laureate of the inaugural version of this system, devoted to Côte d’Ivoire. In 2025 Nuits Balnéaires was introduced because the second laureate.

Exhibition Support

Exhibition assist is generously supplied by ICP Collections Committee members: Jane Corkin, Constance Jaeggi, George Krupp, Monika Parekh, Douglas Pugh, Elizabeth Walton, Simon Zafrany and Alice Sachs Zimet. Exhibitions at ICP are supported, partially, by Caryl Englander, Almudena Legorreta, ICP Board of Trustees, the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the assist of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

About The International Center of Photography

The International Center of Photography (ICP) is the world’s main establishment devoted to pictures and visible tradition. Cornell Capa based ICP in 1974 to champion “concerned photography”—socially and politically minded photographs that may educate and alter the world. Through exhibitions, education schemes, group outreach, and public applications, ICP gives an open discussion board for dialogue concerning the energy of the picture. Since its inception, ICP has introduced greater than 700 exhibitions, supplied hundreds of courses, and hosted all kinds of public applications. ICP launched its new built-in heart at 84 Ludlow Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in January 2020. ICP pays respect to the unique stewards of this land, the Lenape individuals, and different Indigenous communities. Visit icp.org to study extra concerning the museum and its applications.

Related