INTERVIEW
Your career path before being in residence at the Cité internationale des arts?
"I started my career as a photographer before pushing the limits of this medium and developing a more plastic work: photography, mixed media techniques, installations, performances...
I have a special relationship with France, where I have lived several times for nearly thirty years: photographer member of Agence VU in Paris in the 1990s, co-creator and co-artistic director of the Pingyao International Photography Festival from 2001 to 2005, civil ambassador of the cities of Provins and Pingyao during the crossed years between France and China.
In 2017, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris organized a retrospective exhibition of my work. I was a guest professor at FRESNOY - Studio national des arts contemporains in Tourcoing the following year, the year I joined the Cité internationale des arts."
What are the benefits of a residency at the Cité internationale des arts, on the Montmartre site?
"In China, there is an expression that could be translated as "Man walks upwards, water flows downwards". One of the benefits of staying at the Cité internationale des arts in Montmartre: every day, I go up and walk up!
What is very pleasant on the Montmartre site is the configuration of the workshops, which encourages exchanges between residents. These meetings are very rich because the artists in residence at the Cité internationale des arts come from different backgrounds, countries and cultures.
While living in Montmartre, I also have the chance to realize my childhood dream: this territory is rich in history and has welcomed some of the greatest artists in the history of art. I am very happy to be able to follow in the footsteps of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso."
BIOGRAPHY
Artist born in 1964 in Sichuan province in China, Gao Bo lives and works in Beijing. For more than thirty years, Gao Bo has been modelling his work, at the frontiers of photography, installation and performance.