The French Public Higher Schools of Art

Poitiers

Ecole européenne supérieure de l’image | Poitiers

about

Resulting from a joint decision by Angoulême and Poitiers to unite their resources and create a regional school, ÉESI is subsidised by the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the Regional Council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the two municipalities that host its facilities and the GrandAngoulême.
The school prepares students for the French equivalent of the BFA (the three-year Diplôme National d’Arts Plastiques) and MFA (the Diplôme National Supérieur d’Expression Plastique). The three disciplines offered by its Art option – comic art, digital art, emerging practices – put the emphasis on exploring the relations between thought, criticism, the production of visual works and research. In partnership with University of Poitiers, a master’s degree in comic art completes ÉESI’s graduate level offer. In addition, ÉESI opened in 2016 an international course in comic art, a one-year programme (School diploma) designed for young foreign comic artists.
The pedagogical project is implemented by a team of theoreticians and artist-teachers, accompanied by assistants, media librarians and technicians, all involved in various aspects of the contemporary arts. Perspectives are further broadened by workshops, seminars, lectures and visits by outside professionals and experts.
ÉESI is especially attentive to the relations that students develop with the art world(s). That is why students are encouraged to travel and to work with established artists or in cultural institutions, and to participate in local and international events and festivals. Every day, ÉESI’s national and international partnerships help open up new perspectives, new ways of bringing together theory and practice, research and art, and finding and transgressing new frontiers.
By encouraging experiment and awareness of new developments in all the arts (music, cinema, literature, the performing arts, etc.), as well as the dialogue with other fields of knowledge (science, cultural studies, human sciences), the different components of the ÉESI teaching programme, from the first degree to the postgradute program on Document and Contemporary Art and, since 2016, the PhD “Practice and theory of artistic and literary creation in comic art” offer students and budding artists an environment and resources to learn and produce.

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Au fil du Nil - École européenne supérieure de l’image | Angoulême-Poitiers
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École européenne supérieure de l’image | Angoulême-Poitiers

options

Art
Master’s in comic art (with the University of Poitiers)

qualifications

DNA  option Art
DNA  option Art mention bande dessinée
DNA  option Art mention images animées
DNSEP  option Art
DNSEP  option Art mention bande dessinée
DNSEP  option Art mention création numérique
Master 2 Bande dessinée (avec l’Université de Poitiers) 

third cycle

Diplôme Supérieur de Recherche en Art (DSRA) – Document and contemporary art

Founded in 2010 at the initiative of the European School of Visual Arts, the post-graduate program, Document & contemporary art, became a degree-granting research program in 2014, awarding a PhD-level DSRA (Diplôme Supérieur de Recherche en Art), in partnership with the École nationale supérieure d’art de Bourges. This experimental research program places equal emphasis on collective and individual research agendas.
The program is open to young art or film practitioners, curators and theorists seeking to prolong their studies through a three-year, doctoral-level program, irrespective of media or technique. Participants are expected to follow the program’s collective activities and to undertake individual research integrating artistic production and theoretical reflexion. Individual research projects must be validated by a committee made up of the academic advisory team and an external assessor at the end of the first year. Successful completion of the three-year program enables participants to obtain a PhD-level Degree in artistic research (DSRA).
The program is by nature nomadic, displacement being a conscious methodological choice. Its activities are condensed into once-monthly meetings of one week, held in different cities (Paris, Buenos Aires, Bourges, Poitiers, Angoulême, Belgrade…). For these meetings, the program functions as a seminar, inviting artists, theorists, curators, activists, etc. Participants are required to attend the collective research seminars and to engage in a regular writing practice in the form of reports and correspondence. An annual publication provides an account of the program’s activities by bringing together writing and other work from the participating artists and invited guests.
The program recruits internationally. Principal working languages are English, French and Spanish.
http://documentetartcontemporain.eesi.eu/

Doctorat de création Expression artistique et littéraire spécialité bande dessinée

Practice-based PhD Artistic and literary expression in comic art

Resulting from a partnership between the University of Poitiers and the European School of Visual Arts, the practice-based PhD Artistic and literary expression in comic art is open to all candidates with a Master’s degree / DNSEP from higher education institutions, whose subject is based both on a strong artistic practice in the field of comic art, narrative drawing (or any experimental form in this field) and theoretical research. The thesis, prepared at the University of Poitiers and the ÉESI (based on the existing partnership at the Master’s in comic art level), is subject to the methodological and quantitative requirements of a doctorate but supplemented by elements that attest to an artistic practice-based research.

post-graduate

Diplôme Supérieur de Recherche en Art (DSRA) – Document and contemporary art

Founded in 2010 at the initiative of the European School of Visual Arts, the post-graduate program, Document & contemporary art, became a degree-granting research program in 2014, awarding a PhD-level DSRA (Diplôme Supérieur de Recherche en Art), in partnership with the École nationale supérieure d’art de Bourges. This experimental research program places equal emphasis on collective and individual research agendas.
The program is open to young art or film practitioners, curators and theorists seeking to prolong their studies through a three-year, doctoral-level program, irrespective of media or technique. Participants are expected to follow the program’s collective activities and to undertake individual research integrating artistic production and theoretical reflexion. Individual research projects must be validated by a committee made up of the academic advisory team and an external assessor at the end of the first year. Successful completion of the three-year program enables participants to obtain a PhD-level Degree in artistic research (DSRA).
The program is by nature nomadic, displacement being a conscious methodological choice. Its activities are condensed into once-monthly meetings of one week, held in different cities (Paris, Buenos Aires, Bourges, Poitiers, Angoulême, Belgrade…). For these meetings, the program functions as a seminar, inviting artists, theorists, curators, activists, etc. Participants are required to attend the collective research seminars and to engage in a regular writing practice in the form of reports and correspondence. An annual publication provides an account of the program’s activities by bringing together writing and other work from the participating artists and invited guests.
The program recruits internationally. Principal working languages are English, French and Spanish.
http://documentetartcontemporain.eesi.eu/

research programmes

ILES, Images Liquides : Écritures et Systèmes

The research-creation programme in Comic art Liquid Images: Scriptures and Systems (ILES) addresses the field of contemporary comic art through the prism of visual arts. The contemporary comic art, hybrid in essence, involves a transdisciplinary, aesthetic, poetic, plastic, philosophical, cognitive, anthropological approach. The seminar ILES is open to doctoral students in comic art, artists and writers related to the programme and to graduate students at the ÉESI.

publications

Cahiers du Post-diplôme « Document et Art contemporain » : each year, the postgraduate programme publishes an ensemble of documents relating to the different research being done in the form of a review. Artists from the programme and the year’s guests (artists, producers, curators, theoreticians) participate in the publication.
Pratiquer : a collection created and directed by Sabrina Grassi-Fossier of artists, authors and theoreticians writing on their work.

magazines

activities and events

Lectures, conferences, study trips, exhibitions and workshops.
The school was featured in the 2011 Rencontres Henri Langlois in Poitiers.
Participation in numerous festivals.
Regular relationships with the Poitou-Charentes FRAC, the theaters of Angoulême and Poitiers (national stages), The council of the museums of Poitou-Charentes, The National Conservatory of the region. Conferences with the universities of Poitiers and La Rochelle; exhibitions and prizes in the context of the International festival of Comic Strip art (Angoulême); relationships with the Maison des auteurs (Angoulême) and the Espace Mendès-France and the Confort moderne (Poitiers).
Realization of projects of research and creation under contract with the various French and foreign institutions (including the scientific council of the Delegation for the Visual Arts of the European Commission).

post-curricular or extracurricular activities

Postgraduate research-creation residencies

In the context of the professionalisation of students, the ÉESI wished to open art residencies abroad to the graduates of June 2018.The implementation of a research-creation scholarship programme within the ÉESI is the result of a common finding in the major French art schools, namely the difficulty that most young artists have to develop their creative work, to show their work to the public and more broadly to get in contact with art professionals. For this first edition, three destinations have been selected thus giving the opportunity to three selected graduates, one by destination, to experience a first art residency abroad for a duration of 3 months in Fall 2018. The residencies were chosen for the quality of their activities and their location in line with the artistic orientations of the ÉESI:

La Cúpula, multidisciplinary art center in Mérida, Mexico, in partnership with the Yucatán School of Fine Arts (ESAY)
InterAccess, non-profit gallery, educationalfacility, production studio, and festival dedicated to emerging practices in art and technology located in Toronto, Canada
Can Serrat, artistic residency in El Bruc, Catalonia, which brings togetheran international community of visual artists, writers and musicians who share,mix, coexist and create in a common space.

international cooperation

International openness is one of the priorities of the school strategy. Mobility is a flagship project which is developed in the long term and tends to structure pedagogy more and more.

This international openness, based on the evaluation of existing partnerships as well as on the prospection of new exchange partners, makes it possible to send students, teachers and non-teaching staff abroad and, conversely, to welcome students and art professionals within the school.

“Scenes of excellence” are favored for all these exchanges. Indeed, according to each practice taught at the school, there are reference places most often located in cities with a particularly dynamic artistic scene.

As part of their Master’s programme, all fourth-year students are going abroad for a semester. Their destination is chosen based on the criteria stated above and according to their personal projects.

The school keeps abreast of the state of creation on the different continents, currently with a predominance of Europe, North America and Asia.

New partnerships are being established with structures located in South America (Argentina, Mexico, etc.) and on the African continent (Senegal in particular).

gallery

A gallery on the Poitiers site.
Exhibitions done in partnership with the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image in Angoulême.

specific equipment

Computer network (application and data servers, Internet); infography, multimedia, interactivity, graphic narration, platform (shooting, sound, digital capture); film and digital photography studio; mobile image studio, studio for sound creation.
Printed image workshop (screen printing, lithography): sculpture studio.
Video studio, post production and electronic set design laboratories, platform for video shooting and movement capture; modeling studio.

networks

ANdEA, ELIA, Erasmus+, RAN (Digital arts network).
IRCAM forum, IRI-Institut de recherche et d’innovation of Centre Pompidou.

administrative team

Patric Clanet Director general
Catherine Beaudeau Secretary general
Sandrine Rebeyrat Director of studies
Charlotte Martin International relations officer
Adeline Lapeyre Coordinator of studies – Angoulême
Barbara Benedetti Coordinator of studies – Poitiers

professors

Arezki Aoun
Aurèle Arima
Christian Arnau
Aurélien Bambagioni
Sabine Barbé
Emmanuelle Baud
François Bernus
Frédéric Curien
François Delaunay
Jean-Christophe Desnoux
Chloé Dugit-Gros
Athanassios Evanghelou
Léonard Faulon
Claire Fouquet
Malgorzata Grygielewicz
Dominique Herody
Hervé Jolly
Mark Kerridge
Florentine Lamarche-Ovize
Clément Le Tulle-Neyret
Thomas Leblond
Frédéric Lefever
Stefan Libiot
Guy Limone
Géraldine Longueville
Gilbert Louet
Laurent Makowec
Sylvie Marchand
Audrey Ohlmann
Régis Pinault
Benoît Preteseille
Johanna Schipper
Thierry Smolderen
Julie Staebler
Emmanuel Van der Meulen
Caroline-Jane Williams
Stephen Wright
Virginie Yassef
Xavier Zimmermann

contact

Site de Poitiers
26 rue Jean-Alexandre
86000 | Poitiers
tél. +33 (0)5 49 88 82 44
fax +33 (0)5 49 88 24 46
contact@eesi.eu
www.eesi.eu

students

Number of students for the academic year 2017-2018: 316
Female: 183
Male: 133
French students: 280
Foreign students: 36
First-year admissions: 65
Admissions in other levels: 11

Graduations in 2017
DNA: 54
DNSEP: 35
Master in comic art: 8
DSRA “Document and contemporary art”: 1
International course in comic art: 5