PARIS.- Created in 2007 by the musée du quai Branly and dedicated to non-Western photography, the 3rd edition of PHOTOQUAI biennial exhibition of world images organised by the musée du Quai Branly will take place on the quays of the Seine alongside the musée du quai Branly and in the museum’ gardens from 13th September to 4th December 2011.

Hailed from its first edition for its quality, originality, ambition and relevance, in 2011 PHOTOQUAI will continue to pursue its original mission: showcasing artists whose work is little known in Europe, and stimulating communication and the exchanging of views of the world.

The artistic director of the third biennial PHOTOQUAI exhibition is the photographer and director Françoise Huguier.

She coordinates the programming committee which brings together image specialists associated with correspondents in the field, who are responsible for discovering emerging photographic talents unknown or little known in Europe. For its third edition, PHOTOQUAI presents nearly 400 works by 46 contemporary photographers from 29 countries: South Africa, Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Togo, Morocco, Tunisia, Bahrain, Iraq, Belarus, Russia, China, South Korea, India, Japan, Taiwan, Cuba, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Colombia, Brazil.

PHOTOQUAI complements its highlighting of artists with associations with artistic partners throughout the capital: The Australian Embassy, the Baudoin Lebon Gallery, the In Camera Gallery, the Paris-Beijing Gallery, the Maison d'Amérique Latine, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, the Petit Palais, the Polka Galerie and the Eiffel Tower.

The musée du quai Branly also offers the public encounters based around this third edition: encounter days with the photographers and curators invited to Paris, encounters and meetings with image professionals for debates and/or screenings, and the presentation of the winners of the Photographic Artistic Creation Aid Grant, which was launched by the musée du quai Branly with the support of the Total Foundation.

Artistic director: Françoise Huguier, significant photographer and creator of the biennial at Bamako, has been involved for over thirty years with the adventure of photography. Her works both on the dark continent and in the Great North have been recognised twice by the "Villa Médicis hors les murs" prize.

Musée du Quai Branly photographic collection
The musée du quai Branly holds some 700,000 old and contemporary photographs, which constitute an international reference collection.

The four continents of Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania are principally represented in this collection which includes extremely old photographs, from 1841 to today, and those by major figures in the history of this medium.

Acquisitions carried out continuously by the musée du quai Branly since its opening are made on the basis of geography or photographer revealing a particular perspective or a genuine photographic practice, both in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

They enable the consolidation of this collection as a reference collection in the representation of the non-European world.

Launched in 2008 and generously supported by the Total Foundation, the Artistic Creation Projects each year enable one or more non-Western artists to propose a project for the creation of photographic works.

The selected artists benefit from an "extramural" residency which can take them to any country of their choice. Beyond the documentary or ethnographic aspects, the issues of these projects are most often artistic, but always remain closely linked to the dialogue between cultures: the mission of the musée du quai Branly.