The French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici

The Villa Medici channels its energies into three areas: conserving heritage, raising the profile of French culture and promoting contemporary creativity. It is in this promotion that the Louis Roederer Foundation has opted to invest. The Villa takes in 16 residents each year, representing a wide range of artistic fields.

Flying the flag for French culture

Founded in 1666 by Louis XIV, the French Academy in Rome or Villa Medici welcomes artists, authors and researchers in residence, offering them an environment ideal for developing artistic or research projects. An important institution, it finds itself at the crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean, serving as a major cultural heritage site, a laboratory for creativity and research, a centre for exhibitions and performances, and an eco-responsible garden.

Through its commitment to innovation and diversity, it is a key pillar of the contemporary art scene, perfectly aligned with the mission of the Louis Roederer Foundation.

I have always found it very interesting that where we might have expected it to focus on heritage issues, the Louis Roederer Foundation prefers supporting its resident artists and contemporary creativity, always with the message – and here we share the same values – that today’s creations, when well chosen, will become tomorrow’s heritage.

Sam Stourdzé

Director of the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici

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Support for residents

Since 2020, every year the Louis Roederer Foundation has been helping host 16 residents and sponsoring their end-of-year exhibition. The exhibition represents an artistic destination at the crossroads of various fields, from visual arts to musical composition, literature, architecture, stagecraft, fine food, art history and theory, and restoration/conservation. For the exhibition, the works leave the privacy of the residents’ studios and head for display spaces where they can be seen by the public.

2024
Laure Cadot – Heritage restoration

Hamedine Kane – Fine arts
2023
Hortense de Corneillan – Heritage restoration

Villa Medici x Louis Roederer Foundation production grants

Supporting the residents’ aspirations, every year the Louis Roederer Foundation helps finance an artist’s project and an art historian’s project with two production grants. In 2023, Hortense de Corneillan attracted the attention of the Louis Roederer Foundation. The following year, it chose to support Laure Cadot (France, 1980), who organises international conferences and meetings on the status and conservation of collections of organic remains, particularly human remains – a subject still too rarely explored in museums and universities. The Louis Roederer Foundation is also supporting Hamedine Kane (Mauritania, 1983), whose work sheds light on the influence of African, African-American and Afro-diasporic literature on political, social and environmental commitments.