MONTPELLIER.- The Eyes, a cultural producer and independent publisher, is launching from 20th September to 30th October 2025, the first edition of FLOW, an artistic journey dedicated to photography and visual arts, presented in iconic heritage sites in the Occitanie region of France.

FLOW inaugurates a new cultural and civic event where heritage, creation, and contemporary issues intersect to question the present and illuminate the future.

Designed as an invitation to slow down, look differently, and recon- nect sensitively with the world around us, FLOW makes images a lever for transmission, sharing, and emancipation. The program explores major social and environmental issues through the perspectives of committed artists. It highlights our relationship with living beings, the memory of places, multiple identities, migrations, social struggles, the sea, and the earth. FLOW asserts an artistic, ecological, and human citizenship that crosses territories and narratives.

Each edition includes exhibitions, site-specific installations, creative residencies, educational outreach, and meetings in close dialogue with heritage sites in Occitanie.

FLOW #1
WHAT IS FRAGILE IS PRECIOUS

For its first edition, the journey is built around the title “Fragile is Precious”, an invitation to explore—through the eyes of French and international artists—the fragility of living things, the memory of places, the questions tied to exile and migration, and the threatened balances of our ecosystems.

We will explore this notion of “fragility” with artists whose approaches are inclusive, committed, and unique. Among them, the Swiss pho- tographer Fred Boissonnas, who in 1912, through his Odyssey, used photography to (re)connect us with our heritage; the Venezuelan artist Oleñka Carrasco, who shares with us—across distance—the mourning of both a loved one and a homeland; and the photographer Anne Immelé, who, in her work Refuge, contemplates the fate of the Mediterranean by crossing the ancient Phoenician routes with those taken by migrants today.

Also featured are three photographers who were in residence aboard the Tara geolette, guest of honor for the 20th anniversary of its expeditions. Their perspectives and creations offer a unique opportunity to understand the role of the Ocean in our world: Laure Winants, Samuel Bollendorff, and Nicolas Floc’h all contribute to this reflection on our relationship with the living world.

We also journey into a new relationship with nature, as invited by British artist Ryan Hopkinson.

Finally, FLOW presents the Ronan Guillou Grant showcases in Sète, awarded each year to photographers developing projects that connect humans and the marine world.

Chiara Indelicato, 2024 Ronan Guillou Residency winner , will travel from Stromboli to present her exhibition L’Archipel, the result of her wanderings between Agde and the Thau Lagoon.

Juliette-Andrea Elie, 2025 winner, will offer a first encounter with her work-in progress What the Nacres Weave, centered on the fan mussel (Pinna nobilis), an emblematic shell of the Mediterranean basin, now found almost exclusively in the Thau Lagoon and the Gulf of Lion.

These perspectives and creations will be staged in meaningful and symbolic heritage sites across Occitanie—sites that also speak of the fragile strength of our natural worlds.

EXHIBITION VENUES

For this first edition, FLOW is deploying its exhibitions in four emblematic venues in Occitanie, where heritage and contemporary creation are in intense dialogue. Their commitment and openness make possible this dialogue between contemporary art, heritage and the issues of our time.

CHAPELLE DE NAZARETH
MONTPELLIER

The Chapelle de Nazareth, in Montpellier, was built in the 19th century for the Congregation of the Sisters of Marie-Joseph. It was later integrated into the site of the Salvation Army Foundation. A testament to local religious heritage, this desacralized neo-Gothic chapel now hosts artistic and cultural projects.

MUSÉE DE L’ÉTANG DE THAU
BOUZIGUES

The Thau Lagoon Museum offers a journey through the cultivation of shellfish in the lagoon, particularly its most iconic species: the oyster. It celebrates the “people of the lagoon” through a rich collection of tools and stories, offering a living testimony to local cultures and the natural environment. Opened in 1991, the museum holds the official “Musée de France” designation.

CATHÉDRALE DE MAGUELONE
VILLENEUVE-LÈS-MAGUELONE

The Cathedral of Maguelone, a Romanesque jewel from the 12th–13th centuries, stands between the sea and lagoons near Montpellier. A former episcopal seat for a thousand years, it bears witness to a rich spiritual and historical past. Isolated on a peninsula, it offers a peaceful setting conducive to contemplation.

CHÂTEAU LAURENS
AGDE

The Château Laurens in Agde is a palatial Art Nouveau villa built starting in 1898 for Emmanuel Laurens, an enlightened traveler and irrepressible dreamer. It blends fin de-siècle romanticism with exoticism inspired by his travels in the East. Surrounded by a 12-hectare park, this Art Nouveau gem is classified as a historic monument.