© Luis Carlos Tovar, My Father’s Garden, 2019 / Prix Elysée
The Musée de l’Elysée and Parmigiani Fleurier would like to congratulate the Colombian photographer, winner of the third edition of the Prix Elysée, for his project entitled My Father’s Garden. The starting point for Luis Carlos Tovar’s work is a photograph, but, paradoxically, one that he has never seen. It is the “proof of life” of his father, taken hostage by the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in Columbia. Tovar has other traces to fill his father’s silences – the titles of the books he read in the jungle, the turquoise butterflies he kept between the books’ pages, and the Amazon landscapes he tries to recreate in his garden. These enable him to imagine his father’s pain, but never to fully understand it.
“The starting point for this project is a photograph that reveals my father’s survival during his abduction by the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in 1980. The photograph, a Polaroid hidden among the small myths of my family history, is (an object) unknown to me. Its existence is a rumor, a depiction from my sister’s memory, the only person who has seen the image, which is jealously guarded by my father among his most hidden and personal files."
Read more on www.prixelysee.ch
The Musée de l'Elysée and Parmigiani Fleurier are pleased to announce the eight nominees of the third edition of the Prix Elysée:
Alexandra Catière (1978)
born in Minsk, Belarus
Alinka Echeverría (1981)
born in Mexico City, Mexico
Claude Baechtold (1972)
born in Lausanne, Switzerland
Gregory Halpern (1977)
born in Buffalo, New York, USA
Laia Abril (1986)
born in Barcelona, Spain
Luis Carlos Tovar (1979)
born in Bogotá, Colombia
Mathieu Asselin (1973)
born in Aix-en-Provence, France
Nicola Lo Calzo (1979)
born in Torino, Italy
We wish to thank all the photographers for their efforts in completing the application, and the professionals who took time to support them with a thoughtful recommendation.
Discover the nomiees' projects on www.prixelysee.ch
The jury of the Prix Elysée is composed of 7 members: four international experts from the fields of photography and publishing and 3 representatives of the Prix Elysée founding partners.
The voting jury members of the third Prix Elysée (2018-2020) are:
Experts
Founding partners
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The Prix Elysée is made possible thanks to its main partner Parmigiani Fleurier, exclusive watchmaking partner of the museum