BMW France has signed on as official partner of the LUX Tour, a year-long touring photography project marking the Bicentenary of Photography and endorsed by the French Ministry of Culture. A caravan converted into a mobile darkroom will visit more than 30 festivals and fairs across France between September 2026 and September 2027. The new all-electric BMW iX3 does double duty on the tour, towing the caravan and feeding power to the studio equipment through its Vehicle-to-Load system.
BMW France is supporting the LUX Tour, a travelling photography project run with Réseau LUX, the French national network of photography festivals and fairs. The initiative has been labelled part of the Bicentenary of Photography by the French Ministry of Culture, and runs from September 2026 to September 2027.
The caravan was officially launched on 3 September 2026 in the courtyard of the Ministry of Culture in Paris. From there it begins a route that links the 33 members of Réseau LUX, stopping at more than 30 festivals and fairs around the country.
A darkroom that runs on heartbeats
The centrepiece of the tour is « À l’origine du cœur » (At the Origin of the Heart), an artistic experience devised by the Trigone collective. Visitors step into a darkroom and trigger a photograph using their own heartbeat: the pulse is captured and converted into an electrical impulse, which produces a unique image on photosensitive paper. The result is developed, digitised and printed, and handed to the participant.
The iX3 as tow car and power source
BMW Group France is supplying the Trigone collective with the new all-electric BMW iX3, which the company describes as zero-emission in use. Besides towing the caravan from stop to stop, the car contributes to the project’s energy autonomy through its bidirectional Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) charging technology, powering some of the equipment used inside the mobile studio.
That detail is more than a footnote here. V2L is becoming a common selling point on new electric models, and a touring darkroom that depends on electricity to make its images is an unusually literal demonstration of what the feature is for. The release does not state the iX3’s output, battery capacity or range in this context.
An unexpected link back to Niépce
BMW frames the partnership around a piece of shared history. Nicéphore Niépce is internationally credited as the inventor of photography, and together with his brother Claude he also co-invented one of the world’s first internal combustion engines.
“Nicéphore Niépce did not only invent photography. Together with his brother Claude, he also helped develop one of the world’s first internal combustion engines. This unexpected connection between image-making and mobility resonates strongly with our commitment alongside Réseau LUX. Through the LUX Tour, we are helping take photography closer to audiences across France while showcasing how electric mobility can support a unique artistic experience. We are proud to support a project that creates a dialogue between heritage, innovation, contemporary creation and regions.” — Vincent Salimon, President of the Management Board, BMW Group France
Alongside BMW ART MAKERS
The LUX Tour sits next to BMW ART MAKERS, the French arm’s programme that has backed an artist-curator duo each year since 2021, with the resulting projects shown at events including the Rencontres d’Arles and Paris Photo. According to the company, the two initiatives are complementary: ART MAKERS funds the making of new work, while the LUX Tour concentrates on getting photography in front of audiences outside the big centres. BMW says it has supported photography and contemporary creation for more than twenty years.
Where the caravan goes
The autumn 2026 leg takes in the GLAZ Festival in Rennes (5–6 September), Zone i at Thoré-la-Rochette (12–13 September), QPN in Nantes (26–27 September), EOP in Rouen (3–4 October), Nicéphore+ in Clermont-Ferrand (10–11 October), Les Villes Invisibles in Nîmes (16–17 October), Planches Contact in Deauville (24–25 October) and Lumière d’Encre in Céret (7–8 November), before a five-day Paris residency from 11 to 15 November covering a ppr oc he, Les Nuits Photo, Paris Photo, Photo Days and Photo Saint-Germain.
The tour then resumes in March with Pomerol, Le Mans, Bordeaux, Mulhouse, Nancy, Montélimar, La Gacilly, Perche-en-Nocé, Houlgate and Boulogne-Billancourt, before closing out in Arles (10–11 July) and Lectoure (24–25 July).
The caravan is on the road now, and the tour runs through to September 2027.
Source: www.press.bmwgroup.com