© Photo crédit : Mathieu Asselin

Lila Neutre’s artistic approach, mainly rooted in the fields of photography and social sciences, invites us to consider appearance as a tool to express political positions. While her visual vocabulary refers to popular culture and fashion imagery, her work questions broader concepts of identity and self-expression in contemporary Western societies. Lila Neutre is the first photographer to obtain a doctorate from the École nationale supérieure de la photographie in partnership with Aix-Marseille University. Defended in 2017, this artistic and sociological project was presented in a solo show at galerie agnès b. and won the “Bourse du talent” grant the following year. It is still regularly shown in France, as part of festivals and group exhibitions.

Lila Neutre’s work is regularly presented in France and abroad, notably at the Biennale de l’image possible (BE), at the French Institute (JP) and at various festivals such as Les rencontres d’Arles, Nuit Blanche and Kyotographies. As a pioneer in the field of practice-led research in France, she is also regularly invited to give lectures and present her work at conferences and seminars supporting the idea of image production as a form of knowledge.

Currently on show

February – March 2025

Twerk Nation (within Performance) – L’Atelier (in association with the Centre Claude Cahun and the Cnap), Nantes

December 2025 – March 2025

Looks : Histoires portées – MRAC annex (Marc Bloch High School), Sérignan

2024

Twerk Nation (within Performance) – Centre photographique de Marseille

Twerk Nation (within Performance) – MRAC (Musée régional d’art contemporain Occitanie/Pyrénées-Méditerranée), Sérignan

2023

Beau jeu, mauvais genre – Exhibition in duo with author and illustrator Chloé Wary, Pavillon Blanc Henri Molina, Colomiers

2022

Dress code – Exhibition associated with les Rencontres d’Arles, Fondation Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, Arles

Scientifica – Arts & sciences, Le cube, Aix-en-Provence

Chuchotements d’hospitalité – End of residency exhibition, Le jardin de Saïgon, Bordeaux

2021

MAD 6 – Multiple Art Days, Fiminco Foundation, Romainville

Pleins feux ! – End of residency exhibition, Fiminco Foundation, Romainville

2019

Les transphotographiques, Maison de la photographie, Lille

Déracinés/Enracinés, Bibliothèque François Mitterrand, Paris

2018

Hand in Hand Made, Élysée Montmartre, Paris

BIP Biennale de l’image possible, Liège

Anybody walking?, Eternal Gallery, Tours

2017

Sculpter le soi, Galerie Agnès b., Paris

Parcourir en tous sens, Galerie Arena, Arles

Private Jokes, Galerie Gourvennec Ogor, Marseille

2015 & before

Les Chantiers de la Création, Espace Fernand Pouillon, Marseille

Nuit Blanche, @KCUA, Kyoto

Photo Off Festival, La Bellevilloise, Paris

Kyotography, Fujiha Togei Nobori-Gama, Kyoto

Expériences Kyoto, Institut Français du Kansaï, Kyoto

Marseille Provence European Capital of Culture 2013, J-1, Marseille

2024-2025

“Hors les murs” residency program, MRAC Occitanie x Marc Bloch, Sérignan

2023

National photographic commission “Performance” – CNAP, Paris

PRÉAC program (artistic and education program) – Musée du Louvre, Paris

2021-2022

“Chuchotements d’hospitalité” residency program – Fonds Cré’Atlantique, Bordeaux

2020-2021

Fiminco Foundation residency program, Romainville

2018

Bourse du talent Grant

2024

Twerk Nation (Photography Parliament), Palais de Tokyo, Paris

Twerk Nation (MUCEM x Cirec), Marseille

Twerk Nation (ENSP, within the mentorship program), Arles

Faculty Welcome Lecture (École supérieure des beaux-arts de Nîmes)

2023

“Images et performance de soi” – Maison Euroéenne de la Photographie x Gaze Magazine, Paris

“Trouble dans le sport” (in relation with the exhibition Beau jeau, mauvais genre) – Pavillon Blanc Henri Molina, Colomiers

2021

Opening Lecture of Ateliers de Sèvres’ Bachelor degree program in visual arts, Paris

December 2024

Donnia Ghezlane-Lala, “BBL Vixens et Bad Gyals : L’artiste Lila Neutre explore la culture twerk dans toute sa richesse et tous ses paradoxes” in Konbini (online)

October 2024

Valentine Pétry, “De l’autre côté du miroir” in Beau Magazine, Issue 8, pp. 111-113

January 2024

Sylvia Girel, “La recherche/création à l’œuvre dans la production et diffusion des savoirs scientifiques : Une prospective en cours” in La lettre de l’INSHS Arts et littérature (online)

July 2022

Sarah Moroz, “Dress Code: A group show exploring the close connection between clothing and cultural identity” in British Journal of Photography

Mee-Lai Stone, “Dress to Impress: Clothing Rituals from Across the World – in Pictures” – The Guardian (online)

March 2022

French critique Camille Bardin talks about the project led @Fiminco residency program in Episode 2 of the second season of “Traversée”

February 2022

Didier Arnaudet interviews residency curator Jean-Paul Thibeau about the collective project Chuchotement d’hospitalité in Junkpage magazine #88

May 2021

Clémentine Mercier (art journalist), “Mâle au cœur” in L the feminist newsletter from Libération

“Le Vacher Time!” (Fun Radio) about Chatty Masculinities

February 2019

Laura Lafon Cadilhac, “En vogue” about PhD project Sculpter le soi in Causette Magazine

March 2018

Maud Darbois, “ANYBODY WALKING?” exhibition in Les Inrocks

February 2018

Camille Diao, “ANYBODY WALKING?” on Radio Nova

January 2013

“C’est le moment… d’aller se faire tirer le portrait” in Télérama Sortir, n°3290

Performance – The book

ICCARE – National research project

Cirec.online

FOCUS

TALWEG

Marabou Generator – developped at Fiminco Foundation

Currently 

Faculty (Practice-led research in the art) – ESBAN, Nîmes

Guest lecturer (Fashion Studies) – American University of Paris, Parsons Paris

Steering Committee @CIREC (Centre de recherche-création sur les mondes sociaux)

Steering Committee @PEPR ICCARE (CNRS), a national research project for cultural and creative industries in the field of visual arts and digital arts

2024

Faculty (Photography and book design) – ESBAN, Nîmes

Mentor (Photography, in duo with Laia Abril) – ENSP, Arles

2017

Art History lecturer – Aix-Marseille Université (AMU)

Thesis supervisor for Master students in Cultural Management – AMU

2019-2021

Head of research and PhD – ENSP, Arles

2016 – 2020

Faculty (Fashion Photography, Documentary Strategies)– Parsons Paris, The New School

2014-2017

Editorial board member of Les Chantiers de la Création – AMU

Conducting critical seminars at ENSP

February 2024

American University of Paris: Fashion and Subcultures

CESSMA (Centre d’études sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques): Creative Alternatives to Traditional Research Papers

January 2024

Montpellier University (Paul Valéry): Practice-led PhD in Social Sciences: Dialogues and Frictions

June 2023

Aix-Marseille University (AMU): Practice-based PhDs in France

March 2021

EHESS: Photography and Creation Seminar

November 2021

EHESS: Anthropological Approaches in Fashion Worlds

November 2020

ENS: The Art of Searching (Practice-based research)

February 2020

Orpheus Institute: Multiplier Seminar Feedback – Feedforward

December 2019

FRAC PACA: Interdisciplinarity and collaborations between artists and scientists

November 2019

BNF: Student’s opportunities after a photography school, part of « Enseigner la photographie en Europe » encounters, in collaboration with Louis Lumière

October 2019

MUCEM: From exhibition to book design: the challenges of translation in
photographic PhD restitutions, part of « Une autre façon de raconter » seminars, in collaboration with EHESS

September 2018

Palais de Tokyo: Opening lectures for the launch of Culture(s) de Mode French network

June 2018

CNRS: « Histoire et mode » seminar

April 2018

Caen University: Indisciplinarity. Questioning methodology in literary and artistic research
Quai Branly Museum: Picturing nomadic selves, part of “Fashion Displaced” seminar

March 2017

Radio Grenouille: Les identités du chercheur

December 2016

AMU: La mise en corps des jeux du monde

October 2016

EHESS: Visual Participatory Methods in Ethnography

June 2016

INHA: Photographic Image Research Workshop

September 2022

Lila Neutre, “Photographier la confection de soi dans les milieux du roller derby et du cabaret new-burlesque” published in Images du travail, travail des images, issue 13 (online)

December 2018

Déracinés/Enracinés, Exhibiton catalog, Delpire publishing

May 2018

Lila Neutre, “L’apparence comme dispositif de résistance” published in Culture et recherche, issue 137

March 2017

Lila Neutre, “La vie rêvée des enfants du Cosplay” published by the Centre de Recherche Art&Image (online)

January 2017

Lila Neutre, “VOGUE-rs” published in GLAD!, issue 1 (online)

December 2015

Semaine 48.15, n°394, Analogues publishing

Lila Neutre, “L’apparence comme dispositif de résistance” in Le quotidien de l’art, n°955, pp. 84-86

October 2015

Lila Neutre & Clément Bodet, “Philippe Bazin, a conversation” in Les Chantiers de la Création, n°8 (online)

November 2014

Photo Off : Committed and upcoming photography, Exhibition catalog

2013-2017

Practice-based PhD in the arts from École nationale supérieure de la photographie (ENSP) & Aix-Marseille University

2013-2014

Post-degree program at Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto – Japan

2010-2013

Master degree at ENSP

2007-2010

Bachelor degree at École supérieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence (ESAAix)