BMW France is partnering with Réseau LUX, France’s national network of photography festivals and fairs, to support the LUX Tour, a cultural initiative marking the Bicentenary of Photography that will bring a traveling photographic studio to more than 30 festivals and fairs across France between September 2026 and September 2027.
At the heart of the project is “À l’origine du cœur” (At the Origin of the Heart), an installation from the Trigone collective in which visitors step into a darkroom and use their own heartbeat — captured and converted into an electrical impulse — to create a unique image on photosensitive paper, later developed, digitized and printed as a personal keepsake.
BMW’s Role as Official Partner
As official partner of the LUX Tour, which carries endorsement from the French Ministry of Culture, BMW France is providing a new all-electric BMW iX3 to accompany the caravan for its entire journey, towing it between stops while also powering the equipment needed to run the mobile studio. BMW frames the project as linking a heartbeat’s pulse to the electricity driving the traveling studio itself — art, technology and mobility meeting through a shared current.
A Connection Rooted in Photography’s Origins
The partnership draws a direct line back to photography’s own history: Nicéphore Niépce, internationally credited as photography’s inventor, also helped develop one of the world’s first internal combustion engines alongside his brother Claude.
Vincent Salimon, President of the Management Board at BMW Group France, said that unexpected link between image-making and mobility resonated strongly with the brand’s decision to support Réseau LUX, framing the project as a way to bring photography closer to audiences across France while demonstrating how electric mobility can support a genuinely unique artistic experience.
What the iX3 Actually Does
Beyond towing duties, the all-electric iX3 contributes to the project’s energy needs through bidirectional Vehicle-to-Load charging technology, supplying power directly to equipment used in the mobile studio — a meaningful role given that electricity itself sits at the center of the artistic experience, running from the heartbeat-generated images through to the electric mobility carrying the project across the country.
Part of a Longer-Running Commitment
The LUX Tour runs alongside BMW ART MAKERS, BMW France’s ongoing program supporting contemporary artistic creation since 2021, which backs an artist-curator duo each year in producing original work shown at venues including Rencontres d’Arles and Paris Photo.
Where ART MAKERS focuses on supporting creation and emerging talent, the LUX Tour is built around distribution — bringing photography directly to regional audiences. BMW France, which has supported photographic creation for more than two decades, frames the Réseau LUX partnership as resting on shared values around innovation, cultural openness, environmental responsibility and broader access to contemporary creative work. T
he LUX Tour officially launched on September 3, 2026 at the French Ministry of Culture in Paris, and will continue traveling to Réseau LUX member festivals and fairs for more than a year.