Curator Devrim Bayar has been invited to create the Elles × Paris Photo path dedicated to women artists, in partnership with the Ministry of Culture. Since it was created in 2018, Elles x Paris Photo programme has increased the representation of women artists at the fair from 20% to 38%.

Devrim Bayar is currently senior curator of the KANAL – Centre Pompidou, a new museum of modern and contemporary art spanning 35,000 m² in Brussels which is scheduled to open in 2026.

Elles × Paris Photo Founded in 2018 in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, the Elles × Paris Photo program highlights the creation of women photographers and their role in the history of the image and its current trends. For its 2025 edition, it explores the complex relationship between the figure, often female, and the setting in which it is photographed, sometimes enveloping and sometimes consuming it. These interactions between body and context are never neutral: they reveal plural ways of inhabiting the world, of occupying space, of asserting a presence or, on the contrary, of erasing it.

Through this selection of works, a reflection on visibility, identity, and memory emerges. Some images depict drowsy figures, dreaming or with their eyes closed, suspended between interiority and appearance. They remind us that the photographic image is never unequivocal: it is made up of strata — visible or invisible, material or mental — that are superimposed and replayed with each glance. Because to see is also to project: our desires, our lacks, our memories, and our knowledge are intertwined in the very act of perceiving, constantly redefining what the image gives us to see.

Since 2018, this program has led to a significant increase in the representation of women artists at the Fair from 20% to 39%. Specified on the printed map distributed at the entrance of the Fair and available online, the program offers a specific focus of the Fair to the visitors. It is enriched throughout the year with a series of audiovisual and written interviews released on the Paris Photo website, social networks, and YouTube channel.

Devrim Bayar,
Elles × Paris Photo 2025 Curator
Devrim Bayar works currently as a Senior Curator at KANAL - Centre Pompidou.

Previously she was curator at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels, where she curated the exhibitions of Wolfgang Tillmans, R.H. Quaytman, Jacqueline de Jong, Huguette Caland, René Daniëls, Sammy Baloji, Pierre Leguillon, Thomas Bayrle, Daan van Golden, Helena Almeida, among other artists, as well as group shows, such as Something Stronger Than Me* exploring recent developments in collaborative art practices.

Devrim Bayar also co-curated a series of exhibitions Un-Scene featuring emerging artists working in Belgium. Her independent curatorial projects include the multi-disciplinary festival Indiscipline at Palais de Tokyo (2016), the Geneva Biennale — Sculpture Garden (2022) and Poésie contre fin du monde conceived with French artist Ethan Assouline as a sort of experimental community library in Montpellier (2024).

She is an author and editor of numerous publications and exhibitions catalogues, with recent essays on Walter Pfeiffer (Swiss Institute/Pacific, 2025) and Mimosa Echard (Mousse Publishing, 2025).

Devrim Bayar recently initiated the Brussels Ass Book Fair, an independent book fair featuring productions from LGBTQIA+ communities, as well as a music programme dedicated to sound productions by multidisciplinary artists broadcasted on community radio Kiosk.

● Helena Almeida » Lore Stessel » Les filles du calvaire ● Helene A. Amouzou » Zanele Muholi » Carole Kvasnevski ● Claudia Andujar » Vermelho ● Eve Arnold » Myriam Boulos » Magnum ● Pilar Aymerich » RocioSantaCruz ● Yto Barrada » Pace ● Letizia Battaglia » ACTES SUD ● Julia Margaret Cameron » Hans P. Kraus Jr. Inc ● Helen Chadwick » Richard Saltou ● Barbara Crane » Claude Batho » Erica Lennard » La Galerie Rouge ● Marie Laure De Decker » Anne-Laure Buffard & in camera ● Sara Facio » Alicia D'Amico » Rolf Art ● Christine Furuya-Gössler » Chose Commune ● Pippa Garner » ART PAPER EDITIONS ● Gauri Gill » Vadehra Art ● Marisa González » Isabel Hurley ● Arlene Gottfried » Bene Taschen ● Donna Gottschalk » Atelier EXB ● Bootsy Holler » Damiani Books ● Mika Horie » Ibasho ● Mao Ishikawa » POETIC SCAPE ● Miyako Ishiuchi » The Third Gallery Aya ● Graciela Iturbide » Toluca ● Stephanie Kiwitt » Spector Books ● Dora Maar » Bruce Silverstein ● Cecilia Mangini » Admira ● Sally Mann » Jackson ● Manon » La Chambre Noire ● Susan Meiselas » TBW BOOKS ● Lisette Model » Julian Sander ● Yıldız Moran » Galeri NEV ● Satomi Nihongi » Komiyama Tokyo ● Ruth Orkin » Textuel ● Sophie Ristelhueber » Poggi ● Martha Rosler » Nagel Draxler ● Jenny Rova » Editions Images Vevey ● Ming Smith » M77 ● Gabriele Stötzer » Sabiha Çimen » Sibylle Bergemann » LOOCK ● Huda Takriti » Rosemarie Trockel » Crone ● Julieta Tarraubella » Rolf Art & TOMAS REDRADO ART ● Rebecca Topakian » BLOW UP PRESS ● Donna Trope » Carole Lambert ● Anna Turbau » NORDES ● Agnès Varda » Nathalie Obadia ● Susan Weil » STANLEY/BARKER ● Mia Weiner » Homecoming ● Carmen Winant » Liz Johnson Artur » MACK