MO.CO. Esba Montpellier

Presentation

MO.CO. Esba is the École supérieure des beaux-arts de Montpellier, a public institution of higher artistic education, heir to a long tradition of art education in the city. Since the creation of MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain, it forms one of the three poles of this complex dedicated to contemporary art, alongside the exhibition venues MO.CO. Panacée and MO.CO. Hôtel des collections.

This integration constitutes the school's main distinctiveness: students evolve in an environment where teaching, production, exhibition and mediation intersect, with regular access to exhibitions, invited artists and the institution's public programs.

Programs and strengths

The school awards the national diplomas of the network of higher art schools: the DNA (bachelor's degree level) then the DNSEP (master's degree level), in the Art option. The pedagogy is based on individual follow-up of the artistic project, studio work and a cross-disciplinary approach to media: painting, drawing, sculpture, volume, photography, video, sound, installation, publishing and digital practices.

Theoretical teachings (art history, aesthetics, visual culture) accompany practice, complemented by workshops, study trips and international partnerships.

Context

Montpellier offers an active cultural ecosystem (musée Fabre, stages and festivals, contemporary art structures in the Occitanie region), favorable to the gradual integration of students into the professional milieu.

The critic and curator Nicolas Bourriaud was the founding director general of MO.CO.