Premio Combat Prize

Frederic Bigras-Burrogano is a conceptual photographer who lives and works in Montreal. His work explores assumptions with themes such as biculturalism, heritage and the landscape. One recent series explores the phenomenon of town naming, more precisely towns with borrowed name from other metropolis. He studied at Concordia University and has exhibited at Les Territoires (Montréal, Canada), Aux Vues (Montréal, Canada) and at the Chinese European Art Center (Xiamen, China).
Milan, New Mexico is an ongoing photographic series that explores the phenomenon of town naming, more precisely, the practice of borrowing names from other more iconic cities of the world. As a Canadian-Italian this body of work is a way for me to explore my own biculturalism, sense of belonging and identity. This project studies the connection between these new cities, their relationship with nationalism, patriotism and the American way of life. Question arises such as how did these hundreds of towns appear all across the Americas? What ties them together? What pushes settlers to borrow names from their native land? What is left from the founder’s culture and do the town’s inhabitant relates to it?