Considered the most renowned photography festival globally, Les Rencontres d’Arles took place for the 55th in a small historic town in southern France. The event transformed municipal galleries, churches, gardens, and pop-up spaces into venues for art exploration, idea exchange, and the formation of new connections and friendships. This year’s edition started on July 1 and will end on September 29. The programme includes nearly 50 exhibitions, along with numerous additional shows part of the so-called „Off Arles”, as well as a bunch of independent events and shows, not featured on any official lists.
This year’s programme encompasses exhibitions on vampires, graffiti, migrations, sports, gigantic fruits, and toxic photographic prints, and more. It is presented to the audience with the intriguing title Beneath The Surface. As festival director Christoph Wiesner says: „Photographers, artists, and curators reveal their visions and stories, not least that of our humanity, by turns thwarted, in endless redefinition, resilient, but also visionary”.
This year’s development team, to a great surprise, appears to be approaching any of the significant global issues or social changes with caution. The multi-thematic nature of Arles 2024 creates confusion and makes it hard to fully grasp the curatorial concept behind this edition. One can also complain about the striking overrepresentation of Asian artists in the absence of projects from other often neglected areas such as South America and Africa (there is only one exhibition – Ho Tshepa Ntshepedi Ya Bontshepe [Believe in something that will never happen] by Tshepiso Mazibuko – part of the Discovery Exhibition Award 2024 of the Louis Roederer Foundation). Despite these shortcomings, there are still some great exhibitions worth recommending. Below are some thoughts about selected highlights.
Cristina de Middel – Journey to the Center
ÉGLISE DES FRÈRES PRÊCHEURS, on display until August 25, 2024
This rich and immersive exhibition may seem overwhelming at first glance, with many visually striking elements competing for attention – an attribute that increases the risk of diluting the core narrative. However, despite the initial impression, the project offers the chance to captivate the viewer for an extended period. It presents a variety of aesthetic, intellectual, and emotional triggers through a mix of documentary photography, staged images, and archival materials, complemented by detailed textual and informative content.
The most effective aspect of the series is a seemingly simple trick. Through the use of an alternative well-known literary genre, the author achieves her goal to revamp the prevailing, outdated migration narrative and spotlighting the characters’ strengths. This shift in narrative, from the typical negative messages against Mexican migrants in America, to beloved adventure stories set in a magical setting, surprises unsuspecting visitors with the clearness and honesty of its conclusions.
Cristina de Middle openly references Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, as she shares with viewers her discovery of Felicity, a small town in California that is officially home to the absurd “Center of the World” monument, located next to the fenced border with Mexico. By depicting Mexican daredevils as they set off a lengthy expedition through deadly deserts to a forbidden land, the photographer enables us to perceive the protagonists as they truly are: courageous heroes who risk their safety and health to earn some money and support their struggling families back home.
The artist restores dignity to those who have no voice and no representation. At the same time, she compares what the Mexicans see as a dreamland to a ridiculous “center of the world” – a place that pretends to be much better and more important than it actually is.
Sophie Calle – Neither Give nor Throw Away
CRYPTOPORTIQUES, on display until September 29, 2024
The exhibition of works by the renowned French artist is one of the most important events in this year’s Festival programme. I’m a big fan of Calle’s work, and couldn’t wait to see the show. Getting inside was challenging: there was a huge line of those who were as enthusiastic as me to see it. The location itself, an underground Roman crypt sitting deep under La Forum, that was built in the first half of the first millennium, attracted many visitors.
The Neither Give nor Throw Away project is highly conceptual and very site-specific, closely linked to the place itself. Although the original purpose of the underground rooms cannot be entirely confirmed, the new temporary purpose – a tomb – fits perfectly with the vibe of the crypts. After descending two staircases, one lands in the gloomy, damp and cold corridors that stretch quite far beyond the artist’s exhibition. Photographs and objects are placed directly on the floor or on the original elements of ancient architecture, such as wall reliefs and columns. The place is quite dark and most people talk in whispers.
The history of the project explains the choice of this location. The idea behind Neither Give nor Throw Away was born when the artist’s studio was destroyed by a storm, and some of the important works – including photographs from the Blind series – were attacked by mold spores. Despite the experts advising the artist to dispose of the now toxic items, she found she was unable to do so: these objects were too precious for her to part with, too valuable to throw away. Arles Cryptoportiques seemed like an ideal and worthy place to bury her works.
The exhibition is unique and worth recommending. The only downside is that if you don’t speak French, you’ll only be able to get the visual side of the narrative, as a text layer (which in the Blind series is crucial to understanding the concept and actually “seeing” the exhibition) is not available in any other language. Because of this, I left the crypts with a sense of disappointment and felt excluded from a promising experience due to being a foreign guest.
Debi Cornwall – Model Citizens
ESPACE MONOPRIX, on display until September 29, 2024
Any modern state that aims to control society relies on powerful myths and stories about heroes. Debi Cornwall chose America as a case study to examine the peculiar, seemingly unconnected aspects of fiction employed by politicians. According to the curator’s statement, it is a “closer examination of how state power is performed, consumed, and normalized.”
The exhibition comprises smaller sections, each focusing on different aspects and stories, always capturing specific places or situations, representing more common phenomena. The artist photographed immersive military facilities in the U.S. Border Patrol Academy, conservative political gatherings, and governmental bodies that revise history to celebrate national heroes and conceal the country’s mistakes. Some of the most powerful images are those taken in the simulated villages of the fictional country “Atropia”: a made-up land serving as a training site for the US army, offering an experience that closely resembles reality. During these war games, the participants are dressed like characters in Hollywood movies, complete with bloody wounds and dirty clothes. The role of “enemies” is often portrayed by civilian immigrants from Afghanistan or Iraq, who are hired to participate in a fictional war (even though they may have fled a real conflict in those countries). The exhibition also includes a screening room with a short film made by the artist that is worth seeing.
The show, based on two long-term projects: Necessary Fictions and Model Citizens, is one of the strongest propositions this year. It reflects on citizenship, violence, military culture, and the state’s self-perception from many unexpected perspectives.
Bruce Eesly – New Farmer
CROISIÈRE, on display until September 29, 2024
An intriguing, humorous, and aesthetic design immediately engages the viewer. Stylized as archival photos and publications from the period of the Green Agricultural Revolution and genetic manipulations from the 1960s, the works attract attention and do not let you break away from them – they look realistic, but at the same time there is something uncanny about them. The visitor feels that some of those photographs are not part of the original archival material, but which ones? To find out, one has to search for answers on the Internet, because all of the exhibition elements, including the project description, are part of a deception game and don’t contain any truth. It turns out that the entire mockumentary is created by AI. By the way, the fact that the curators of the photography festival do not mention including AI-created works in the programme may seem questionable. Boris Eldagsen, known for provoking deeper and broader discussions about the relationship between artificial and real photography, publicly noted this on social media. Happy children with giant vegetables are not real, but they could exist if science experiments had moved in a different direction.
I’m so happy you are here.
Japanese woman photographers from the 1950s to now.
PALAIS DE L’ARCHEVÊCHÉ, on display until September 29, 2024
The display of Japanese women’s photography is truly delightful, especially when considering that the country’s lens-based scene is globally represented by men. Curators exhibited small fragments of larger projects by 26 invited artists. The list of participants includes fascinating photographers like Rinko Kawauchi, known for her sublime and meditative works. Another one is Mari Katayama, an artist who lost her leg when she was a child. She is recognized from her self-portraits featuring handmade sculptures that she poses with. The exhibit also includes disorienting water pictures by Asako Narahashi, as well as bright, kitsch, and fun works by Mika Ninagawa. Last but not least, there is Sawada Tomoko, who uses her own face to create performative photographs and collages that explore themes of identity, individualism, and contemporary portraiture. The exhibition is crowded and almost claustrophobic, with plenty of fragmented projects placed too close to each other. But the selection of artists and the quality of works are of the highest value. This is a must-see exhibition – a great introduction to the rich, little-known world of Japanese female photography.
When Images Learn to Speak.
Conceptualized Documentary Photography from Astrid Ullens de Schooten Whettnall’s Collection.
LA MÉCANIQUE GÉNÉRALE, on display until September 29, 2024
For those who enjoy classic documentaries, this exhibition provides a unique opportunity to view original pieces by world-famous and renowned photographers like Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, Jim Goldberg, Ed Ruscha or Garry Winogrand, gathered in one space. The extensive exhibition features works by 47 artists. It showcases representative excerpts from each selected project, allowing the visitors to immerse themselves fully in the narratives and typologies. All series are presented on carefully arranged exhibition walls and spaced appropriately, giving each display enough space to stand out and attract the attention it deserves. The walls are painted brightly with a bold color palette, counteracting the risk of creating a dull atmosphere in the gallery (a bigger part of the prints are black and white). When Images Learn to Speak is curated and designed with great thought and attention to detail, considering the potential pitfalls of displaying such a vast collection.
Polish Accents in Arles
Polish photography made its mark in southern France this year through various high-quality projects and events. These included Grzegorz Przyborek’s Touching Silence exhibition at Marseille Centre Photographique, the participation of Jadwiga Janowska and Alicja Łabądź in the renowned Night of the Year presentation with their projects False Flag and Strike a Pose, and the showcasing of three Polish photographers – Krystyna Gorayska, Natalia Kepesz, and Emilia Martin – who qualified for the Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents exhibited at LUMA Arles. Six Polish artists were featured in the pop-up exhibition Rethinking Eastern Europe, curated by Zula Rabikowska. It showcased the artworks by Ania Ready, Kasia Ślesińska, Paulina Korobkiewicz, Zula Rabikowska, Marcelina Amelia & Grupa Łono. During the Arles Books Fair, Poland was proudly represented by BLOW UP Press and their beautiful publications, with one of the talks moderated by Grzegorz Kosmala (“When only memories, tombstones and forests remain, or how to talk about death in a photo book”, with Yann Castanier, Christine Delory-Momberger, Hubert Humka, Lia Pradal). There was also an opportunity to meet Rafał Milach, who was signing his books at the Magnum Book Fair and offered his expertise at the Free Portfolio Reviews provided by Magnum Learn.
The Polish Photo Brunch, an exciting event organized by the Polish Institute in Paris in partnership with the Fotofestiwal Collective, Photographic Publication of the Year 2024, and Contemporary Lynx, was a resounding success, attracting an enthusiastic international audience. It focused on the Polish photography scene and showcased a diverse range of photo books, including works from publishers and collections such as 19 Rivers, BLOW UP Press, Łódź Film School Publishing House, Université des Arts Magdalena Abakanowicz de Poznań, PiX House, and Zinteka. It was accompanied by the slideshow curated by Julia Klewaniec (selected artists: Karolina Wojtas, Weronika Gęsicka, Julia Klewaniec, Magdalena Hueckel, Tomasz Kawecki, Anna Zagrodzka, Marta Zgierska, Michalina Kacperak, Anna Kędziora, Hubert Humka). On July 5, dozens of guests in Arles guests gathered on the banks of the Rhone River, dancing and celebrating at one of the famous parties spontaneously organized by the Fotofestiwal team.
The Rencontres d’Arles is a summer photography festival founded in 1970 by Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, author Michel Tournier and historian Jean-Maurice Rouquette.
You can visit it until 29 September 2024
