News
THE 54th RENCONTRES D'ARLES OPENING WEEK
JULY TO 8, 2023
RECORD ATTENDANCE
“More people than ever—19,500 photography fans and professionals—came to opening week, a success for photography, photographs and photographers.
Featuring over 80 events, opening week is an international platform for exchanging ideas and debating the place and status of photographs and photography and their evolution, technology and experimentation.
We wanted this year’s festival to be pluralistic, diverse and open to emerging trends and new perspectives. We asked curators to look into their hearts and use their critical and historical skills to reveal the work of great photographers as well as treasures of vernacular photography.
This year’s edition, entitled “A State of Consciousness” is highly representative of the artists’ work, reflects their image of the world past and present and sheds light on the festival’s social responsibility and commitments."
Aurélie de Lanlay, assistant director, and Christoph Wiesner, director of the Rencontres d’Arles
KEY FIGURES
The Rencontres d’Arles has the pleasure to announce that this year’s opening week attendance surpassed 2019 (the 50th anniversary year) with 19,500 visitors from July 3 to 8, a 5% increase over 2022.
- 19,500 visitors, including 40% from outside France
- 45 exhibitions, including 14 “Arles Associé” (20 French artists and 30 from outside France, excluding group and vernacular shows)
- 11 “Grand Arles Express” exhibitions
- 46 curators (excluding “Grand Arles Express”)
- 100 artists (excluding “Arles Associé” and “Grand Arles Express”)
- 12,000 m2 of exhibitions (excluding “Grand Arles Express”)
- 4,200 works
- 86 public events: panel discussions, meetings, projections, tours with artists and curators, book signings, etc.
Day and night, photographers and curators met the public throughout the city at evening projections, debates, lectures and exhibition tours, all of which were highly successful and attracted more participants than ever.
Reflecting the program’s diversity, this year's venues offered many different atmospheres and venues, including historic and heritage sites in the city center, from the Atelier de la Mécanique in the Parc des Ateliers to the Monoprix, Croisière and Jardin d'été. For the first time, the festival took up residence in the cryptoporticus, the ancient tunnels beneath the Roman forum, which hosted an exhibition by Juliette Agnel.
The French post office has issued a stamp honoring the Rencontres as part of the EUROMed competition, whose 2023 theme is Mediterranean festivals. Unveiled during opening week, the stamp will go on sale throughout France on July 10.
The festival ends on September 24.
THE NIGHTS OF PHOTOGRAPHY
This year, the festival offered festival-goers and Arles residents six free evening events:
- Wednesday, July 5: screening of the documentary Casa Susanna at Croisière to complement the eponymous exhibition at the Espace Van Gogh.
- Saturday, July 8: 6,000 people attended The Night of the Year, opening week’s unmissable festive event, which took place at the former Étienne paper mill. They enjoyed a visual walk through approximately 41 photographic proposals projected in a loop on large screen. Staff picks and cartes blanches were offered for this great celebration of photography, which also featured performances, concerts, DJ sets, food trucks and bars.
- July 4 to 7, the Fanton Nights: Tënk, an online documentary platform, and the Rencontres turned the Cour Fanton into an open-air cinema to see 11 short and feature-length documentary and animated films.
Three exceptional evenings at the Théâtre Antique, which will be broadcast on the festival’s website all summer:
- Tuesday, July 4: a tribute to Olivier Metzger, a talented portraitist and an Arles resident by adoption; the Book Awards ceremony; the 2023 Women In Motion for Photography Award, which was given to Rosângela Rennó; and a performance in images with an original soundtrack by James Murphy and composer Stuart Bogie, who offered a unique exploration of Gregory Crewdson’s work echoing his exhibition Eveningside at the Mécanique Générale.
- Thursday, July 6: the announcement of the Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award and the Prix Pictet winners; a performance based on Stephen King’s legendary book Shining brought to the screen by Stanley Kubrick in 1980; a discussion between Darius Himes and Neil Selkirk on the many common photographic practices Diane Arbus renounced in her work, attempting to dispel some of the many misunderstandings surrounding it; echoing the Light of Saints exhibition, Tony Gatlif, accompanied by Manero and his musicians, told the story of peoples for whom memory is lost in an endless present and where myths and clichés merge with reality.
- Friday, July 7: the 2023 Prix de la Photo Madame Figaro Arles and 2023 Louis Roederer Foundation Discovery Award ceremony; a performance-dialogue between the dancers of Krump Mamu Tshi & Dakota Simao and the photo archives of the Musée Olympique and Photo Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland; a preview of an exhibition at the 2024 Rencontres d’Arles; and the Rencontres Live Magazine, which began six years ago.
PHOTOGRAPHY PUBLISHING IN ARLES
At the invitation of the Rencontres d’Arles, France PhotoBook organized the 2023 Arles Book Fair, devoted to the richness and variety of publishing practices. The event, punctuated by meetings with photographers and authors, brought together some 50 publishers from over 15 countries.
OPENING WEEK AWARDS CEREMONIES
THE WOMEN IN MOTION FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD
On Tuesday July 4, during the first evening at the Théâtre Antique in Arles, Kering and the Rencontres d'Arles presented the 2023 Women In Motion Award for Photography to the great Brazilian photographer Rosângela Rennó, who presented her work, discussed her journey and shared her views on women in photography and society. A monographic exhibition supported by Women In Motion, her first major solo show in France, is dedicated to her at La Mécanique Générale.
For its fifth anniversary in Arles, Kering is delighted to renew and strengthen its long-term partnership with the Rencontres for another five years. The Women In Motion Award for Photography, created in 2019, comes with a 25,000-euro purse for the acquisition of works by the winning artist for the Rencontres d'Arles collection.
THE 2023 LOUIS ROEDERER FOUNDATION DISCOVERY AWARD
The Discovery Award has been open to galleries, art centers, associations, independent venues and institutions since its creation in 2002. This year, the 10 shortlisted projects will again be considered as a single exhibition designed by a curator, Tanvi Mishra, from selection to hanging. Ms. Mishra and exhibition designer Amanda Antunes are innovatively and eco-responsibly showcasing emerging artists in an emblematic festival venue, the église des Frères-Prêcheurs.
Winner of the Jury’s Award: Isadora Romero (Ecuador) for her exhibition Fume, Root, Seed (Humo, Semilla, Raíz) presented by the Magnum Foundation (United States)
Winner of the Public’s Award: Soumaya Sankar Bose (India) for her exhibition Discrete Exit through the Darkness presented by Experimenter (India)
Amounts: 15,000 euros for the Jury’s Award to be used for the acquisition of works that will join the Rencontres d’Arles collection and 5,000 euros for the Public’s Award.
With support from the Louis Roederer Foundation and Polka
THE LUMA RENCONTRES DUMMY BOOK AWARD
Winner: Arash Fayez for APOLIS
Amount: 25,000 euros
In partnership with the Luma Foundation
Special mention: Julia Mejnertsen for HUN
Graphic design: Ricardo Baez Editorial: Sergio Valenzuela Escobedo
THE BOOK AWARDS
THE PHOTO-TEXT BOOK AWARD
22 Days in Between
Author: Salih Basheer
Publisher: Disko Bay
Design: Lars Prevelakis Bai Amount: 6,000 euros
Special mention: Le stade de la lose
Author: Olivier Cablat
Publisher: Poursuite/Rvb Books/Gwinzegal/Images Vevey Design: Grégoire Pujade-Lauraine
THE HISTORICAL BOOK AWARD
Winner: Laboratorio de Teatro Campesino e Indígena. Medio Siglo de Historia
Author: Lourdes Grobet
Publisher: Editorialrm/Inbal/Secretaría De Cultura Design: Ximena Pérez Grobet
Amount: 6,000 euros
Special mention: Foto Z Misiem
Author: Barbara Caillot & Aleksandra Karkowska Publisher: V Oficyna Wydawnicza Oryginaly Design: Magdalena Koziak-Podsiadlo
THE AUTHOR’S BOOK AWARD
Witch Hunt Vol. I: the Banished of Balsapuerto
Author: Christo Geoghegan Publisher: Editorialrm
Design: Angélique Pillière Amount: 6,000 euros
Special mention: Ejercicios mínimos para un jardín de invierno, No8
Author: Inés Molina Navea Publisher: Ediciones Posibles Design: Underbau
PRIX DE LA PHOTO MADAME FIGARO-ARLES
Since 2016, the Prix de la Photo Madame Figaro-Arles has been given to woman photographers exhibiting at the Rencontres d’Arles.
This year’s winner is Hannah Darabi for Soleil of Persian Square.
Special mention: Riti Sengupta for Things I Cant Say Out Loud, presented as part of the 2023 Louis Roederer Foundation Discovery Award.
VISUAL EDUCATION
Une Rentrée en images
The 18th Rentrée en Images will take place from September 6 to 27, when 10,000 students will be invited to spend a day forging an opinion on the images around them and developing their critical thinking skills.
Each class will follow a personalized program made up of three activities: an exhibition tour covered by the media, workshops or a meeting with a photography professional and an activity developed in collaboration with a partner cultural organization.
A Year in Pictures
In 2021, the Rencontres d’Arles launched “A Year in Pictures”, in which 600 students from the Bouches-du-Rhône, Vaucluse and Var, supervised and accompanied by a photographer, complete a year-long photographic editorial project from design to publication.
In September 2023, with the Institut pour la photographie de Lille, of which the Rencontres d’Arles is a founding member, high school students from Roubaix will join the project and begin a photographic correspondence with students in Arles, supervised by photographer Jean-Michel André.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURSES
Nearly 60 photography courses are offered year round, including approximately 30 this summer until September 21. Almost 450 professionals and passionate amateurs will improve their skills and enrich their gaze during weekend or week-long modules. Pop-up shows of their work will take place at Croisière every Friday from July 14 to August 18 as well as on Friday September 15 and Thursday September 21. For the first time, photographic walks will also be offered every Monday from July 17 to August 21.
ENJOYING THE FESTIVAL WITH THE FAMILY
Three-hour workshops for 6-12 year-olds are offered from July 12 to August 23. From Monday to Friday, for one or five days, children can discover and learn about photography in all its forms. An exhibition tour and a snack round off each day. Tours specially designed for families are offered every Wednesday until August 23. Des ateliers 6-12 ans d’une durée de trois heures sont proposés du 12 juillet au 23 août. Du lundi au vendredi, pour une journée ou cinq jours les enfants découvrent et s’initient à la photographie sous toutes ses formes. Une visite d’exposition et un goûter complètent chaque journée. Des visites spécialement imaginées pour les familles sont proposées tous les mercredis jusqu’au 23 août.
“More people than ever—19,500 photography fans and professionals—came to opening week, a success for photography, photographs and photographers.
Featuring over 80 events, opening week is an international platform for exchanging ideas and debating the place and status of photographs and photography and their evolution, technology and experimentation.
We wanted this year’s festival to be pluralistic, diverse and open to emerging trends and new perspectives. We asked curators to look into their hearts and use their critical and historical skills to reveal the work of great photographers as well as treasures of vernacular photography.
This year’s edition, entitled “A State of Consciousness” is highly representative of the artists’ work, reflects their image of the world past and present and sheds light on the festival’s social responsibility and commitments."
Aurélie de Lanlay, assistant director, and Christoph Wiesner, director of the Rencontres d’Arles
KEY FIGURES
The Rencontres d’Arles has the pleasure to announce that this year’s opening week attendance surpassed 2019 (the 50th anniversary year) with 19,500 visitors from July 3 to 8, a 5% increase over 2022.
- 19,500 visitors, including 40% from outside France
- 45 exhibitions, including 14 “Arles Associé” (20 French artists and 30 from outside France, excluding group and vernacular shows)
- 11 “Grand Arles Express” exhibitions
- 46 curators (excluding “Grand Arles Express”)
- 100 artists (excluding “Arles Associé” and “Grand Arles Express”)
- 12,000 m2 of exhibitions (excluding “Grand Arles Express”)
- 4,200 works
- 86 public events: panel discussions, meetings, projections, tours with artists and curators, book signings, etc.
Day and night, photographers and curators met the public throughout the city at evening projections, debates, lectures and exhibition tours, all of which were highly successful and attracted more participants than ever.
Reflecting the program’s diversity, this year's venues offered many different atmospheres and venues, including historic and heritage sites in the city center, from the Atelier de la Mécanique in the Parc des Ateliers to the Monoprix, Croisière and Jardin d'été. For the first time, the festival took up residence in the cryptoporticus, the ancient tunnels beneath the Roman forum, which hosted an exhibition by Juliette Agnel.
The French post office has issued a stamp honoring the Rencontres as part of the EUROMed competition, whose 2023 theme is Mediterranean festivals. Unveiled during opening week, the stamp will go on sale throughout France on July 10.
The festival ends on September 24.
THE NIGHTS OF PHOTOGRAPHY
This year, the festival offered festival-goers and Arles residents six free evening events:
- Wednesday, July 5: screening of the documentary Casa Susanna at Croisière to complement the eponymous exhibition at the Espace Van Gogh.
- Saturday, July 8: 6,000 people attended The Night of the Year, opening week’s unmissable festive event, which took place at the former Étienne paper mill. They enjoyed a visual walk through approximately 41 photographic proposals projected in a loop on large screen. Staff picks and cartes blanches were offered for this great celebration of photography, which also featured performances, concerts, DJ sets, food trucks and bars.
- July 4 to 7, the Fanton Nights: Tënk, an online documentary platform, and the Rencontres turned the Cour Fanton into an open-air cinema to see 11 short and feature-length documentary and animated films.
Three exceptional evenings at the Théâtre Antique, which will be broadcast on the festival’s website all summer:
- Tuesday, July 4: a tribute to Olivier Metzger, a talented portraitist and an Arles resident by adoption; the Book Awards ceremony; the 2023 Women In Motion for Photography Award, which was given to Rosângela Rennó; and a performance in images with an original soundtrack by James Murphy and composer Stuart Bogie, who offered a unique exploration of Gregory Crewdson’s work echoing his exhibition Eveningside at the Mécanique Générale.
- Thursday, July 6: the announcement of the Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award and the Prix Pictet winners; a performance based on Stephen King’s legendary book Shining brought to the screen by Stanley Kubrick in 1980; a discussion between Darius Himes and Neil Selkirk on the many common photographic practices Diane Arbus renounced in her work, attempting to dispel some of the many misunderstandings surrounding it; echoing the Light of Saints exhibition, Tony Gatlif, accompanied by Manero and his musicians, told the story of peoples for whom memory is lost in an endless present and where myths and clichés merge with reality.
- Friday, July 7: the 2023 Prix de la Photo Madame Figaro Arles and 2023 Louis Roederer Foundation Discovery Award ceremony; a performance-dialogue between the dancers of Krump Mamu Tshi & Dakota Simao and the photo archives of the Musée Olympique and Photo Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland; a preview of an exhibition at the 2024 Rencontres d’Arles; and the Rencontres Live Magazine, which began six years ago.
PHOTOGRAPHY PUBLISHING IN ARLES
At the invitation of the Rencontres d’Arles, France PhotoBook organized the 2023 Arles Book Fair, devoted to the richness and variety of publishing practices. The event, punctuated by meetings with photographers and authors, brought together some 50 publishers from over 15 countries.
OPENING WEEK AWARDS CEREMONIES
THE WOMEN IN MOTION FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD
On Tuesday July 4, during the first evening at the Théâtre Antique in Arles, Kering and the Rencontres d'Arles presented the 2023 Women In Motion Award for Photography to the great Brazilian photographer Rosângela Rennó, who presented her work, discussed her journey and shared her views on women in photography and society. A monographic exhibition supported by Women In Motion, her first major solo show in France, is dedicated to her at La Mécanique Générale.
For its fifth anniversary in Arles, Kering is delighted to renew and strengthen its long-term partnership with the Rencontres for another five years. The Women In Motion Award for Photography, created in 2019, comes with a 25,000-euro purse for the acquisition of works by the winning artist for the Rencontres d'Arles collection.
THE 2023 LOUIS ROEDERER FOUNDATION DISCOVERY AWARD
The Discovery Award has been open to galleries, art centers, associations, independent venues and institutions since its creation in 2002. This year, the 10 shortlisted projects will again be considered as a single exhibition designed by a curator, Tanvi Mishra, from selection to hanging. Ms. Mishra and exhibition designer Amanda Antunes are innovatively and eco-responsibly showcasing emerging artists in an emblematic festival venue, the église des Frères-Prêcheurs.
Winner of the Jury’s Award: Isadora Romero (Ecuador) for her exhibition Fume, Root, Seed (Humo, Semilla, Raíz) presented by the Magnum Foundation (United States)
Winner of the Public’s Award: Soumaya Sankar Bose (India) for her exhibition Discrete Exit through the Darkness presented by Experimenter (India)
Amounts: 15,000 euros for the Jury’s Award to be used for the acquisition of works that will join the Rencontres d’Arles collection and 5,000 euros for the Public’s Award.
With support from the Louis Roederer Foundation and Polka
THE LUMA RENCONTRES DUMMY BOOK AWARD
Winner: Arash Fayez for APOLIS
Amount: 25,000 euros
In partnership with the Luma Foundation
Special mention: Julia Mejnertsen for HUN
Graphic design: Ricardo Baez Editorial: Sergio Valenzuela Escobedo
THE BOOK AWARDS
THE PHOTO-TEXT BOOK AWARD
22 Days in Between
Author: Salih Basheer
Publisher: Disko Bay
Design: Lars Prevelakis Bai Amount: 6,000 euros
Special mention: Le stade de la lose
Author: Olivier Cablat
Publisher: Poursuite/Rvb Books/Gwinzegal/Images Vevey Design: Grégoire Pujade-Lauraine
THE HISTORICAL BOOK AWARD
Winner: Laboratorio de Teatro Campesino e Indígena. Medio Siglo de Historia
Author: Lourdes Grobet
Publisher: Editorialrm/Inbal/Secretaría De Cultura Design: Ximena Pérez Grobet
Amount: 6,000 euros
Special mention: Foto Z Misiem
Author: Barbara Caillot & Aleksandra Karkowska Publisher: V Oficyna Wydawnicza Oryginaly Design: Magdalena Koziak-Podsiadlo
THE AUTHOR’S BOOK AWARD
Witch Hunt Vol. I: the Banished of Balsapuerto
Author: Christo Geoghegan Publisher: Editorialrm
Design: Angélique Pillière Amount: 6,000 euros
Special mention: Ejercicios mínimos para un jardín de invierno, No8
Author: Inés Molina Navea Publisher: Ediciones Posibles Design: Underbau
PRIX DE LA PHOTO MADAME FIGARO-ARLES
Since 2016, the Prix de la Photo Madame Figaro-Arles has been given to woman photographers exhibiting at the Rencontres d’Arles.
This year’s winner is Hannah Darabi for Soleil of Persian Square.
Special mention: Riti Sengupta for Things I Cant Say Out Loud, presented as part of the 2023 Louis Roederer Foundation Discovery Award.
VISUAL EDUCATION
Une Rentrée en images
The 18th Rentrée en Images will take place from September 6 to 27, when 10,000 students will be invited to spend a day forging an opinion on the images around them and developing their critical thinking skills.
Each class will follow a personalized program made up of three activities: an exhibition tour covered by the media, workshops or a meeting with a photography professional and an activity developed in collaboration with a partner cultural organization.
A Year in Pictures
In 2021, the Rencontres d’Arles launched “A Year in Pictures”, in which 600 students from the Bouches-du-Rhône, Vaucluse and Var, supervised and accompanied by a photographer, complete a year-long photographic editorial project from design to publication.
In September 2023, with the Institut pour la photographie de Lille, of which the Rencontres d’Arles is a founding member, high school students from Roubaix will join the project and begin a photographic correspondence with students in Arles, supervised by photographer Jean-Michel André.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURSES
Nearly 60 photography courses are offered year round, including approximately 30 this summer until September 21. Almost 450 professionals and passionate amateurs will improve their skills and enrich their gaze during weekend or week-long modules. Pop-up shows of their work will take place at Croisière every Friday from July 14 to August 18 as well as on Friday September 15 and Thursday September 21. For the first time, photographic walks will also be offered every Monday from July 17 to August 21.
ENJOYING THE FESTIVAL WITH THE FAMILY
Three-hour workshops for 6-12 year-olds are offered from July 12 to August 23. From Monday to Friday, for one or five days, children can discover and learn about photography in all its forms. An exhibition tour and a snack round off each day. Tours specially designed for families are offered every Wednesday until August 23. Des ateliers 6-12 ans d’une durée de trois heures sont proposés du 12 juillet au 23 août. Du lundi au vendredi, pour une journée ou cinq jours les enfants découvrent et s’initient à la photographie sous toutes ses formes. Une visite d’exposition et un goûter complètent chaque journée. Des visites spécialement imaginées pour les familles sont proposées tous les mercredis jusqu’au 23 août.
Posted on 10.07.2023
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