After consulting with the Board of Directors, Rencontres de la photographie president Hubert Védrine appointed CHRISTOPH WIESNER as the festival’s director. He succeeds Sam Stourdzé, who has been appointed director of the Académie de France in Rome-Villa Médicis.
Mr. Wiesner will take up his position in September 2020.

Following the cancellation of the 51st Rencontres d'Arles, our partners, in solidarity with the artists and the festival, have stepped up so that certain projects as well as the 2020 awards can go on as scheduled.

EXHIBITION AT THE PARIS-GARE DE LYON AND AVIGNON-TGV TRAIN STATIONS
JUNE 25 — SEPTEMBER 1
Being French? Éric Bouvet and Yan Morvan went out in search of men and women and asked them that question. For over two years, from the May 2017 presidential campaign to the COVID-19 epidemic, they made a portrait of France on the move.

Call for applications
June 22 — August 22, 2020
The Institut français and the Rencontres d’Arles are launching the second edition of the curatorial research grant open to citizens of an African country who are based in Africa most of the time.
The €20,000 curatorial research grant is aimed at African curators wishing to carry out an unprecedented exhibition project in connection with images/photography.

AN OPEN CALL FOR LENS-BASED PRACTITIONERS
APRIL 15 — JULY 7
PHOTOGRAPHY | VIDEO | NEW MEDIA
Serendipity Arts Foundation & the Rencontres d’Arles announces a generous grant for lens-based practitioners in South Asia.

For nearly two months, the Rencontres d’Arles has considered every possibility to adjust to an unprecedented situation and keep the festival going while maintaining social distancing.
But it is impossible to produce exhibitions and equip the venues. International travel has come to a standstill and public gatherings have been banned for the foreseeable future. Health has become the top priority. All of these factors have led us to reluctantly cancel the 2020 Rencontres d’Arles.

The question of man-built border barriers across Eruope is more timely during the Covid-lockdown than ever and can be expolered through a fully native online experience. The Walls of Power exhibition that was shown during last year’s festival was digitally recreated by curator István Virágvölgyi who developed this show with the help of the Rencontres d’Arles curatorial research fellowship.

From meetings between a handful of photographers in 1970 to 140,000 visitors in 2018, this book, bound to become an authoritative reference work, tells a whole saga of French photography written in Arles.

The Rencontres d’Arles, an annual photography festival, was founded in 1970 by Arlesian photographer Lucien Clergue, writer Michel Tournier and historian Jean-Maurice Rouquette. At the time, photography was still regarded as a “minor” art and had not come of age. The festival played an important role in enabling it to gain recognition from institutions. Starting out as a series of encounters between photography enthusiasts, over the years it gained importance and popularity.

A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY
The collection is the outcome of many years of close collaboration and mutual trust between the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie and the photographers exhibited.

A pedagogical platform
Several hands-on workshops combine writing, the visual arts, photography, improvisation, reading, etc.

The Rencontres d’Arles will celebrate its 50th anniversary in July 2019. To mark the occasion, the festival is asking the visitors, participants and witnesses of those 50 years of photography to share their memories and archives. Photographs, videos, sound recordings, digitalized documents (newspapers, posters, letters, etc.) and testimonies can be uploaded to a participatory platform.