18,500 festival-goers from Monday July 2 to Saturday July 7
ATTENDANCE ROSE BY 6%

Minister of Culture Françoise Nyssen opened the 49th Rencontres d’Arles on July 2.
The well-named Rencontres d’Arles—rencontres means “meetings” in French—is the unmissable platform of photography in all its forms. More than ever, the Rencontres is where all professionals—photographers, museums, foundations, galleries, publishers, photo agencies, collectors, historians, researchers, curators, journalists, etc.—meet and exchange ideas during opening week. The Rencontres d’Arles is spearheading an unprecedented local, regional and international development campaign with the partnership to create the Institut pour la Photographie in Lille, the coproduction of the Jimei x Arles festival in Xiamen, China and the launch of a master class with Venezia Foto in Italy.

Next year, the Rencontres d’Arles will celebrate its 50th anniversary.
See you on July 1, 2019.

KEY FIGURES
18,500 visitors (a 6% rise compared to 2017).
An enthusiastic local public: over 3,400 Arles residents came, an 18% increase.
36 exhibitions on the official program, 17 on the associated program and seven as part of the Grand Arles Express, which stops in Marseille, Avignon and Nîmes.
49 guest curators and 151 artists on the program.
36 places combined, 25 “Rencontres” venues, including five new ones.
6 evenings at various venues in town, including 3 free ones.
129 public events: public tours with artists and curators, book signings, live France Inter shows.
80 French and international publishers at Cosmos Arles Books.

Complete press release can be downloaded just below: