The 2024 edition of the Rencontres d’Arles unfolds around the city from 1 July to 29 September 2024. Photographers, artists, and curators present their visions and stories, reflecting humanity’s perpetual redefinition, resilience, and visionary aspects. These narratives, whether emerging from the margins or established centres, intertwine and overlap, creating a rich tapestry of divergent paths and interconnected journeys.
Founded in 1970 by photographer Lucien Clergue, writer Michel Tournier, and historian Jean-Maurice Rouquette, the Rencontres d’Arles has grown from a modest gathering to a major cultural event. It has played a pivotal role in elevating photography as an art form and continues to attract leading photographers and interdisciplinary collaborations.
Held between early July and late September, the festival features 40 exhibitions across Arles, accompanied by artist interactions, panel discussions, and vibrant night-time events like the Night of the Year. Additionally, the festival supports year-round photography education and regional and international collaborations, including the Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival in China.
Encounters, the first worldwide retrospective of American documentary photographer and portraitist Mary Ellen Mark—co-organized by C/O Berlin Foundation and The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation—paves the way, occupying the whole of the first floor of the Espace Van Gogh. Celebrities mingle with the marginalized in society, several of whom Mark has followed for years.
In the majestic church of the Frères Prêcheurs, Cristina De Middel draws inspiration from Jules Verne and takes us on a Journey to the Center (of the Earth).
Nearby, the exhibition I’m so Happy You Are Here, organized by Aperture, bypasses established narratives and reveals the significance of Japanese women photographers since the 1950s. The exhibition unveils new historiographical perspectives, emphasizing the need to develop an inclusive understanding of the history of photography, hitherto essentially masculine in its display. At the Salle Henri Comte, Ishuichi Miyako, winner of the Women in Motion Award, 2024, displays some of her emblematic series, such as Mother's, of which she says: "I had never thought about my mother's body, and now I was discovering it in detail, thanks to photography. To take a photograph is to make visible the invisible things that lie beneath the surface."
Photographic archives are intrinsic to the medium. The Rencontres repeatedly offer incursions into the visual memory of photographers and artists, as well as into industrial, historiographic and vernacular archives. This 55th edition again offers a wealth of discoveries, in both form and content. From ama, Japanese fisherwomen, based on the archives of Uraguchi Kusukazu, to the mysterious and whimsical world of Michel Medinger, while not forgetting the history of the wagon-bar, or the comparison of the collections of the Olympic Museum and Photo Elysée with Sport in Focus, archives feature prominently.
The Rencontres d'Arles supports and accompanies emerging creation ever more actively. The Discovery Award now takes up residence at the Espace Monoprix, and invites curator Audrey Illouz to open new horizons, up to the questions raised by the spread of new technologies such as AI.
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