Things To Do At The Rencontres d'Arles 2024 And Beyond

A guide to the Rencontres d'Arles' opening week and all the initiatives revolving around it.

Every summer since 1970, over more than forty exhibitions at the city's exceptional heritage sites, the Rencontres d'Arles has been a major influence in disseminating photography. Throughout the city, day and night, photographers and curators meet the public at evening screenings, exhibition tours, debates, lectures.

1. Explore The Exhibitions /

The exhibitions are spread across various locations, transforming the city into an open-air gallery. You will find works by artists like Sophie Calle, Vasantha Yogananthan, Cristina De Middel, Rajesh Vora, Debi Cornwall, Uraguchi Kusukazu, Marine Lanier, Cemil Batur Gökçeer, Colin Jourdan, Marilou Poncin, Matan Mittwoch, Stephen Dock and Paribartana Mohanty.

Among the shows, The Green Ray by artist Mustapha Azeroual and curator Marjolaine Lévy explores what the eye is incapable of grasping, its core being the production of abstract images that seek to give form to light and colour. Me in My Landscape represents the first major comprehensive museum study of early works by Chinese artist Mo Yi, capturing the energy and melancholy of China’s evolving social fabric in the second half of the 20th century.

For Rivers Ocean, twinned with Productive Landscapes, Nicolas Floc'h traces the course of water at their watersheds, from the Mississippi to the Rhône, from the Loire to the Seine. In quest of color, he photographs water beneath the surface, its nuances playing a part in shaping and transforming territories. Based on a dozen of the 224 color points of water, the exhibition offers an immersion into the American landscape, the water cycle and the landscape of color.

Through their photographic, performative and introspective gestures, Nhu Xuan Hua and Vimala Pons have foregrounded the link between body-action/woman-body, the idea of proposing oneself as subject and not as object. In Heaven and Hell, the artists offer a hybrid exhibition in which lived experience has taken over the space, as if to find a new shelter in which to pursue its construction. Multiple simultaneous levels of narration induce a poetic vertigo in perpetual motion: whether outside or inside oneself, imbalance represents the contamination of image by reality.

Laurent Montaron'sTo Tell A Story unfurls through photographs, films, objects and sound apparatuses, probing how our attitudes and understanding of the world have evolved along with the history of image and sound technologies. It confronts an immediate sound experience with reflections on the idea of the story, questioning modes of transmission.

Commitment explores the complexity of engagement through the prism of migration, globalisation, and identity crises. Through their works, the artists offer a committed approach to issues ranging from social movements and the fight against police violence to the questioning of security systems and the human and ecological tensions caused by our electronic waste. Artists include Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Chun-Yi Chang, Muntaka Chasant, Thaddé Comar, Ljubiša Danilović, Chiara Dazi, Guido Gazzilli, Bénédicte Kurzen, Camille Lepage, Diego Moreno, Philippine Schaefer, Jun-Jieh Wang, Collectif Advantage Austria, Collectif LesAssociés, and Institute Contemporary.

2. Enjoy The Books Fairs /

France PhotoBook is co-organizing the third edition of the Arles Books Fair, taking place at the École nationale supérieure de la photographie and the Collège Saint-Charles from Tuesday 2nd to Saturday 6th July, 1pm to 7.30pm. The fair will bring together over seventy international publishing houses such as aka Tawla, André Frère Éditions, Ciao Press, Contrejour, Créaphis Éditions, Départ Pour l'Image, dienacht Publishing, Dummy Award by The PhotoBookMuseum, Ediciones Anómalas, This Book is True, Ediciones Posibles, Tipi Bookshop, Éditions Bessard, VOID, Witty Books, Éditions d'une rive à l'autre, XYZ Books, Yogurt Editions, Éditions du Caïd, FOTOHOF edition, Kult Books.

Within the event, France PhotoBook federates the main independent French publishing houses of photography books. Supported by the French Ministry of Culture, the association currently brings together 29 publishing houses, united to defend creative publishing and to ensure that photography books are recognized as a publishing field in their own right.

Plus, Librairie du Palais is back with MIRAGE, a bookfair featuring meetings, talks, and surprises. Attending publishers include Chose Commune, Handshake, Palais Books, Images Vevey, Classe Moyenne Éditions, Dunes Editions, Stockmans Kalenders & Art Books, Le Mulet, Porsuite Editions, Fraglich Publishing, Vernacular Social Club, Depart Pour L'Image and many others.

3. Attend The Panel Discussions, Round Tables And Talks /

One of the festival’s highlights is the series of talks and discussions featuring renowned photographers, critics, and curators. These sessions provide valuable insights into the artists' processes and critical analysis of the medium. A conversation about memory led by Clarence Edgard-Rosa, editor-in-chief of Gaze, the magazine of female perspectives, will take place with Yasmine Chemali, curator of the exhibition Comrade Sisters: Women Of The Black Panther Party, and photographers Randa Mirza and Laurent Montaron.

Moderated by Marion Hislen, head of the ADAGP Support Fund, the round table Photographic Collections: Indexing, How And Why? will be held with Sylvain Besson, Nicolas Floc'h, Audrey Hoareau, and Félicie de Maupeou. Led by Nathalie Chapuis, editor of the publication with EXB, Japanese Photographers Facing The Cataclysm will bring together authors Arai Takashi, Kazuma Obara, Suzuki Mayumi, and curators Philippe Séclier and Marina Amada.

In addition, the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (ENSP) is hosting a series of round tables and talks throughout the first week of July. The program features discussions on a variety of photography-related topics, including ecology, photobook publishing, and the representation of death. Round tables will be held in the ENSP auditorium, while talks will take place under the hackberry tree in the Cour Collège Saint-Charles.

Among the events are Artist And Publisher: Dialogue Above All, with David Fourré, Anastasia Leonova, Mark Pearson, Francesca Todde, and Jean-Baptiste Gauvin as moderator; Dummy Book Awards: A Stepping Stone From Experimentation To The Making Af A Photobook with Arash Fayez, Frederic Lezmi, Janne Riikonen, and the LUMA Rencontres Dummy Book Award winner; Martin Parr and his books, a conversation with Clémentine de la Féronnière; When Only Memories, Tombstones And Forests Remain, Or How To Talk About Death In A Photobook, with moderator Grzegorz Kosmala and participants Yann Castanier, Christine Delory-Momberger, Hubert Humka, Lia Pradal.

Plus, DoubleDummy Studio is holding a lecture program organized together with the Librairie du Palais. We Are Still Alive is a direct response to the current media landscape altered by the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. It also continues DoubleDummy’s longstanding commitment to foregrounding art and documentary photography as potential sites of activism. Guest speakers are Abdo Shanan, Mohamed Mahdy, Maen Hammad, Adam Broomberg, Rafael Gonzalez, Barbara, Debeuckelaere, Adam Rouhana, Max Pinckers and Kateryna Radchenko.

4. Join The Portfolio Reviews /

For over 15 years, Photo Folio Review & Gallery offers portfolio assessments during the opening week in the Salle des Fêtes d'Arles, Maison de la Vie Associative Arles. The event is geared toward professional photographers, art school students using photography and amateur photographers who already have an advanced practice. Assessment is carried out by international experts: publishers, exhibition curators, museum directors, agency heads, gallerists, collectors, critics, press art directors and others.

Among the reviewers are Julia Bunnemann and Danit Ariel (Photoworks, Brighton's Biennial), Israël Arino (Anomalas Edition), Jessica Baxter (Tate Modern), Florent Basiletti (Fondation Manuel Riviera Ortiz), Krzysztof Candrowicz (Lodz Fotofestiwal), Claudio Composti (Mc2 Gallery), Benjamin Diguerher (Porsuite Publishers), Michael Dooney (Jarvis Dooney Gallery), Collectif Fetart (Fetart / Circulations), Margaux Granjou (Fondation Carmignac), Laia Casanova and Albert Gusi (Panoramic Film Festival and Photography), Katy Hundertmark (Foam Museum), Katalin Kopin (Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center), Boaz Levin (CO Berlin Museum), Giulietta Palumbo (Magnum Photos), Sergio Valenzuela Escobedo (Double Dummy).

In addition, free consultations are offered by ADAGP and SAIF (Société des Auteurs des arts visuels et de l'Image Fixe) for authors looking for personalized legal consultations about the copyrights in visual arts, delving into protection of works, transfer of rights contracts, and more. The sessions must be booked by email writing to inscription@adagp.fr and communication@saif.fr.

5. Experience The Festival After Dark /

As the sun sets, the festival atmosphere transforms with nightly screenings of photo-based films and multimedia performances. These events often take place in stunning outdoor venues, providing a perfect way to unwind after a day of exploring exhibitions.

The 55th edition of the festival opens its doors on Tuesday, July 2nd, with Clara Ysé's concert at the Théâtre Antique, the Roman Theatre built during the reign of Caesar Augustus. I'm So Happy You Are Here by musician and artist Higashi Yoko will follow. Plus, Kering and the Rencontres d’Arles will present Ishiuchi Miyako with the sixth Women In Motion Award for Photography.

Nights go ahead with an exclusive screening of I'm Not Everything I Want To Be exploring the life of Czech photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková, taking place on Wednesday, July 3rd. Using only photographs and diary entries that she reads herself, the artist—along with filmmaker Klara Tasovska—intimately recounts her search for identity, her daily struggles, her physicality, her relationships and her emotions. An evening with William Kentridge is set for Thursday, July 4th, combining drawing, film, sculpture, theatre, and opera. The event features a unique series of animations and films hand selected by the artist to illuminate his work and methodology. Introduced and each one contextualized by William Kentridge himself, the evening is full of wild possibilities.

Launched one night in Arles seven years ago, the Rencontres Live Magazine originated from the idea to create a “99% real” ephemeral experience where a group of photographers, artists, filmmakers, and journalists who would tell with a great deal of trepidation what they could not tell elsewhere, thus founding, for one evening only, a living newspaper. Once again this year, on Friday, July 5th, the “pages” will be turned, the “sections” will be covered, and we will move from one subject to another, from an intimate story to a global investigation, celebrating the power of the image.

Other events include the screening of Olya Chernynkh's documentary A Ukranian Chronicle, and a documentary break offered by Les Rencontres d'Arles and Tënk at The Cour Fanton, which is transformed into an open-air cinema for a programme of new and rare films. In addition, photographer Gauri Gill will present her series Notes from the Desert in the context of her other ongoing work from rural India, while Chechnya documentary photographer and writer Gena Kagermanov will present On War and Other Trivialities. Plus, the winners of awards Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award, Prix De La Photo Madame Figaro Arles, and Discovery Award will be announced.

6. Celebrate The Night Of The Year /

The Night Of The Year (La Nuit de l’Année) stands out as a spectacular celebration of visual storytelling. The opening week’s unmissable festive event is a visual walk through about fifty photographic proposals projected in loops onto large screens.

This nocturnal event is a favorite for festival-goers, offering a unique blend of photography, live music, performances, and dynamic and multisensory experiences until 2am. The Rencontres d’Arles is giving carte blanche to Konbini to present a program full of energy with the Twerkistan collective, Mixlab crew, Sweet Juju, Andy4000 and GREG, ranging from a mix of Afro house and tech house to electronic music with British mutations, from Hip-Hop to Italo-Disco. The dance floor will take place at La Cavalerie District, Place Lamartine, on Saturday, July 6th.

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La Embajada, 74 Rue Portagnel /

La Embajada is an unofficial platform to showcase contemporary photography works created within the Spanish context. This artist-run initiative seeks to reflect contemporary research and practices. They feel there is a need to build bridges to Europe and the rest of the world. Now at its first edition, it aims to present a selection of projects at Arles during the opening week of the Rencontres de la Photographie. Showcased artists are Cris Bartual, Jonàs Forchini, Shinji Nagabe, Emma Á. Marty, Mitmaq Ediciones, Yun Ping, Cristobal Ascencio and Ignacio Navas. Plus, other 30 authors will also exhibit their photobooks.

Der Greif X ToyTonics, Fondation Manuel Rivera-Ortiz /

Der Greif launched their new 1:1 feedback sessions. On the morning of Wednesday, July 3, they will be at the Fondation Manuel Rivera-Ortiz in ParisBerlin Fotohaus in Arles for Der Greif Face-to-Face: Arles Edition. Selected from the open call, 24 artists will receive personalized feedback from their expert team members. Everyone is invited to join afterward on the same night from 10 pm - 2 am, for a celebration at ParisBerlin Fotohaus with a DJ set by ToyTonics and enjoy a special screening of selected portfolios by authors such as Thomas Martin, Maximiliano Tineo, Farren van Wyk, Valentin Joseph Valette, Marcel Top, Maria Beatriz de Vilhena, Sandra Buschow and more.

Near. x Pool Collective, Librairie du Palais /

Near. and Pool Collective are collaborating to host an apéro and present their associations at the Librairie du Palais on Thursday, July 4th. Alongside the evening they are also organising a DIY poster campaign throughout the city of Arles.

Résonances, Fisheye Gallery /

In the fleeting embrace of light, suspended moments reveal the subtle dance of existence. Like cosmic particles, the destinies of Paul Cupido and Chloé Milos Azzopardi crossed paths and deviated from their initial trajectory to give birth to an artistic symbiosis, a new breath, embodied in the Résonances exhibition. The show unfolds in two chapters, highlighting the distinct yet complementary worlds of the two artists who first met in 2019 at the Can Serrat artists' residence marking the start of an intense artistic collaboration, and are now reunited for the first time in a gallery. Résonances invites visitors to escape into a world where visual poetry comes to life, and where two distinct viewpoints come together in creative harmony. The vernissage will take place on Friday, July 5th.

Against Abstraction, DoubleDummy Studio /

DoubleDummy is showcasing Against Abstraction by Palestinian artists Maen Hammad, Dina Salem, Sari Tarazi, and Ahmad Alaqra. Opening its doors on July 1st, and running until July 7th, it conveys a timeline of the ongoing genocide in Gaza using information shared via alternative messaging platforms like Telegram. The vernissage and the launch of the newsprint is scheduled for Thursday, July 4th.

Polish Photo Brunch, Croisière (Rooftop) /

Institut Polonais de Paris and Łódź Fotofestiwal Collective in collaboration with Photographic Publication of the Year 2024 and Contemporary Lynx Magazine invite you to encounter Polish photography during the Rencontres d'Arles. The program includes meetings with artists, discussions on Polish photography, and presentations of Photographic Publication of the Year 2024 award-winning photo books from the collection of the Polish Institute in Paris. The appointment is on Friday, July 5th, with publishers 19 Rivers, Blow Up Press, Łódź Film School Publishing House, Universite des Arts Magdalena Abakanowicz de Poznań, PiX House and Zinteka.

Archevêché by Fisheye, Cour de l’Archevêché /

Fisheye takes over the Cour de l'Archevêché for the Off. An emblematic venue that hosted the first editions of the Rencontres d'Arles. For several years now, the space has been the creative and recreational hub of the official festival. This year's program is by Fisheye and La Kabine, making the location a place where everyone can meet, eat, work, relax and discover the work of young contemporary artists. The program includes exhibitions, a photo studio, a banquet, talks, portfolio reviews, professional speed dating, a bookshop, DJ sets for the whole week, and special nights dedicated to photojournalism, young creative talents, and more.

Becoming, Bengtsson Fine Art Gallery /

To celebrate that Swedish photographer Elsa Gregersdotter is this year Claës Lewenhaupt scholar, Landskrona Foto is presenting her series Becoming at Bengtsson Fine Art Gallery. Visitors are welcome to join their reception on Wednesday, July 3rd.

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The 55th edition of Les Rencontres d'Arles runs from 1st July to 29th September 2024, in Arles, France, with a wide program of events taking place during the opening week, 1-7 July. For more information visit their website.