Sam Stourdzé, director of the Rencontres d’Arles since 2014, will take over the management of the Villa Médicis, Academy of France in Rome; he was officially appointed by the Minister of Culture Franck Riester and the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron
Specialist in photography and cinema, Sam Stourdzé, 47, was a boarder in 2007-2008 at the Villa Médicis (cinema section), and director of the Musée de l’Élysée in Lausanne from 2010 to 2014.
“It is a great joy, a great pride. It is a very beautiful institution, very prestigious for 350 years,” he told the newspaper La Provence. “I am honored to have been chosen by the Minister of Culture and the President of the Republic. It’s sad to think that it forces me to leave Les Rencontres. I spent six years building and rebuilding the festival, leaving it fills me with emotions. But it is the life of institutions, which fortunately do not depend on their director. “
