The 2014 Rencontres d’Arles photo festival opened yesterday on Monday, June 7th. François Hébel is serving his last term as festival director, so he’s offering visitors a valedictory “Parade” featuring figures from the festival’s past, ranging from Raymond Depardon, Christian Lacroix, Martin Parr and Lucien Clergue to Erik Kessels, Bill Hunt, Joan Fontcuberta and Luce Lebart.
Following our day devoted to Lucien Clergue, one of the founders of the Rencontres d’Arles, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, this week L’Oeil de la Photographie is inviting readers to check out every event at Arles.
ORIGINALS
David Bailey : The first retrospective of the British artist who for 50 years has been photographing major stars, along with anonymous people. He was the inspiration for Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow-Up.
Vik Muniz: The latest work by the great Brazilian artist who uses family photos and postcards to recompose giant images.
Patrick Swirc: A retrospective of one of the greatest French portrait photographers, who met many icons of politics and the arts.
Denis Rouvre: “What does it mean to be French today?” A year spent encountering French people from all walks of life.
Vincent Pérez: The first retrospective of the French actor and film director whose first love is photography.
Chema Madoz: Surrealism in his contemporary, black and white compositions.
Mazaccio & Drowilal: Amazing freshness of tone from the two winners of the 2013 BMW arts residency at the Musée Nicéphore Niépce.
The Walther Collection: From Karl Blossfeldt to Richard Avedon, a selection of serial photographs from this famous collection, which brings together magnificent classics
alongside contemporary African and Chinese artists.
Pop Photographica: The first exhibition in Europe of this collection of improbable objects used as props for photographs.
Treasures from the Institut de France: The emotion of the first archaeological adventures in Egypt combined with early photography’s genuine jubilation.
Anouck Durand: Probes propaganda photography through a photo-novel set against the backdrop of Communist Albania and China.
Greetings from the Colonies: A critical re-reading of postcards of women, a medium of colonial and sexist representation.
Discovery Award: This award is given to a photographer or an artist using photography whose work has recently been discovered or deserves to be so. Award nominators
Quentin Bajac, chief curator at the MoMA in New York, Alexis Fabry, a curator specialising in Latin American photography and the founder of Toluca Editions in Paris,
Bohnchang Koo, exhibition curator and photography professor at Kyungil University in Seoul, Wim Mélis, curator of the Noorderlicht Photography Foundation, and
Azu Nwagbogu, founder and director of the African Artist’s Foundation (AAF) in Lagos, propose 10 exhibitions: Ilit Azoulay, Kudzanai Chiurai, Katharina Gaenssler,
Youngsoo Han, Pieter Ten Hoopen, Miguel Mitlag, Victor Robledo, Will Steacy, Patrick Willocq, Kechun Zhang.
The Discovery Award is supported by the LUMA Foundation.
The 2014 Author and Historical Book Awards: more than 600 books available for free consultation.
Ciril Jazbec: Reportage in Greenland focusing on the few remaining traditional hunters.
PARADE
Lucien Clergue : His famous nudes, Picasso, Cocteau, the Corrida… But also an encounter with the bold and generous life of the founder of the Rencontres d’Arles.
Martin Parr and WassinkLundgren, The Chinese Photobook: The first presentation of this exceptional collection of books from the past 100 years.
Raymond Depardon: During a tour throughout France, the great photographer captured war memorials, aide-mémoires of the disaster of World War I, in his lens.
Léon Gimpel: Paris, 1915, Gimpel photographed a children’s “army” he encountered in a street in Paris as they staged the Great War.
War Memorials: This project invites citizens from throughout France’s 36,000 communes to document, following a photographic style guide established by the project’s patron
Raymond Depardon, the nation’s war memorials. In collaboration with the Mission du Centenaire de la Première Guerre Mondiale, and support from the Fondation d’Entreprise Carac and the Institut de Recherches Historiques du Septentrion (IRHiS), UMR CNRS 8529, Université de Lille 3.
Christian Lacroix: The mythical figure of the Arlésienne revisited, by the great fashion designer, through photographs, with support from L’Occitane en Provence.
Trepat Collection: Previously unknown to specialists and the public alike, the incredible photographic archive of the Trepat Collection of Modern Photography documenting
the activities of the Spanish industrial powerhouse. An exclusive presentation devised by Joan Fontcuberta.
Erik Kessels, Small Universe, The Dutch Need to Document: In this country, artists have obsessively documented the slightest details of their private worlds.
The famous artistic director has invited 9 highly amazing, indeed epic, examples: Milou Abel, Sema Bekirovic, Melanie Bonajo, Hans De Vries, Hans Eijkelboom, Erik Fens, Jos Houweling, Hans Van Der Meer and Maurice Van Es.
W. M. Hunt Collection: Bands, clubs, fraternities, crowds… impressive photographs of American groups from before 1950.
Claude Hudelot Collection: A unique collection of group panoramas representing people from the People’s Republic of China.
Benoît Aquin, Luc Delahaye, Mitch Epstein, Nadav Kander: New works from the winners of the prestigious Prix Pictet, one of the world’s leading prizesfor sustainability and photography.
École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie: 2014 graduate students, A Particular Attention. Centre National des Arts Plastiques, There Is No Perfect World. In Search of Art#3.
SFR Young Talents presents the 2014 winners: Camille Szklorz, Delphine Schacher, Maud Bernos and Serena de Sanctis.
Olympus pursues a photographic conversation between 3 ENSP students and Françoise Huguier, Antoine d’Agata and Denis Rouvre.
ASSOCIATED PROGRAMMES
Clicks and Classes: A national programme to encourage awareness of photography amongst young people, organised by the Canopé network, with support from HSBC
France.
Photo Objective, Paris des Enfants: A project devised by the Mairie de Paris involving schools and activities centres.
Musée Réattu, Les Clergue d’Arles: Focusing on the oeuvre of Lucien Clergue, his art and the history of his photographic discipline.
Méjan Association: Maurice Matieu, Eduardo Arroyo and Michelangelo Pistoletto.
The LUMA Foundation presents the Solaris Chronicles inspired by Frank Gehry’s architectural projects.
PHOTOGRAPHY NIGHTS
8, 9, 10 and 12 July 2014
Unique in the world, the work of photographers is presented on the giant screen in the magnificent setting of the Théatre Antique.
8 July: Intuition, based on an idea by Christian Caujolle, cellist Vincent Courtois improvises to photographs by Michael Ackerman.
9 July: Presentation of the 2014 Discovery Award, supported by the LUMA Foundation.
Days of War 14-18. Jean-Noël Jeanneney, producer of the popular Concordance des temps radio programme on France Culture and president of the Rencontres, brings to life the experiences of French soldiers in the trenches and of people in the civilian zone.
10 July: The presentation of the winner of the 5th edition of the Prix Pictet.
Vik Muniz, famous Brazilian artist, presents an overview of his oeuvre.
12 July: The Book and Discovery Awards ceremonies.
Parade: a grand parade of hand-picked pictures set to music: the best Rencontres d’Arles projections of the past 12 years.
8 July at the Théâtre d’Arles at 4.30 pm and 9pm. 9, 10 and 12 July at the Théâtre Antique
at 10.15pm.
NIGHT OF THE YEAR
on the boulevard des Lices on 11 July
Now into its tenth year, the festival’s not-be-missed event, the Night of the Year, takes over Arles’ inner city, creating a festive atmosphere for a great photographic stroll where
photography professionals – press, magazines, agencies, collectives – show their year’s production on fourteen large screens.
Boulevard des Lices. 10pm to 3am. Free admission.
FESTIVAL
Rencontres d’Arles 2014
From July 7th to September 21st, 2014
Les Rencontres d’Arles
34 rue du Docteur Fanton
13200 Arles
France
http://www.rencontres-arles.com
