Since 1996, the “Voies Off” Festival organizes an event aimed at promoting emergent contemporary photography during the professional week of the Rencontres d’Arles. Arles becomes, for a week, the city of photography.
Directed by Christophe Laloi, the Voies Off festival allows one to discover for free a very large number of international photographers, through 50 exhibitions featured in different venues in the city and during the evening projections organized in the Cour de l’Archevêché. In parallel to this program, the photographers also have the possibility of accessing to portfolio revisions, workshops and a number of other rendez-vous.
The blind beast
“The 2011 edition will be on the humane, and often about its most tragic stories. That is why I opted to use the title of the series by Michel Le Belhomme, The blind beast (La bête aveugle) featured at the Gallery Voies Off during the Festival. This expression, holding a strong metaphor, evokes a troubled universe, tortured, a world full of jolts and shocks. The Voies Off Festival 2011 approaches without complacency the grey hours of humanity. It is probably a sign of the times. It is a real vocation and we assume it completely. This vocation also comes into life for 16 years, and irradiates further away. We thank the regional authorities, the private sponsors, the guests of the Voies Off Festival and the artists for their renewed confidence” Christophe Laloi, Art Director.
The Voies Off Prize
Every evening, a projection is organized on a large screen set in the Cour de l’Archevêché. The festival invites the public to discover the works of around sixty young photographers, selected after the call for the Voies Off Prize. Every year, since the birth of the festival the Voies Off Prize awards an emerging photographic talent. In 1996, Antoine d’Agata received the first Prize, followed by Wilfrid Estève, Olivier Metzger and also Vincent Debanne in 2004.
The selections for the Voies Off prize is the core of the evening projections during the Festival. This year, 1400 submissions were received from all around the world.
The name of the 16th winner of the Voies Off Prize will be informed the night of the awards evening, next Saturday July 9th, including a grant of 2,500 euros.
Ericka Weidmann
Le festival des Voies Off
Du 04 au 09 juillet
Cours de l’Archevêché
