For the past few years we’ve taken a day out from relaxing by the pool to head into Arles for the annual Les Rencontres photography festival.
From July till September the city hosts exhibitions across the city in art galleries, churches, official buildings and in the disused former railway works, the Parc de Ateliers.
The huge former ateliers or workshops, named after their former uses (Atelier de Mechanique, Atelier des Forges, etc.) are left pretty much as they were with temporary exhibition spaces built inside. Or in the case of one now roofless building, turned into an open-air cafe.
Each year a guest curator helps to select and commission the artists and works to be included in the festival. This year’s guest curator is Nan Goldin, one of my favourite photographers, whose ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’ is being presented in a slideshow in one of the disused railway office buildings.
As well as some of her other work, the exhibitions also include a selection from her own photography collection and shows by her invited guests. My personal favourites include Marina Berio’s drawings of negatives large scale in charcoal, Lisa Ross‘ images photos of Uighur holy sites in northern China, and Antione D’Agata’s sometimes explicit Agonie series.
As well as the Nan Goldin curated exhibitions, the festival also includes a large number of other shows. Highlights for me include a retrospective of Willy Ronis and the work of the nominees for this year’s Discovery Award, including Olivier Metzger’s brooding nocturnal images, Yang Yongliang’s twist on traditional Chinese landscape paintings, and Moira Ricci’s moving series of photographs of her late mother, into which she has carefully inserted her own image, looking at her mother.
Les Rencontres d’Arles runs until 13 September
