luma arles smallLUMA Arles is a vast, wildly ambitious cultural campus, landscaped gardens and business hub on a site called the Parc des Ateliers just outside the city's historic centre.

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This sprawling cluster of new and restored industrial buildings is centred on a spectacular tower designed by Frank Gehry. The site also includes exhibition spaces, galleries, studios, meeting rooms, auditoria, a library and archive, cafés and a large park.

Some space is set aside for the Rencontres d'Arles, the city's huge annual festival of photography. Arles' École Nationale de la Photographie is now based here too, and will soon be followed by the excellent publisher and bookseller Actes Sud.

The scope of the project is multi-disciplinary and includes dance, design, theatre, writing, art and photography. This being France, the art of gastronomy is on the menu too and there will be chefs as well as artists in residence.

The aim is to make LUMA Arles a buzzing venue, not just in summer but all year round. It's hoped to boost the city's flagging economy (Arles has one of the highest unemployment rates in France) and to create a welcoming open space, where artists and public can meet, mingle and generate ideas: "new scripts for the world", in the idealistic words of the official description.

engine sheds luma arlesGehry's tower was completed in June 2021. Its opening exhibitions include works by Diane Arbus, Annie Leibovitz and Olafur Eliasson as well as a rotating display of the permanent collection of the LUMA Foundation.

To give you an idea of the scale and calbre of programming, these are some of the events previously held in other buildings on the LUMA site.

The summer 2020 exhibition featured posters on important contemporary issues by contributors including David Lynch and Judy Chicago.

In the summer of 2019 there was a strong British flavour at the LUMA, with a show by the English photographer Martin Parr and an installation by Rachel Rose about the UK's controversial 19th century Enclosure Acts.

In 2018 came a major retrospective modestly entitled The Great Exhibition and devoted to the provocative artists - also British - Gilbert and George.

Another recent retrospective was dedicated to Annie Leibovitz, the American photographer whose iconic portraits for Rolling Stone magazine defined the 1970s.

The Foundation has acquired the artist's entire archives and this first exhibition of 8,000 images from Leibovitz's early work was part of a longer project to showcase her whole career.

At certain times you can also go on a guided tour of the complex itself: check the LUMA website for the latest dates. We did this during the construction of the tower and it gave a fascinating insight into the project. The tours are available in English.

A THUMBNAIL HISTORY

In the mid 19th century a new railway line opened up connecting Paris, Provence and the Côte d'Azur, and this site in Arles housed train sheds, pictured above. In fact it was one of the French railway system's main maintenance yards, employing up to 1800 workers at its peak.

After the yard closed down in 1984, the sheds were used as warehouses but over time they were badly damaged by a fire and became derelict.

However the Rencontres d'Arles started using the site as a venue for three months each summer and it also hosted the odd music concert.

The region restored the largest of the sheds in 2007 but lacked funding for anything more ambitious. But then in 2014 a powerful patron with long ties to this part of France stepped in.

Pictured, Maja Hoffmann is a Swiss pharmaceutical heiress and philanthropist who grew up in Arles and the Camargue: "The big skies are something I think about wherever I am," she has said.

maja hoffmannHer father, the ornithologist Luc Hoffmann, co-founded the World Wildlife Fund and created the pioneering Tour de Valat conservation research centre in the Camargue.

Maja Hoffmann's own main interests are in contemporary art. She is a collector and in 2004 set up the Fondation LUMA in Zurich to support independent artists and art institutions (it is named after her two children, Lucas and Marina).

She is on the board of the Fondation Vincent van Gogh, which opened in Arles in 2014, and London's Tate Gallery, and also owns several hotels and restaurants in Arles and the surrounding region.

THE LUMA ARLES CAMPUS

Begun in 2008, LUMA Arles carries a hefty price tag of over 100 million €uros. The original industrial buildings were renovated by the New York architect Annabelle Selldorf, while the award-winning Nice architect Marc Barani designed the long, low-rise centre for Arles' photography school.

The public gardens were landscaped by Belgium's Bas Smets to evoke the surrounding countryside: both the flatlands of the Camargue and the Crau and the hilly landscapes of the Alpilles.

The centrepiece of it all is Gehry's tall, glittering tower, pictured top left, which is also inspired by the region.

The side of the building which faces the studios is covered with a concrete facing that imitates limestone from the nearby quarry of Fontvieille: it is the same stone as that used to construct Arles' ancient historic monuments.

The side facing the city is stainless steel and inspired by the dramatic, jagged landscapes of the Val d'Enfer (Valley of Hell) near Les Baux de Provence. The surface is hammered to create subtle, irregular shimmers of light and shade.

Local material such as salt panels, straw and even olive stones have been recycled to create the décor and fixtures.

starry night over the rhoneAnother influence is van Gogh's famous La Nuit étoilée sur le Rhône (Starry Night over the Rhône), pictured. Gehry says he hopes his own work will have a painterly quality.

As well as studios and workshops, the building houses a vast circular atrium on the ground floor which is meant to echo Arles' majestic Roman amphitheatre.

On the top floor is an observation deck offering exceptional views across the surrounding countryside and a restaurant.

The intention is to have part of the building cooled by natural air conditioning and it will be interesting to see how effective this is in Arles' hot summers.

Where: LUMA Arles. 7-11 rue de la République, 13200 Arles. Website for LUMA Arles

Photo credits: all images © LUMA Arles except La Nuit étoilée sur le Rhône © Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

 

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