photo exhibition arlesThe Rencontres d'Arles is one of the biggest and most important photography festivals in the world. In 2024 it runs from 1 July-22 September.

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The Festival takes over the entire city. In 2022 it welcomed 127,000 visitors (around 15 per cent of them in the busy opening week), 165 artists and 20 guest curators.

Yet, at the same time, the compact nature of Arles and its intimate scale mean that the Rencontres have remained easy and enjoyable to navigate.

Pictured below: bikes are a favourite way of getting around, if the number of them parked outside the Festival HQ is anything to go by.

"Rencontres" means "meetings". And it's important to stress that the social aspect - the debates, the workshops (for both children and adults), the discussions, the guided tours and, of course, the many parties - is almost as important as the shows.

rencontres darles bicyclesThe opening week is always the busiest, with many special events that attract thousands of critics and industry professionals.

Its packed programme includes evening awards ceremonies and projections, at the Roman Théâtre Antique and other venues around town.

The Nuit de l'année (Night of the Year) is a huge free spectacle at which artists' work is projected in a loop on multiple screens accompanied by DJ sets. But don’t worry if you can't make the beginning of the Festival: most shows continue for several months.

engine sheds luma arlesOne of the pleasures of the Rencontres is the sheer variety of venues it uses, from disused freight sheds and factories, empty shops and houses to some of Arles' loveliest churches, cloisters and palaces. Some of these places are only open to the public during the Festival.

Pictured, the big former train workshops and depot on the edge of town has been a major exhibition zone.

This complex has been acquired by the LUMA Foundation which has turned it into a cultural centre of its own. Parts of it host shows during the Festival, but much of the Rencontres action is at smaller pop-up venues all over town.

All these spaces sell specialist photography books (and the artists are around to sign them in the opening week).

And dozens of publishers are in town too for another satellite event, a book festival. Alternatively, you can visit the excellent Actes Sud publisher-bookshop.

The Rencontres d'Arles was founded in 1970 by the legendary Arles-born and -based photographer Lucien Clergue, the writer Michel Tournier and the historian Jean-Maurice Rouquette.

Clergue was also instrumental in founding Arles' École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in 1982. It's the only college in France exclusively devoted to photography.

The current Director of the Rencontres d'Arles is Christoph Wieser, who has worked at Paris-Photo and the Galérie Yvon Lambert in Paris as well as at various galleries in Berlin.

He took over from Sam Stourdzé, who presided over a huge expansion of the Festival between 2015 and 2020 and is regarded as the architect of its current success.

Today the Rencontres form part of a prestigious quartet of midsummer arts festivals in Provence alongside the Festival d'Aix en Provence and the Chorégies d'Orange (opera and classical music) and the Festival d'Avignon (theatre).

THE RENCONTRES D'ARLES IN 2023

arles cryptoportiquesNow in its 54th year, the Rencontres d’Arles confidently confirms its scale and ambition with 44 exhibitions by 105 artists in 24 different venues.

Among these, for the first time, are the mysterious subterranean Cryptoportiques, pictured, huge underground tunnels carved out in central Arles by the Romans.

They house an exhibition by Juliette Agnel about prehistoric grottos. It should be one of the most atmospheric and unusual shows in town.

One of the Festival’s key themes this year is the ecological threat facing the surrounding region of the Camargue. Mathieu Asselin, Tanja Engelberts and Sheng-Wen Lo are among the artists tackling this subject.

Another strand of the Rencontres explores the connections between photography and cinema. Veteran German director Wim Wenders is presenting polaroids taken during the shoot of his iconic film The American Friend (1977), starring Dennis Hopper.

These instant photos are, as Wenders points out, early precursors of selfies and even play a role in the movie itself.

Meanwhile another iconic photographer / film-maker, Agnès Varda, is the focus of an exhibition exploring her long personal connection to the nearby port of Sète with its fishing boats and jousting contests.

A major retrospective explores the work of Gregory Crewdson and his eerie, atmospheric portriats of small-town America.

Click here to read about the Rencontres d'Arles in 2017, in 2018, in 2019in 2021 and in 2022.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Where: The Rencontres d'Arles takes place all over town (and the surrounding region). The main Festival office is at 34 rue du Docteur Fanton. Website for the Rencontres d'Arles

Tickets are also on sale at an office on the place de la République as well as at certain venues around the city centre. You can buy a one-day pass or a ticket for each individual show.

The passes are quite pricey but definitely worth it if you plan to see more than four or five exhibitions. Concentrating on the centre of Arles, we were easily able to take in around a dozen shows in one day (some of them are admittedly quite small).

The passes become a little cheaper in September, although some of the exhibitions will have already closed by then. You can also make a good saving by buying them in advance online.

Bear in mind, too, that if you are combining the Festival with a conventional tourist trip to Arles, you get "added value" from access to certain venues. For example, there is normally an admission charge for the beautiful Cloître Saint Trophime. But your Festival pass will get you in free.

Insider tip for the Arles photography festivalIn Arles on a really tight budget? You can see many shows for free in the parallel, "Le Off" fringe festival (formerly called Voies Off), which also runs roughly concurrently throughout the summer.

It offers over a hundred exhibitions, some of them very good, in small galleries and all sorts of improbable spaces.

rencontres darles masahisa fukaseAs with the main Rencontres Festival, there are many extra events (workshops, music, apéritifs, dinners, etc.) in the opening week.

You can pick up a good, clear annotated map of the Rencontres at the main Festival HQ, the Arles Tourist Office and other venues or view it online. It shows what's on where, and can help you to plan a detailled itinerary.

Alternatively, you can take a more leisurely approach and just wander around the town centre at random keeping an eye out for something interesting.

Shows in the main Festival are brightly signposted (pictured: Masamisa Fukase at the Palais de l'Archevêché in 2017). The fringe ones publicise themselves energetically with posters and flyers everywhere.

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The Rencontres Festival truly lives up to its claim to be international. Unlike all too many French exhibitions and galleries, much of the information and signage here is in (properly translated) English as well as French.

And wheelchair ramps have been installed where possible in the historic buildings.

Accommodation is at an absolute premium during the Festival, especially if you are planning to be in Arles for the opening week or on or around Bastille Day (14 July) or the Feast of the Assumption (15 August), which are both national holidays in France.

Hotel prices can rise by up to a third during July and become even more expensive than Paris. Be sure to book a room well in advance. AirBnB is always an option too, of course.

 

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