THE 47TH RENCONTRES D’ARLES A successful opening week from 4 to 10 July: public attendance was up by 12% th
Culture and Communication Minister Audrey Azoulay opened the 47 Rencontres d’Arles on Monday 4 July and President François Hollande honoured the festival with a visit on Thursday 7 July. Rencontres d’Arles Director Sam Stourdzé devised the festival’s 2016 program, which focuses on eclecticism and breaking down walls between disciplines again this year. There is no overarching theme, but rather broad chapters attesting to photography’s diversity, from revisited street photography to African photography, new approaches to documentary photography, collections, outside-the-frame formats and installations. The programme highlights young photographers. Artists vying for the Discovery Award are more integrated into the festival than ever. ATTENDANCE FROM 4 TO 10 JULY • • •
15,200 visitors (12% more than 2015) 35% of visitors were from outside France An enthusiastic local following: over 2,350 Arles residents came to events (up by 20%).
KEY FIGURES Nearly 40 exhibitions at 19 venues throughout the city 137 artists and 38 curators Six evening events at workshops, various exhibition venues in town and the ancient theatre 115 public events (60 in 2015): guided tours with artists and curators in attendance, conversations with artists and curators, book signings, live radio broadcasts 88 publishers at Cosmos Arles Books NEW Three new venues this year: exhibitions and public events at Ground Control, located in a great hall near the railway station; Cosmos-Arles Books at the former Collège Mistral; and the Olympus Photographic Conversation at the Hôtel de Luppé. The Grand Arles Express: the wind of photography blows through the South This year’s big news is that the Rencontres d’Arles is reaching out to the region to meet public interest in photography in the south of France. The Grand Arles Express makes stops at the Collection Lambert in Avignon, Carré d'Art in Nîmes and Villa Méditerranée in Marseille. The launch of the VR Arles Festival, the first virtual reality artistic event, by the Rencontres d’Arles, BNP Parisbas and Fisheye magazine The launch of the Madame Figaro-Arles Photo Award for a female photographer who exhibits work at the festival.