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« Strange as it may seem, every year, like a seismograph of our times, the Rencontres d’Arles capture our world’s state of consciousness. Its photographers, artists, and curators help us to see, to perceive, with keener acuteness, the transformations we are living through. Awareness–at the very least–of climate change has become unavoidable, directly affecting our habits. » Christoph Wiesner
Rencontres d'Arles 2023 | A State of Consciousness
« Strange as it may seem, every year, like a seismograph of our times, the Rencontres d’Arles capture our world’s state of consciousness. Its photographers, artists, and curators help us to see, to perceive, with keener acuteness, the transformations we are living through. Awareness–at the very least–of climate change has become unavoidable, directly affecting our habits. »
Christoph Wiesner
Every summer since 1970, over the course of more than forty exhibitions at various of the city’s exceptional heritage sites, the Rencontres d'Arles has been a major influence in disseminating the best of world photography and playing the role of a springboard for photographic and contemporary creative talents.
For over 50 years, photography’s greatest names have participated in the Rencontres d’Arles, a veritable breeding ground for new talent. Anticipating medium changes and technology evolutions, offering the experience of the image to all: these are the festival’s ambitions.
Below is our special selection of must see shows which we visited during the opening week.
SPECIAL ATTENTION
JINGYU CAO, RAPHAËL LODS AND IRIS MILLOT
Venue: Ground Control
Reflecting the lasting collaboration between the Rencontres d’Arles and the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie and their shared support of young photographers, the festival has for several years now offered the opportunity to three ENSP graduates to exhibit their work within the festival’s official program.
This year’s jury, composed of Christoph Wiesner, Marta Gili, Nelly Monnier and Eric Tabuchi, has selected work by Jingyu Cao, Raphaël Lods and Iris Millot, for the relevance and diversity of their artistic approaches, reflecting the wealth of creative and conceptual methods of ENSP graduates.
Jingyu Cao is interested in the impact of media images, virtual and real. Her work explores political and social settings at the boundary between the virtual and the real. Her practice activates a continuous vigilance vis-à-vis the technologies shaping our perceptions of the world.
Raphaël Lods has developed a body of research on utopias and their failures. With The Field of Birds [Le champ des oiseaux], he creates an archive of the buildings of his great-grandfather, Modernist architect Marcel Lods. While his works are gradually being demolished, abandoned or renovated, the photographer locates and catalogues them.
Iris Millot gathers evidence on the relationships human beings weave with their environments. She uses these materials to create tension around notions of inhabitability, transmission, and rootedness within shared histories. For this exhibition, she crosses the personal and social strata, that merge with the land that her great-aunt has inhabited and cultivated for forty years. An old farm, a women’s rights activist, dry wells, and one last season.
About the artists
Jingyu Cao, born 1994 in Chenzhou, China. Lives and works in Arles and Paris, France.
Raphaël Lods, born 1997 in Geneva, Switzerland. Lives and works between Arles, Paris; and Geneva.
Iris Millot, born 2000 in Paris, France. Lives and works in Arles, France.
HERE NEAR
Mathieu Asselin, Tanja Engelberts, Sheng-Wen Lo
Venue: Monoprix
Here Near presents three projects on layered threats to the ecology of Arles and its surroundings. Since 2022, Mathieu Asselin, Tanja Engelberts and Sheng-Wen Lo have each worked on site-specific research, initiated during the art residency The Shelter. Charting manufacturing, water systems, transportation and animal life, these makers reveal how the Anthropocene–an unfolding geologic epoch characterized by humanity’s acceleration– is reflected in local ecosystems.
In Hunting the Tarasque, Asselin studies the Fibre Excellence, some ten kilometres north of Arles. Part of the Indonesia-based Asia Pulp and Paper Group, the production plant specializes in paper pulp. Arles-based artist is exploring various types of pollution emitted at the site. Engelberts works with the Rhône–a river transformed by its intersections with hydroelectric facilities and the chemical industry.
We exhale sees Engelberts follow the Rhône to its source, the Rh.ne Glacier in Switzerland: what happens en route that makes the river unsuitable for swimming by the time it reaches Arles?
Lo’s Watch Out is rooted in Camargue, France’s largest wetlands, and home to more than 400 different species. The artist reflects on the phenomenon of roadkill– the increased mortality of fauna due to speeding cars.
Together, these projects point to the varying degrees of influence and responsibility that shape a troubling reality. Where Asselin addresses the notion of the Capitalocene, positing the responsibilities of companies as greater than that of an universalized “human”, Lo speaks directly to citizens at the individual level. Engelberts, meanwhile, touches upon a phenomenological responsibility–that of tuning in the perspectives of non-human entities. The exhibition asks questions: what is this place? Who are its actors? And how what happens here is connected to processes happening down the road, in a neighbouring country, or even across oceans? What seems far away may in fact be near– or even here.
Daria Tuminas
About the artists
Mathieu Asselin, born 1973 in Aix-en-Provence, France. Lives and works in Arles, France.
Tanja Engelberts, born 1987 in Deventer, Netherlands. Lives and works in The Hague, Netherlands.
Sheng-Wen Lo, born 1987 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Lives and works in Leiden, Netherlands.
2022 JIMEI x ARLES DISCOVERY AWARD WINNER
TAN CHUI MUI
Venue: Abbaye de Montmajour
JUST BECAUSE YOU PRESSED THE SHUTTER?
“A photo captures a certain landscape. But the landscape is always there. You didn’t
make the camera. So why is the photo yours? Is it because of your composition? Just because you pressed the shutter?"– Tan Chui Mui
Before answering the question pointed out by Tan Chui Mui, we could, perhaps, think a little further into the essence. A mechanical shutter can be barely seen today, while an electronic shutter is evolving into a touchscreen and an electromagnetic mechanism beneath the surface. The "window" through which people used to capture images has been diasporic and embedded into the image itself.
With the development of imaging technology, the physical imaging method originating in the 19th century has been replaced by mobile communication devices of the 21st century. Today, perhaps it is technology, rather than freedom, that leads the people. Everything is ephemeral in a time when everyone can be a photographer.
However, what remains eternal in our times? Will the human passions and desires hidden behind imaging technology always remain the same? Today, the art of photography is the art of image making. In that case, I try to focus my curatorial lens on nontraditional photographers to open up our understanding of contemporary photography by presenting the thoughts and works of the image makers.
Thus, I am wondering how a filmmaker understands the image. I suppose director Tan Chui Mui’s images are inseparable from her experience, literature, and day-to-day observations of life. How does she make images? In Just Because You Pressed the Shutter? A text is an image, a video is an image, and the exhibition itself is an image as well. However, Tan Chui Mui never pressed the shutter to obtain these images.
Wang Yiquan
About the artist
Tan Chui Mui, born 1978 in Kuantan, Malaysia. Lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
More information
Les Rencontres de la photographie, Arles
July 3 – September 24, 2023
www.rencontres-arles.com
