Pengpai News reporter Wu Dong
On July 4, 2022, the 53rd Arles Photography Festival was held as scheduled in Arles, a small town in southern France. As the world's largest, oldest and most influential international photography festival, Arles has exhibited more than 40 exhibitions this year, covering more than 160 artists.
Female artists are one of the important groups that are being paid attention to this year's photography festival. The exhibition "Hands of Feminist Avant-Garde" brings together more than 200 photos and performances from the 1970s from the Vienna Verbund Collection, showing the works of 71 female artists including Cindy Sherman, Ana Mendieta, VALIE EXPORT, Orlan, Helena Almeida and Martha Wilson, who used the medium of images to free themselves from male-dominated art history.
Untitled (body imprints on glass)/Untitled (Glass on Body Imprints), 1972.
Ana Mendieta Works
Image source: The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC / Galerie Lelong / Verbund Collection, Vienna.
Untitled (self with hair)/ (Untitled (Self with Fur), 1974.
Birgit Jürgenssen Works
Image source: Birgit Jürgenssen / Galerie Hubert Winter / Bildrecht / Verbund Collection, Vienna.
The Birth Madonna, 1976.
VALIE EXPORT Works
Picture Source: VALIE EXPORT / Gallery Thaddaeus Ropac / Bildrecht / Verbund Collection, Vienna.
Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Miss) / Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire), 1980-1983.
Lorraine O'Grady Works
Picture source: Lorraine O'Grady / Alexander Gray Associates / Artists Right Society (ARS) /Bildrecht / Verbund Collection, Vienna.
In the 1970s, experimental film producer and photographer Babette Mangort (Babette) Mangolte moved to New York, where she documented the performing arts scenes in New York. During this period, she developed a photography and film language based on the subjectivity of the camera, the key role of the audience, and the relationship between the human body and space. In the 1980s, she conducted this research actively and rigorously and participated in the definition and establishment of a performing arts archive to place it in a specific time and environment. The exhibition "Handle 4 Cartographics du corps" was Susan Meiselas and Marta Gentilucci's video work explores the experience of aging. Capturing the vitality that lives on the body through images and sounds, people's past strong vitality and lasting hope for life continue. Artists oppose the representation of the elderly as lack of opportunity, or as representatives of disease, loneliness and lack.
Lucinda Childs dancing her solo “Katema” in her loft on Broadway, 1978.
Babette Mangolte Works
Image Source: Babette Mangolte.
Richard Foreman staged his drama “Blvd de” in Soho’s loft. Scene design and lighting designed by Foreman / Richard Foreman staging of his play “Blvd de Paris” in a loft in Soho with set design and lights by Foreman with Kate Manheim and John Erdman, 1977.
Yvonne Rainer danced her solo “Trio A”, in the performance “Story about a woman who…”, Theater for the New City on Jane Street, New York City5, 1973.
Video still frames in "Body Mapmaker" / Film still from the video Cartographie du corps.
Susan Meiselas Marta Gentilucci Works
Picture source: Susan Meiselas Marta Gentilucci
Discovery Award is one of the major awards of the annual Arles Photography Festival. Now, the award is named by the Louis Roederer Foundation in 2019, and is divided into the judges' choice award and the public choice award. Among them, this year's Judges Choice Award was awarded to American photographer Rahim Fortune's work "I can't stand to see you cry". The series began with the bedside of a dying father. In addition to regret, Fortune, like many Americans, then experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and the death of George Floyd. This is an autobiography based on history, and the author's internal scars healing process echoes the restoration of national division. The young photographer draws strength from fragility and creates an intimate work in a long conversation with those around him. In addition to the photos, the exhibition also incorporates objects, objects from Texas native cultural heritage, and moving images commemorating his childhood videos for the first time.
Billy and Minzley, one of the series "I can't bear to see you cry series, 2020.
Rahim Fortune Works
Picture source: Sasha Wolf Projects and the artist himself
Gem's arm, one of the series "I can't bear to see you cry series, 2020.
"I can't stand to see you cry series, 2020.
Main Street, one of the series "I can't stand to see you cry series, 2020.
Main Street, one of the series "I can't stand to see you cry series, 2020.
How to break the taboos of family and society? Russian artist Mika Sperling is trying to solve this problem in I have done nothing wrong. The series won this year’s Louis Roederer Discovery Award Public Choice Award. Armed through fragile arms, supported by resilience, and maintaining a strong sense of fact to reject violence, the artist expresses her grandfather’s crimes through three complementary series. The artist first collaborated with her daughter to take five photos on the way from her childhood home to the criminal’s home. Then carefully cut out family photos. Finally, a fictional scene is created between a late grandfather and an artist looking for answers.
is with you, 55m away, one of the series "I Did Not Do What's Wrong" series /With you, 55m away, 2021, from the seriesI Have Done Nothing Wrong.
Mika Sperling Works
Image source: Mika Sperling.
In my room, one of the series "I Did Not Do What's Wrong" series /In my room, 2000, from the seriesI Have Done Nothing Wrong.
I hate roses, 11 meters away, one of the series "I Did Not Do What's Wrong" series /I hate roses, 11m away, 2020, from the series 4I Have Done Nothing Wrong.
My grandfather on his balcony, one of the series "I Did Not Do What's Wrong" series / My grandfather on his terrace, 1994, from the series 4I Have Done Nothing Wrong.
Cut off my grandfather's part, I don't want to see these, one of the series "I'm Not Doing Wrong" series /Cut-outs of my grandfather I don't want to look at, 2021, from the series4I Have Don Nothing Wrong.
In the "Revisit" unit of the photography festival, several photographers who have left their names in history were presented with solo exhibitions: the exhibition "Lee Miller: Professional Photographer" (Lee Miller: Professional Photographer reviews a series of portrait photography created by outstanding female photographer Lee Miller between 1932 and 1945; while Mitch Epstein's exhibition "In India: 1978-1989" shows some of the photographer's photos taken in India. In an unusually complex culture, Epstein has an unusual dual advantage: his family life and work in India make his work look both an insider and an outsider. Epstein entered a wide range of subcultures, showing his profound and extensive experiences about India, where different worlds merged together. The main visual poster of this Arles Photography Festival (picture 4 below) is also from the exhibition.
Petersham in cashmere, Vogue Studio, London, UK /Petersham on wool, Vogue Studio, London, England, 1944.
Lee Miller Works
© Lee Miller Archives, England, 2022.
Bruce Howard "St. Teresa II", "Three Acts and Four Saints", Lee Miller Studio, New York, USA / Bruce Howard as St. Teresa II, Four Saints in Three Acts, Lee Miller Studios Inc., New York, USA, 1933.
Hat, Pidoux, with original markings Vogue Studio, London, England, 1939.
Ahmedabad, India, Gujarat, India, 1981.
Mitch Epstein Works
Image source: Black River Productions, Ltd. / Galerie Thomas Zander / Mitch Epstein.
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India Churchgate Station / Churchgate Station, Bombay, Maharashtra, India5, 1989.
Gangpati Festival, Maharashtra, India5, 1981.
Karnataka Shravanabelagola / Shravanabelagola, Karnataka, India, 1981.
"I am a photographer without a camera. To me, cutting a photo is like pressing a shutter." In the exhibition "The pictures she doesn't show to anyone 5", Katrien de Blauwer) shows the photos she cut, glued, assembled, painted and processed from old magazines she collected, just like photo montage or movie editing, her work hides a strong narrative color that is linked to memory and personal history, while inviting viewers to carefully view the action details on the photos and enter the author's narrative.
Beginning (62) / Beginning (62), 2020.
Katrien de Blauwer Works
Image Source: Les filles du calvaire gallery and Fifty One gallery.
Beginning (68) /Beginning (68) , 2020.
Katrien de Blauwer Works
Image Source: Les filles du calvaire gallery and Fifty One gallery.
When I am a little boy (10) / When I Was a Boy (10), 2017.
Katrien de Blauwer Works
Picture source: Les Filles du calvaire gallery and Fifty One gallery.
Chinese artist Wang Yimo's "The Theater" was won by the Jimei Arles Discovery Award last year, and this year it was also exhibited in the "Newcomer" unit of the Arles Photography Festival. Her works include videos, experimental animations and light box installations. Describes the conversation between the artist and his mother in an abandoned power plant. For a long time, this power plant not only reflects China's industrialization achievements, but also reflects the struggle of a generation and the dream of building socialism. Wang Yimo's memory of the familiar environment in childhood, such as workshops, factories, relatives' courtyards, etc., has become a unique creative resource and carries special emotions. The artist invites workers to return to the power plant for a performance full of memories. The animation combines real scenes and graphics with the power plant as a background to create another world for workers. The light box installation simulates an empty theater full of collective memory. The work is not only an elegy about the past based on personal experience, but also a full dramatic and strong visual grasp and discussion of the relationship between time and memory.
untitled, selected from the "Rhapsodynasty on Earth" series, 2021. Wang Yimo's works
untitled, selected from the "Rhapsodynasty on Earth" series, 2021. Wang Yimo's works
untitled, selected from the "Rhapsodynasty on Earth" series, 2021. Wang Yimo's works
perform, experiment, newcomer, revisit, exploration and proof; this is the classification method of the exhibition at this year's Arles Photography Festival. They show the festival’s view of the current world and contemporary photography. At the same time, this year's Alles Photo Festival also pays tribute to Olivier Etcheverry (1952-2022), who once served as the designer of the Alles Photo Festival. Etcheverry passed away in March this year, setting up a precedent for displaying photography in non-traditional media, setting exhibition venues in unexpected places, including bridges on highways, churches, apartments and campuses. This immersive experience blends art with architectural landscapes to create a distinction. In the post-COVID-19 world, virtual exhibitions are becoming increasingly accepted, but the Arles Photo Festival still insists that art is an activity that needs to be experienced in person.
Exhibition time: July 4th - September 25th, 2022
Exhibition location: Arles, France
Editor-in-chief: Gao Jianping
Proofreading: Zhang Liangliang m11m11m11m11m11m11m11m11m111m111m11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
