How was your dream ?

Thaddé COMAR

How was your dream ? is a photographic project realized during the Hong Kong protests between June and October 2019. This work deals with new forms of demonstration and insurrection in our post-contemporary era dominated by seamless control societies. Five years before, in Hong Kong, the “Umbrella Movement“ was quickly repressed by state and police violence. In 2019 the democratic uprising that began in May, gave itself the means to continue. Faced with a sophisticated arsenal of control (facial recognition, geolocation, carding, eavesdropping, infiltration, water cannons, tear gas, helicopter, sonic weapons, non-lethal rifles), the Hong Kong demonstrators have developed a repertoire of techniques based on principles of invisibility and intraceability (anonymity, lasers of blindness, pocket of faraday, vision by drones, masks of all kinds, encrypted communication etc...), allowing them to mitigate the effects of the repression. These new devices, which contribute to the transformation of the forms of struggle and resistance, however, push for the gradual erasure of individual singularities. In the future, will societies and sophisticated systems of control, force us to make our human singularities disappear ? Will this be done in favor of a new common identity ?

curators      Florent BASILETTI, Justine AYZAC, Baptiste PLEDEL 

partners      Fondation Act On Your Future, InnovaArt

Matériaulogie des images

La Cellule

This exhibition presents the results of two years of research in art and creation, as part of the Matériaulogie des images project, led by some forty researchers and students. Born of the encounter between Sophie Lécole Solnychkine’s research in aesthetics Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès) and Yannick Vernet’s La Cellule laboratory (École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie), this project explores the image through matter. It examines the relationship between images and the world’s materials (earth, plants, biological processes) as active forces. By rethinking the image through these substances, the project invites an ecocentric and interdisciplinary approach, integrating aesthetics, science and ecological humanities. This approach aims to reveal the interrelationships between image forms and their environments, by experimenting with new ways of producing and understanding images, as close as possible to the elements of the living world. Project funded by the French Ministry of Culture as part of the “Research in art and design schools“ (RADAR).

Game Boy

Pierre CORBINAIS

Launched in 1998, the Game Boy Camera turns Nintendo’s famous handheld console into a rudimentary camera. Although visionary in certain respects, such as the front camera, “sticker” filters and animated GIFs, the image quality remains limited: 128x112 pixels, four shades of gray, fixed focal length, with only contrast and brightness adjustments.

Pierre Corbinais uses his Game Boy Camera to capture anonymous reflections, moving crowds and street scenes. The images, constrained by the technical capabilities of the device, invite us to see the world differently. Every detail, even the most banal, becomes a subject of observation, underlining the idea that everything in our daily lives can be captured, monitored and archived.

In this exhibition, the black-and-white photographs, transcending the limits of the Game Boy Camera, question our contemporary realities and the boundary between creativity and control. They demonstrate how an object, however playful or nostalgic, can be diverted from its initial use to become a powerful tool for reflecting on our hyper-connected society.

curators                Florent BASILETTI, Vincent MONCHO

partners               Octobre Numérique - Faire monde, InnovaArt

Hommage

Camille LEPAGE

It’s hard to believe that it’s already ten years since Camille Lepage was killed. Through this commemoration, we remember her exceptional talent and dedication as a photojournalist, particularly in conflict zones such as the Central African Republic. In 2014, Camille Lepage was awarded the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation’s first Award of Excellence, a well-deserved recognition of her work. Tragically, however, she did not have the opportunity to receive it in person. A ceremony was organized during the exhibition at Galerie Huit, where Maryvonne Lepage, Manuel Rivera-Ortiz and the mayor of Arles were present to pay tribute to Camille Lepage. Today, as the world continues to face complex realities, we honor Camille Lepage’s commitment, courage and determination.

partners        Association Camille Lepage - On est ensemble, Innova Art

How was your dream ?

Thaddé COMAR

How was your dream ? is a photographic project realized during the Hong Kong protests between June and October 2019. This work deals with new forms of demonstration and insurrection in our post-contemporary era dominated by seamless control societies. Five years before, in Hong Kong, the “Umbrella Movement“ was quickly repressed by state and police violence. In 2019 the democratic uprising that began in May, gave itself the means to continue. Faced with a sophisticated arsenal of control (facial recognition, geolocation, carding, eavesdropping, infiltration, water cannons, tear gas, helicopter, sonic weapons, non-lethal rifles), the Hong Kong demonstrators have developed a repertoire of techniques based on principles of invisibility and intraceability (anonymity, lasers of blindness, pocket of faraday, vision by drones, masks of all kinds, encrypted communication etc…), allowing them to mitigate the effects of the repression. These new devices, which contribute to the transformation of the forms of struggle and resistance, however, push for the gradual erasure of individual singularities. In the future, will societies and sophisticated systems of control, force us to make our human singularities disappear? Will this be done in favor of a new common identity ?

curator      Florent BASILETTI 

partners    Fondation Act On Your Future, Epson

Georgia - Une histoire des migrations

Ljubiša DANILOVIĆ

Georgia is the name of the ship that brought a certain Ljubiša Danilovic to New York in 1906, a ni neteen-yearold Montenegrin dreaming of a different life. A century later, in Butte, a mining town in Montana, the photographer and his namesake began a fictional conversation about exile. In 2021, Ljubiša Danilovic imagines the journey that will take him from his native Montenegro to the United States, repeating a journey comparable in every way to those that thousands of migrants around the world must undertake today. In his book of the same name, Ljubiša Danilovic combines photographs of the town of Butte, of a Montenegro that offers few horizons to young adults who dream of elsewhere, of a nostalgic Montenegro - that of his childhood - of migrants he met in Paris, Calais or Sarajevo, and of others who have spent their lives far from their country of birth... With the same voice, Ljubiša Danilovic tells the small story, but also, of course, the great story of exile. “I have tried to respond in images to the emotional journey of my namesake through his experience of uprooting.“ Alternating text and photographs, black and white and colour, author’s eye and documentary work, Georgia is an imaginary epistolary relationship on the theme of exile, but also and above all a historical perspective on the phenomenon of migration.

curator                  Florent BASILETTI

scenographer      Elizabeth GUYON         

ZIRK & PEOGO  

from december 8 to december 30, 2023
18 rue de la Calade — Arles

Soum Eveline BONKOUNGOU      Soum Eveline Bonkoungou was born in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in  1992. She starts out by assisting event photographers for 2 years, then meets Burkinabe photographer Adrien Bitibaly, who introduces her to auteur photography.
In 2021, she takes part in the mentoring program at Photosa, Ouagadougou’s biennial photographyfestival. The same year, she joins CERPHOB (Cercle des Photographes du Burkina) and becomes a member of the festival’s organizing committee. In 2023, she exhibits her project Zirk at the second edition of Photosa. She carries out a creative residency at the Leschangeurs cultural center in Agbodrafo, Togo. In collaboration with the Bauhaus Universität Weimar, Germany, she creates theproject M’YINGA, mon corps, exhibited in late 2022 and early 2023.
In June 2023, Eveline begins a residency at the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation, where she works with Florent Basiletti on her artistic projects. She is also responsible  for coordinating artists during the Les Rencontres d’Arles festival. During the Fotohaus Berlin 2023 program, Eveline  projects her Peogo series, and organizes a meeting- projection around her work Zirk at Scharaun, Berlin. Sheexhibits Zirk and Peogo in Arles, in December 2023, at the Fondation MRO.
In January and February 2024, Eveline exhibits her Zirk series at the Goethe Institut in Ouagadougou, and in April 2024 her Peogo series at the Emoi photographique festival in Angoulême.

Zirk is a form of Islamic meditation in which phrases or prayers are chanted repeatedly. In Sufi Islam, Zirk refers to both the act of remembering and the prayers used in these acts of recollection. Coming from a Muslim family, this is the religion of my childhood. My parents were the ones who decided what I should believe and what path I should follow in my religious practice. All these questions arose from the realization that I didn’t feel in tune with my own convictions, and that I didn’t feel a divine connection in my relationship with Islam. “For me, faith is personal” she said.

Peogo is a traditional basket offered at weddings in Burkina Faso (the bride’s basket or Pougpal Péogo in Mooré). These dishes are the pride of some couples and are often used for important occasions or as trophies by families. However, thispractice is less and less common, as young Burkinabé couples find these dishes cumbersome. This work is accompanied by recorded testimonials and stories about this tradition, which has been handed down from generation to generation. It reveals the objects that make up the Peogo, such as the calabash, the sieve and the spatula, generally kitchen utensils described as indispensable to the young wife when she joins her husband’s court.

partners : Embassy of France in Burkina Faso, Goethe-Institut Ouagadougou, Photosa - biennale photographique du Burkina Faso, Atelier SHL, La Kabine

Ayañawi

Pepe ATOCHA

Plants communicate with each other and with their environment. During two years of immersion in the jungles of Peru, Pepe Atocha uses an experimental process to capture the essence of plants. After a three-week ayahuasca retreat with Shipibo healers, the artist decided to photograph with fire, a vision that came like a gentle, silent dance to the rhythm of the wind.

The Amazon has been shaped by man for centuries, its composition the product of the work of indigenous peoples, the series is composed of portraits of healers and portraits of trees. At a time when traditional medicine is being defeated by a virus, the Shipibo healers remind us that we can heal ourselves by taking care of nature and ourselves.

curator      Florent BASILETTI 

Cumbia’s day

Teo BELTON & Florence GOUPIL

Cumbia’s day. The oral tradition is the breath of the Earth. In Peru, thirty-seven indigenous languages have become extinct in the last hundred years. The indigenous elders and chiefs are disappearing and, with them, the living memory of the Earth and its biodiversity.

Cuidantsiqmi: Love and care for the land. The Quechua-Wari indigenous people, living in the Cordillera Blanca in Ancash, Peru, are facing an environmental disaster that puts their lives in danger. First, there hasbeen an important melting of the ice caps. Now, drought and extreme heat have destroyed their agriculture and complicated their access to drinking water, affecting their physical and mental health. In the Ancash region, the high rate of malnutrition continues to grow.

curator      Florent BASILETTI
partners        The National Geographic Society’s Emergency Fund for Journlists, The Wellcome Trust Foundation

Boaventura

Thomas BRASEY

In 1819, driven by starvation and economic crisis, about 2000 Swiss people emigrated to Brazil. After a deadly journey, they founded the town of Nova Friburgo in the mountains surrounding Rio de Janeiro. Their new lands, which were supposed to allow the development of a
profitable agriculture, barely provided enough to feed, and the settlers scattered. Some returned to Rio where they lived in poverty and crime, others headed North where coffee could be grown, and made prosperous business there, particularly thanks to slavery.

curators    Florent BASILETTI, Klauss KEHRER 
partners          Kehrer Verlag

Events

July 7th at 5pm
Preview and launch of the exhibitions with the artists and curators

from July 4th to July 11th
During the opening week, come along for a meeting, a visit, a debate, or just a look !

Photobooks

available at our library
Here are our exhibitions’ corresponding photobooks, write to us if you wish to reserve a signed copy.