A Selection from the Festival Program

One of the most outstanding moments of the festival for me was Batia Suter’s exhibition Cryptoportiques. The installation, sensitively set in the vast underground space of the crypt, is an example of how a site-specific approach can work not only as a formal gesture but also as a successful visual play with rhythm and associative chaining. Suter lets us to discover relationships between shapes, surfaces, and fragments of photographs, arranged against the cool, damp stone pillars or through an immersive moving image projected onto semi-transparent fabric.

An unexpected highlight of the festival, both for me and for many others, was the exhibition by Diana Markosian, an American artist of Armenian origin who, in her project Father, set out to search for her father. After fifteen years, she traveled to Armenia, eventually finding him. It was a journey that led both of them to realize how estranged they had become. The openness and subtlety of Markosian’s approach, visible both in her meticulous and sensitive documentation and in a short film, left few viewers emotionally untouched. A particularly memorable event was the signing of her book right in the middle of a store, between aisles of home goods and summer supplies, above the supermarket where her exhibition was held. Such unexpected connections are among the festival’s greatest strengths, and they are part of what makes it so distinctive.

I was equally thrilled by The Lobster War at ENSP Arles (National School of Photography in Arles), where students, established artists, and prominent curators came together as a collective body. They spent a year exploring a forgotten conflict in international waters between France and Brazil in the 1960s, producing one of the festival’s most comprehensive contributions.

Posters as Testimony 

A deeply human moment brought into the city’s public space was the No Photo poster series, which deliberately avoided the use of photography. The series referred to events in Gaza through brief descriptions of what the images might have depicted. This approach made the impact even stronger than photographic representation might have achieved. The project was accompanied by a public text written by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, who argued that the genocide of Palestinians is not a single event, but a long-term, systematic regime of violence upheld by military and visual technologies as well as global power structures. Azoulay emphasizes that images should not be regarded as truth in themselves, but must be interpreted within the context of power, colonialism, and propaganda, all of which serve to legitimize the erasure of Palestinian presence.

Equally important to me was another intervention in public space, which carried the message: “Dear artists and curators, we owe you an apology for using you and your important work as a marketing tool to greenwash and culturally sanitize our brand. As if you were a car dealer.” This poster campaign addressed the issue of greenwashing. It offered a striking and unsettling metaphor for today’s world, where the glossy surface of festivals often clashes with ecological indifference. I am grateful that there are still voices willing to draw attention to this contradiction.

LUMA Arles: A League of Its Own

A striking contrast to many of the festival exhibitions in the city is the LUMA Arles complex, which each year hosts several exhibitions as part of the festival and also presents its own contemporary art shows of truly international significance. This venue stands out not only because of its architecture and technical facilities but especially due to its innovative curatorial approach and the high quality of its installations. In this respect, it remains unmatched. At the same time, this contrast highlights the glaring differences in the festival’s approach to other venues, where quality is often significantly lower. Not every church in town is suitable for installations, and unfortunately, many exhibitions are not well executed or technically supported, as was the case with the poor sound quality during the Stendhal Syndrome projection by Nan Goldin.

The most rewarding experience for me was the Cloud Chronicles exhibition, which also worked with photography in a powerful way by extracting iconic works from their usual context to create space for new associations. The precise, rhythmic, and emotionally tuned installation felt like a concert. One part of the exhibition was Carsten Höller’s Dream Bed project, a room designed for a single person to spend ninety minutes dreaming. In his Pill Clock project, visitors could swallow a red-and-white capsule of unknown contents. This small gesture touched on questions of control and trust.

Within the festival’s official program, I must also mention the excellent exhibition of David Armstrong, whose intimacy and connection with his portrait subjects formed the central thread of his work. A valuable addition to the exhibition was the inclusion of contact sheets, which offered visitors a deeper insight into Armstrong’s process for selecting final photographs and the sensitivity his method required.

Regarding the Dior Award for Young Talents, I cannot overlook a troubling omission. The competition, aimed at young graduates from selected academies, describes itself as international, yet it persistently overlooks Central and Eastern Europe, a neighboring region, as if it had nothing to contribute.

What’s Missing and What Remains

I believe the festival itself might benefit from less hierarchy, with a greater emphasis on bilingualism in its events and, above all, more care given to the execution of individual exhibitions. This could help create a better balance between quantity and quality. At the same time, it is admirable how diverse a program the organizers manage to deliver. I wish them strength not only in carrying it out but also in finding ways to make it more accessible, so that non-Francophone audiences feel equally welcome. Despite these points, the Rencontres d’Arles remains a powerful draw and, above all, a place where photography can still be discussed not only as an image, but as a way of understanding the world.

Text: Markéta Kinterová

IMAGE CAPRIONS

1 | Batia Suter. Excerpt from Octahedral, video, 2024, Out of Metropolis project, NŌUA, Bodø, Courtesy of the artist.
2 | Diana Markosian, book signing, Rencontres d’Arles, 2025
3 | NO-PHOTO 2025, Photo: Peter Watkins
4 | Dear artists, …, project in public space, Rencontres d’Arles, 2025
5 | Nan Goldin, Young Love, 2024, Courtesy of the artist / Gagosian.
6 | LUMA Arles, Cloud Chronicles, 2025