We could have hoped to keep some of Arles' artistic life, even without the Rencontres de la photographie and their 51st edition canceled at the end of April by its board of directors. One would have thought possible an architectural walk, at least, in the building designed by the Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry for Maja Hoffmann, patron and Swiss passport collector, international lifestyle, Arlesian at heart, and its foundation LUMA all in broken sections, like La Montagne Sainte-Victoire by Cézanne.
Clearly, the summer of culture continues to darken. For Luma Arles, 2020 was to be a pivotal year. “Until April 29, we were doing everything to imagine both a dense and transversal summer program. The Parc des Ateliers hosted a renewed collaboration with the Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles, which Luma has supported since 2002. We put at their disposal a large part of the Mechanics workshop, not only during the festival period but also throughout throughout the year, and thus offering this meeting of culture in Arles a permanent exhibition space. Despite the cancellation of the festival this summer, Luma's new commitment to the Rencontres de la Photographie remains current », underlined by press release this new force which created a whole maelstrom in the ancient city by its ambition, its means, its iconoclastic vision, frankly turned towards the most contemporary world.
This is a whole program that collapses. At least for this summer. And a certain optimism which gets a little more skinny.
Pierre Huyghe and Cyprien Gaillard on the program
“Luma Arles was also working on an annual conference, Luma Days # 4 , at the opening of the summer season in mid-May, to make way for the end of June, in the different exhibition spaces of the Parc des Ateliers d'Arles, at the presentation of several Rencontres exhibitions and a series of new artistic productions in France: UUmwelt - an installation by French artist Pierre Huyghe at the head of the line at Prélude , an exhibition dedicated to five young artists around the theme of the Biosphere ; Aus Licht! a sound and video installation inspired by the cycle of operas composed by Stockhausen in co-production with the Aix en Provence lyric art festival and the Holland Festival; Nightlife , a video work from the Maja Hoffmann / Luma Foundation collection by French artist Cyprien Gaillard ; It's Urgent! a project produced by Luma in 2019 and 2020, an exhibition of activist posters imagined by a hundred artists around the most sensitive themes of our news . ”
All this is put away, under the final pressure of the health crisis. A question of pure logic and spirit which define the inventory. “ Luma works closely with the artists on projects designed for the Parc des Ateliers, which are often new. To create, conceive, think about his projects, artists are invited to come to Arles and to reside there in order to produce their works and to better share them with the public. These residences and visits are at the heart of Luma's spirit and activity. They participate in connecting and nurturing relationships with Arles for a growing community of artists and thinkers. In the context of confinement caused by the circulation of Covid-19, of gradual resumption of activity under restrictive sanitary conditions, stopping of international circulation which jeopardizes the arrival of artists and the free movement of actors in our programming, this 2020 program must be postponed ” .
Indirect beneficial effects, the life of the site should resume all over again, with more calm, because without any public. The Luma Foundation, like the Pinault Collection's Bourse de Commerce in Paris, which had to postpone its opening twice, next fall and then in spring 2021, suddenly inherits a longer time to prepare.
Production of 3D masks
“We decided to take advantage of this slowdown period to focus first on the continuation of the park's greening site and on the finishing of the site buildings. Thus, the site's opening calendar in 2021 is maintained, an important milestone for our project as for the city and its cultural dynamic. We will therefore keep the Parc des Ateliers closed to the public to facilitate this work, while leaving open a new friendly place at the historic entrance to the site, hosting the project house. We can find ourselves in compliance with the temporarily recommended sanitary rules ” .
In the meantime, like everyone in culture, life unfolds online. “Taking advantage of this period of confinement, the implementation of content sharing and our news on social networks and on the Luma Lif (v) e digital platform has been accelerated. From 6 May 2020, internet users will find a series of interviews with a selection of guests commenting and developing the themes specific to our 2020 edition, by widening their interventions and reflections to the period we are going through . ”
The other events supported for years by the LUMA Foundation suffer from the same paralysis and become virtual. “Offprint, the independent publishers' fair - whose 2020 edition is canceled at the Tate Modern in London, will thus find a new echo through the digital platform: a series of presentations and interviews, accompanied by a selection of unpublished works, will be available from May 12, 2020. This visibility and sharing is a support for young independent publishers whose activity remains fragile and which Luma wishes to encourage always more .
The all decor of the Cuban artist Jorge Pardo
Maja Hoffmann is also a determining presence - and sometimes disputed - in the city of Arles and its art of living: from the Van Gogh Foundation and its historical exhibitions (Van Gogh, Alice Neel, Niko Pirosmani) to the hotels entrusted to designers and artists, the Hôtel du Cloître à la Parisienne India Mahdavi, the Arlatan with the Cuban Jorge Pardo who designed everything, the sculpted banisters, the lamps in milky light, the multicolored tiles and the painted furniture (up to at the sports hall!). The whole forms a whole with studied luxury and aesthetic charm, which suddenly are no longer the priority news of the moment, much darker.
“In this period of necessary solidarity, Luma has redirected its strengths and the commitment of its teams to support caregivers on the one hand, and families on the other. After having sold, in the first days of the crisis, its stock of medical masks to the emergency department of the Joseph Imbert Hospital Center in Arles, and in the measure of experimental means of production, Luma launched - through Atelier Luma - production of 3D mask supports delivered to the same department. This support continues to accompany the production of blouses and over-blouses. Thanks to the efforts of the Maisons d'Arles restaurant and hotel teams, we have also delivered meals to healthcare professionals and offered baskets of fresh fruit and vegetables - from the Chassagnette vegetable garden in the Camargue - to families, through the action of the services of the City of Arles ” .