'A festival is not a museum': Sam Stourdzé on Les Rencontres 2015 and the future of Arles

The south of France has long been a storied haven for painters chasing the inspiration of golden Provence sunlight on fields of lavender, sunflowers and the Côte d'Azur. Each year, with 35 exhibitions in spaces from gothic churches to industrial warehouses, one of the world's biggest and oldest festivals of its kind takes over the town of Arles in the name of a medium even more light-reliant: photography.

Now in its 46th year, the Rencontres d'Arles festival has a new director in Sam Stourdzé, previously of the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne. Stourdzé took a moment during last-minute installations to speak to Wallpaper* about what we should expect in his first edition and the future of Les Rencontres under his leadership... 

Wallpaper*: You are considered a pioneer in elevating photography to a major art form. Why is it a challenge to gain the same recognition for photography as for painting and sculpture?
Sam Stourdzé: What interests me is that photography and images are of course related to art and are as interesting as painting or sculpture. For some years, we have been doing the history of photography as we do the history of painting. We are able to approach and embrace some projects that have nothing to do with art but more with the question of popular culture or visual history. For example, this year we are doing a huge exhibition on the photography of LP covers. All of the great photographers have done some. So we are able to consider photography in this usual form, that we all have in our homes. This is the objective of the festival: to surprise the public. From an artistic perspective we are in the middle of a revolution with a society where the web is switching from textual to visual. Les Rencontres is there. I want to be sure in the next ten years that we can promote these new artistic approaches to think about the world we are living in.

Seeing and absorbing everything at Les Rencontres is impossible. What are some of the aspects or exhibitions of this year's edition that you really don't want visitors to miss?
I'm excited about the complete program. A festival is not a museum. In a museum you do one exhibition after another. In a festival you do an exhibition next to another. Every exhibition is related and talks about where we are in regard to images and photography. For instance, when you go from Walter Evans to Stephen Shore to Martin Parr, you have three generations of great masters that are really linked to each other. The challenge of good artistic direction is that this juxtaposition, by the end of the day, will create a kind of magic.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the previous leadership of Les Rencontres and the new LUMA Foundation that's under construction. What's your response to those who say the festival is losing its spirit?
Of course there was this difficult situation the last two years. Twelve years ago, Les Rencontres opened ateliers to the public that have now been bought by the LUMA Foundation to create an art campus with a new tower by Frank Gehry. Either you think we are losing space, or the other way is to think is that it's amazing to have so many important cultural actors in a small city. We also have the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie. But we are not in competition with each other. In fact, the real challenge in front of us these next years is to invent together an economic model based on culture – to make Arles an attractive cultural destination for tourists.

'Les Rencontres de la Photographie', Arles' prestigious annual rendez-vous for international photography, has opened and will run until 20 September

Harry Callahan, France, 1956-1958. Courtesy of the Estate of Harry Callahan and the Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York

William Klein, Cowhey Marine, 1955. Courtesy of the artist

Dolorès Marat, Sur la berge, Grand Travers, 2014. Courtesy of the Conservatoire du Littoral

Dorothée Smith, TRAUM (work in progress), 2015. Courtesy of the artist

Thierry Bouët, Pair of skis, from the 'Private Affairs' series. Courtesy of the artist

Thierry Bouët, High-wing airplane, from the 'Private Affairs' series. Courtesy of the artist

Alice Wielinga, Epic of the Soldiers, North Korea, 2013. Courtesy of the artist

Alice Wielinga, Harvest Time, North Korea, 2013. Courtesy of the artist

Ambroise Tézenas, Oradour-sur-Glane, martyr village (France), main street. Courtesy of the artist

Ambroise Tézenas, Sichuan Wenchuan earthquake ruins tour (China). Courtesy of the artist

Eikoh Hosoe, Simmon: A Private Landscape, 1971. Courtesy of the artist

Daido Moriyama, A Room, 1980s. Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation

Olivier Cablat, Duck teleportation: phase 2, 2014. Research photos for the DUCK, as part of the 'Theory of Evolution' project. Courtesy of the artist

View of Olivier Cablat's teleported building, Vevey, 2014. 3D modelling by Antoine Mialon Architectures and building production by Festival Images (Vevey, Switzerland). Courtesy of Olivier Cablat

French singer Matthieu Chedid, British photographer Martin Parr and Magnum Photos created a 'nonconforming' collection of images

Mayor of Todmorden's Inaugural Banquet, Calderdale, England, from 'The Non-Conformists' series, 1975 – 1980. Courtesy of Martin Parr/Magnum Photos – Kamel Mennour

Clare College May Ball, from the 'Luxury' series, 2005. Courtesy of Martin Parr/Magnum Photos – Kamel Mennour

Natasha Caruana, I Had Seen Her. Courtesy of the artist

Natasha Caruana, The Thunderbolt. Courtesy of the artist

Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti have spent more than two years photographing the world's tax havens in 'Les Paradis'. In Singapore, Tony Reynard (right) and Christian Pauli speak in one of the high-security vaults of the Singapore Freeport. Mr Reynard is the chairman of the Singapore Freeport and Mr Pauli is the General Manager of Fine Art Logistics NLC, based there. They are both Swiss. Located just off the runway of Singapore’s airport, the Freeport is a fiscal no-man’s land, where both individuals and companies can confidentially and transparently gather valuables. Courtesy of the artists

For Grand Cayman, Woods and Galimberti photographed an employee of Jetpack Cayman demonstrating the watersport now available on the island, propelled out of the sea by a 2000cc motor. Mike Thalasinos, owner of the company, quips, ‘the Jetpack is zero gravity, the Cayman are zero taxes, we are in the right place!
 We must be in the right place!' Courtesy of the artists

Paolo Woods, 'État, Haïti', 2011. Courtesy of the artist

Peter A Hutchinson, My Favorite Things, 1992. Courtesy of the artist and CNAP

Lynne Cohen, Corporate Office, 1987. Courtesy of the artist and CNAP

Denis Darzacq, Recomposition I n° 2. Courtesy of the artist

Markus Brunetti, Köln, Hohe Domkirche St Petrus, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Hartmann Projects

Markus Brunetti, Reims, cathédrale Notre-Dame, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Hartmann Projects

Wouter Deruytter, Renovation of The Sphinx by Dr Mahmoud Mabrouk, 10 November 1997. Courtesy of the artist and Torch Gallery, Amsterdam

Sandro Miller, Pierre et Gilles/Jean-Paul Gaultier (1990), 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago

Sandro Miller, Dorothea Lange/Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California (1936), 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago

Raymond Hains, Bray et Lu, Val-d'Oise, 2004. Courtesy of Thomas Hains

Pauline Fargue, untitled, from 'No Day' series, 2002 – 2015. Courtesy of Pauline Fargue

Pauline Fargue, untitled, from 'No Day' series, 2002 – 2015. Courtesy of Pauline Fargue

Paolo Pellegrin and Alex Majoli, Congo, 2012. Courtesy of the artists and Cherry Tree Gallery, Megève

Paolo Pellegrin and Alex Majoli, Congo, 2012. Courtesy of the artists and Cherry Tree Gallery, Megève

Jean-Marie Donat, BlackFace, 39. Courtesy of the artist

Jean-Marie Donat, TeddyBär, 45. Courtesy of the artist

Omar Victor Diop, Ikhlas Khan, from the 'Diaspora' series, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and MAGNIN-A gallery, Paris

Omar Victor Diop, Ikhlas Khan, from the 'Diaspora' series, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and MAGNIN-A gallery, Paris

Martin Gusinde, Games to frighten the women. Yamana, 1919 – 1924. Courtesy of Martin Gusinde/Anthropos Institut/Éditions Xavier Barral

Martin Gusinde, Ulen, the male buffoon. His role is to entertain the Hain spectators. Hain ceremony, Sel’knam rite, 1923. Courtesy of Martin Gusinde/Anthropos Institut/Éditions Xavier Barral

Vincent Ferrané, from the 'Welcome' series, 2014. Courtesy of the artist

Vincent Ferrané, from the 'Welcome' series, 2014. Courtesy of the artist

Pablo Mendès, Communication (video thumbnail). Courtesy of the artist

Cloé Vignaud, from the 'Mexico Salvaje I' series. Courtesy of the artist

Louis Matton, from the 'Objets autonomes' series, Notre-Dame-des-Landes. Courtesy of the artist

Toons Michiels, Motel Holiday, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1979. Courtesy of Luïscius

Toons Michiels, Desert Isle Motel, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1979. Courtesy of Luïscius

Toons Michiels, Desert Isle Motel, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1979. Courtesy of Luïscius

Toons Michiels, Desert Isle Motel, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1979. Courtesy of Luïscius

Stephen Shore, West Ninth Avenue, Amarillo, Texas, October 2, 1974, from the 'Uncommon Places' series. Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York

Stephen Shore, Room 125, Westbank Motel, Idaho Falls, Idaho, July 18, 1973, from the 'Uncommon Places' series. Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York

Swen Renault, Gaza, summer 2014. Courtesy of the artist

The Ambush, Zeder, from the 'Enigmatic Figures' series. Courtesy of the artists

The Doctor Zhivagos, s/t, from the 'Enigmatic Figures' series. Courtesy of the artists

Boz Scaggs, Middle Man, 1980. Photography by Guy Bourdin. Courtesy of The Guy Bourdin Estate, 2015

Manitas de Plata, Juerga, 1963. Photography de Lucien Clergue. Courtesy of Clergue family

Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Las Vegas strip, 1966. Courtesy of the artists and Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc., Philadelphia

Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, 'Big Donut Drive-in', Los Angeles, 1970. Courtesy of the artists and Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc., Philadelphia

ADDRESS

34 Rue du Dr Fanton
13200 Arles
France

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