Exhibitions
Palmira Puig, Marcel Giró and Germán Lorca participate in Les Rencontres de la Photographie
The three artists of the RocioSantaCruz gallery are part of the important artistic scene in Arles.
Arles, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, a pivotal place in the life of Vincent van Gogh, is hosting a new edition of Les Rencontres de la Photographie , a photography festival that has been held every summer in this town in France since 1970. The 56th edition will be on view until October 5 with a central theme: unruly images, which defines photography as a tool of resistance, memory and social transformation in a global world.
A total of 46 exhibitions spread across 26 rooms and spaces in Arles with more than one hundred and sixty artists occupying around 12,000 square metres of exhibition space. One of the main themes is On Country: Photography from Australia , this is the first major exhibition focused on contemporary Australian photography, with special attention to the voices of indigenous artists. The exhibition highlights how these creators explore the deep and spiritual relationship with the land, known as Country , a concept that goes beyond the physical territory to include identity, culture and ancestral history. The curatorship, in charge of figures such as Tony Albert, Michael Cook and Brenda L. Croft, highlights the way in which photography becomes a tool of resistance, memory and connection with roots.
Futurs Ancestraux is the exhibition of contemporary Brazilian art with photographs by Denilson Baniwa, Rafa Bqueer and Mayara Ferrão. Palmira Puig, Marcel Giró and Germán Lorca —artists represented by the RocioSantaCruz gallery— participate in the exhibition Construction Deconstruction Reconstruction. Brazilian Modernist Photography (1939-1964) , an exhibition curated by Helouise Costa and Marcella Legrand that can be seen at LUMA Arles. The exhibition offers a critical review of modernist photography in Brazil through works that dismantle and reformulate the visual languages of the moment, highlighting the innovative vision of these creators within the artistic and social context of the mid-20th century.
In this proposal, the definition of a national identity is intertwined with the development of a visual language of its own. The gaze of these photographers on the emerging modern city gives rise to new ways of perceiving and representing urban reality: speed, multiplicity, fragmentation and contrast of scales are translated into images that stimulate the senses. In Self-portrait with Shadows , Marcel Giró makes his own shadow dialogue with that of a building; their proximity creates an ambiguous and suggestive space, where the human figure and architecture are confused in a visual game full of poetic tension.
For more than half a century, the Trobades d'Arles have brought together some of the most prominent figures in international photography, establishing themselves as a reference and experimentation space for new talents. The festival has remained at the forefront, anticipating the transformations of visual media and technological innovations, with the aim of bringing the culture of the image closer to a wide and diverse audience. This desire for openness and continuous renewal defines the spirit of Arles.
