The opening week of the «Les Rencontres d’Arles», Arles International Photography Festival, is scheduled for 2 to 8 July 2018. Photographers, publishers, curators and other specialists, including numerous representatives from Switzerland, as in the year before, will be meeting up in Arles to present their work, exchange news and opinions, and celebrate photography. Most of the exhibitions will subsequently be open to the public until the end of September.

Opening week

The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia is organising a series of panel discussions during the opening week. From Tuesday, 3 July to Friday, 6 July, photographers,publishers and photography specialists will hold daily discussions on current matters of interest. The panel discussions are staged in connection with the international book fair «Cosmos Arles Books» in Mistral. The panels will be held in English or French with simultaneous translation into the other language.

Exhibitions

This year’s festival programme includes 36 exhibitions by international photographers. Among the exhibitors are Swiss photo artists René Burri, Christophe Draeger, Robert Frank, Mathieu Gafsou, Anne Golaz and Lucas Olivet as well as film director Jean-Luc Godard. At a few kilometres distance from Arles, Collection Lambert in Avignon is dedicating a major solo exhibition, entitled Anatomies du pouvoir, to photographer Christian Lutz in the context of Grand Arles Express. It is due to run from 4 July to 4 November. Christian Lutz will also be displaying his photographs together with Cindy Van Acker in their performance Knusa/Insert Coins from 10 to 19 July as an item in Sélection suisse en Avignon.

Pro Helvetia collaborates with Presence Switzerland for this event.