The CNAP at Rencontres d'Arles 2022

With over forty exhibitions installed in various exceptional heritage sites in the city, the Rencontres d'Arles has been contributing to the transmission of the world's photographic heritage every summer since 1970 and has become a melting pot for contemporary creation. In 2022, the Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP) joins the Rencontres d'Arles in supporting practitioners in the field of photography. It presents, as part of his creation grant for contemporary documentary photography, three monographic exhibitions of previously supported artists - Bruno Serralongue, Julien Lombardi and Léa Habourdin - from 4 July to 25 September 2022.

Bruno Serralongue, Water protectors - Jardin d'été

From April to November 2016, the Sioux Indians on the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, joined by other nations and activists, set up a camp on the banks of the Missouri River near Lake Oahe to oppose the plan to bury the Access Pipeline under the Dakota River. The people living on the reservation, which is downstream from the lake, fear that leaks might pollute the river. Up to 10,000 people lived in the camp, called Oceti Sakowin, during a standoff with the army and the police in late November 2016. Their protest led President Obama to suspend the project. Then, his successor, Trump, ordered the army to resume building the pipeline. Despite the dismantling of Oceti Sakowin, the Indians’ opposition to the destruction of their “sacred land” did not falter. It took other forms on other fronts. The Water Protectors series (2017 to present) explores this continuously renewed struggle.

Julien Lombardi, The Land where the Sun was born - Croisière

Wirikuta, a desert valley enclave in central Mexico, is the land of founding myths and numerous deities for the Huichol Indians. Each year, they make a pilgrimage to honor the birth of the sun and fire. This coveted territory rich in natural and cultural resources has captured the imagination since the Spanish conquest and inspired many tales. Julien Lombardi combines photographs, videos and installations to immerse us in the transformations and sensitivities that have shaped this sacred land. His work diverts the visual codes of ethnology, archeology and biology to test their limits. Extracting, sampling and cutting are all mirror-gestures of the photographic act and of a technical relationship to the living world. Evoking fantastic realism, Lombardi suggests that the tools used to capture reality can be cross-fertilized with invisible phenomena to experiment new narrative forms.

Léa Habourdin, Images-forests : worlds in extension - Croisière

Léa Habourdin’s work starts out with a simple observation reported by the press: primary forests no longer exist in metropolitan France. The surviving ones have not been overly influenced by humans in recent decades. The artist spent two years with forest rangers and conservation area managers documenting these protected areas. Then she made prints by extracting the photosensitive chlorophyl from plants and using plant pigments made by an artisan. The prints, called anthotypes, are not resistant to daylight. From bright yellow birch leaves to pale pink poppy petals, the image of the forest she captures is evanescent, resonating with the fantasy we all have about the primary forest.

Additional information

Exhibitions running from July 4 to September 25
From 10AM to 7:30PM daily

The Rencontres d’Arles is fully bilingual (French/English).
The exhibition catalogue will be available in early July (co-published by the Rencontres d’Arles and Actes Sud, for French and English versions).
The Rencontres d’Arles welcomes you in compliance with legal health standards, when applicable, paying special attention to the capacity of each exhibition space.