Art
Les Rencontres d’Arles 2026:
Opening Week
A city of images, history and conversations, experienced through exhibitions staged across churches, museums and historic buildings.
Arles · July 2026 BY COLLECT
The opening week of Les Rencontres d’Arles 2026 transformed the historic city into one of the world's leading stages for photography. During the opening programme, Festival Director Christoph Wiesner guided invited guests through several of the festival's major venues, offering insight into the curatorial vision behind this year's edition. Moving through Roman monuments, churches, museums and historic industrial buildings, visitors experienced photography in dialogue with centuries of architecture, demonstrating why Arles remains one of Europe's most distinctive cultural destinations.
Among the highlights was the festival's flagship exhibition, William Klein: This Way to Heaven, celebrating the centenary of one of photography's greatest innovators. Visitors also experienced Ming Smith: Lueur Nomade, a landmark presentation by the pioneering American photographer, and Harry Gruyaert: A Sense of Place, featuring the Magnum photographer's celebrated colour work from around the world. Martine Barrat: Soul of the City offered an intimate portrait of Harlem, the Bronx and Paris, while the major historical exhibition GHANA! Dreaming Independence 1957–1976 brought together works by James Barnor, Felicia Abban, Paul Kodjo and Willis E. Bell, tracing the visual history of Ghana's first decades of independence.
The programme also featured Sammy Baloji's Paysage prisme, exploring the layered histories of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Katia Kameli's Le Roman Algérien, examining memory and post-colonial identity, and Bruno Boudjelal's Goudron: Tanger–Le Cap, a photographic journey across the African continent. Additional highlights included Clément Cogitore's Memory Palace, Lee Shulman & Omar Victor Diop's The Anonymous Project: Being There, Charlotte Yonga's (Tsy) Possible, Thato Toeba's Everyone Can Be Lucifer, Lara Tabet & Yasmine Chemali's Le Corps Vitré, and Meghann Riepenhoff's Upwelling. Together with emerging international artists, immersive multimedia installations and ambitious site-specific commissions, the festival presented one of its most diverse programmes to date.
Rather than existing within a single museum, Les Rencontres d'Arles transforms the city itself into an open-air cultural campus. Former railway workshops, medieval chapels, Roman monuments, museums and historic residences become exhibition spaces, encouraging visitors to discover photography through architecture, history and urban life.
The guided tour offered an exceptional overview of this year's programme, revealing how photography continues to evolve while remaining deeply connected to place. By bringing together internationally acclaimed artists, emerging talent and remarkable historic venues, Les Rencontres d'Arles 2026 reaffirmed its position as one of the world's most influential and inspiring photography festivals.
