Article by Valérie Duponchelle
Downtime with Tectona at Rencontres d’Arles
As anyone who has experienced Rencontres d’Arles in the Provence summer will tell you, it requires planning, energy and perseverance. And plenty of breaks! The biggest photography festival in the world features a multitude of exhibitions spread out in the old town: it is best enjoyed at a steady pace with fresh eyes and sharp mind…
Not only the photographs but the settings compete for your visual attention, from the sea of ID photos of immigrant workers in “Ne m’oublie pas” by Collection Jean-Marie Donat at the Espace Croisière to the large-format photographs of the group exhibition “Sosterskap. Photographes contemporaines nordiques” at Sainte-Anne church. Traversing various and diverse artistic worlds sharpens our concentration, from the melancholic New York of Saul Leiter at Saint-Trophime to the freeze-frame images by Gregory Crewdson at Parc des Ateliers, from the secrets of artist’s books in “Scrapbooks” at Espace Van Gogh to the strange life seen by Diane Arbus at Fondation Luma. Arles 2023 was intense. Arles 2024 promises more of the same.
For your breaks, you need shade and somewhere to sit. The latter is where Tectona, a proud sponsor of Rencontres d’Arles since 2015, steps in. Tectona furniture provides comfort and so much more: their models are built for long life outdoors, are easy to use, are light, optimise space, demonstrate expert craftsmanship and feature sleek lines originally inspired by British chic. In most places, the furniture is an invitation to slow down, to indulge in the art of doing nothing. At Rencontres d’Arles, they provide a brief but necessary respite from a gruelling schedule.
Arnaud Brunel, President of Tectona France, is a passionate devotee of photography. The stalwart attendee of Rencontres d’Arles and Paris Photo confides in us, “I started getting interested in the early 1980s while living in New York. At the time, few people were interested. I had the good fortune of meeting several leading figures from the world of photography, the major dealers Harry Lunn, Peter MacGill, Howard Greenberg, Edwin Houk and Maria Hambourg, curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They taught me the history of photography and influenced my first choices.
In the last twenty years, I have trusted the eye of Alexis Fabry, not only for his unrivalled knowledge of South American photography, but also his knowledge of contemporary design.
This is how I asked renowned designers to work for Tectona.” He continues, “I met Sam Stourdzé when he was head of Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne and followed his trajectory when he became, on 16 April 2014, the Director of Rencontres d’Arles, an event I had come to know well over many years. This was the genesis of the partnership between Tectona and Rencontres d’Arles. It has continued to this day, at every edition.”
The man who provided the furniture for the garden of Musée Rodin in Paris and Villa Medici in Rome is a collector of Diane Arbus (small-format postcard, signed, of her iconic Identical Twins, 1967), Robert Frank (The Americans, a groundbreaking book published by Delpire in 1958), the historical Charles Nègre and Eugène Atget, the masters Brassaï and Irving Penn, the sensual Seydou Keïta but also the transgressive Andres Serrano and Martin Parr. It was in his capacity as a seasoned visitor that he teamed up with Rencontres d’Arles, laying out Copacabana deckchairs at the Parc des Ateliers and wooden Circle benches around trees of the old town. It does sometimes seem that emotions evoked by photographers drain physical energy too, for example those of Bettina Grossman, Frida Orudapo, Lee Miller and Ana Mendieta for Rencontres d’Arles 2022.
Even as the mist descends at the entrance to Espace Croisière to refresh visitors half-way along Boulevard des Lices, between Forum and Fondation Luma, there is always more to see, more to do, more photos to take in. Comfort is key.
