My Crush goes to JAMES BARNOR

The exhibition by James Barnor: Stories. Pictures from the Archive (1947–1987), which is presented at LUMA as part of the Rencontres d’Arles, features a selection of previously unseen images, selected in collaboration with the artist. The creation of this portfolio, which will become part of the LUMA Foundation’s collection, is part of its Living Archives Programme. From Accra to London and from London to Accra, from the end of the colonial era to the early 1990s, from studio portraits to press commissions, the exhibition offers a kaleidoscopic look at the work of the Ghanaian photographer, already present in major international collections. In addition to the most famous images, visitors will discover a large number of documents and vintage prints that provide a broader and deeper understanding of the importance of James Barnor’s work in the history of world photography and support the portfolio’s archival status.

Being the first retrospective of James Barnor in France, this exceptional exhibition offers a privileged look at a transcontinental career that continues to inspire new generations of artists.

Live Evil by Arthur Jafa

Arthur Jafa is one of the most significant contemporary artists practicing today. Over several decades he has constructed a compelling body of work which defies categorization. Powerful and lyrical at the same time, his practice combines a profoundly unsettling blend of images and histories from diverse contexts and backgrounds. Bringing together affective memory that touches on matters such as the history of the United States of America, violence, repression, modalities of survival and how these exist in the production and dissemination of images, music, sound and time-based media, Jafa reflects on the ontology of race and of blackness.

Live Evil is the biggest and most comprehensive presentation of his work to date. Extending over two halls of LUMA’s campus, La Mécanique Générale and La Grande Halle, the exhibition includes a range of recent and new works created specifically for Live Evil.

A special mention for ETEL ADNAN

Organized by Hans-Hulrich Obrist and Arthur Fouray

Etel Adnan was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Her mother was a Greek from Smyrna, her father a high-ranking Ottoman officer born in Damascus, Syria. In Lebanon, she was educated in French schools. She studied philosophy first in Paris in 1949, at Sorbonne. In January 1955, she travelled to the United States to pursue postgraduate studies in philosophy at U.C. Berkeley and Harvard. She taught philosophy from 1958 to 1972 at Dominican College of San Rafael, California. Reflecting on the political implications of writing in French during the Algerian war of independence and in solidarity, she began to resist and shifted the focus of her creative expression to visual art. She became a painter. However, with her participation in the poets’ movement against the war in Vietnam, she began to write poems and became, in her words, “an American poet”.

Les Rencontres d’Arles - 4 juillet-25 septembre -France

www.rencontres-arles.com