A big blue sky. The sun shines there. Felt: 20 degrees. Artists, curators, directors of museums and galleries, journalists and politicians are present. The enthusiasm is palpable. It is the end of November, in Xiamen, China, and it is here that we find this summer air and this collective emulation left a few months earlier, 11,000 kilometers away. Plus the skyscrapers and the gigantism of the city.
Welcome to Jimei × Arles Festival. Various official figures took the stage for the opening ceremony, including Sylvain Fourrière, consul general of France in the province of Guangzhou; RongRong, photographer and co-founder of the festival; Christophe Wiesner, director of the Rencontres d'Arles, who made the trip for the occasion. Because yes, the occasion is special: in this year 2024, the festival celebrates its tenth anniversary, and France and China, their 60 years of cultural exchanges.
“Ten years ago, driven by a common passion for photography and a deep desire for cultural exchange, we launched this global event dedicated to images. Today, Jimei has become a place where ideas intersect, where minds meet – a window that allows us to tell the story of the world through the power of images. » explains RongRong during his opening speech. The first festival of its kind in the country, born in 2015, its vocation is to bring contemporary Chinese photography to the local and international scene. This is evidenced by its name, which clearly reflects this dual objective. “Jimei”, the district of Xiamen where the various exhibitions take place, demonstrates its local roots and the ambition for this “small” southern city; while “Arles” symbolizes openness and large-scale international collaboration.
Let's start our tour with the Exhibition Centerone of the three venues of the festival. Designed for the event, it hosts the twenty or so exhibitions presented on its two floors. Five of them come straight from Arles. We know them. It is about Journey to the Center of the Earth de Cristina de Middel et Everyday Baroque by Rajesh Vora, who address the theme of migration; Lift the Dust by Coline Jourdan, An Electronic Legacy by François Bellabas and New Farmer by Bruce Eesly, which deal with environmental subjects, mixed with artificial intelligence for the last two. Eesly's gigantic broccoli has also gained consensus among the organizers and has become the emblem of this edition of the festival.
On the ground floor, next to the Arlesian selection, a segment is dedicated to curation, a discipline particularly highlighted throughout the festival. Of the five installations, Metal Odysseywhich talks about the therapeutic journey of patients and their loved ones, particularly caught my attention. I was delighted, moreover, to see her awarded the honorary prize in this category, the “Jimei × Arles Curatorial Award for Photography and Moving Image”, a prize which aims to discover and encourage young curators and researchers. Chinese.
Then distributed between the first and second floor are spaces invested by the festival's commercial partners, such as Vivo + and Fujifilm, as well as eight exhibitions which compete for the “Jimei × Arles Discovery Award”, the flagship prize of the event since It resulted in a check worth 100,000 RMB (approximately 13,000 euros) and a presentation in Arles the following year. Favorite for the work of Alison Chen, Chinese-American artist, with her exhibition A Hole to the Watercurated by Zhou Yichen and Gan Yingying. Through photography, video and performance, she explores the intergenerational links that unite her with the women in her family, between transmission, inheritance, trauma and learning about motherhood, having herself become the mother of two children.
A few rooms further, the touching exhibition Strangers by Jia Yu, curated by Wang Paopao, appeals to me. An Art teacher in an elementary school, the photographer has been documenting the living conditions of Tibetan nomadic families since 2003. In 2020, he decided to find the people he had photographed years earlier to offer them these photos. A film traces this often complex quest, helped by locals who recognize neighbors, children, deceased parents, or sometimes themselves. The moving reunion takes these families back to their memories, at a time when the telephone did not exist, and allows them to keep a concrete trace of their history.
A simple, tender, honest work which convinced the jury of Discovery Award Jimei × Arles 2024. Cristina de Middel, director of Magnum Photos, summed up their choice in these terms:“At a time when the future of images is uncertain, this project brings photography back to its essence: helping us understand who we are and preserving the memory of what we were. It affirms photography as a tool for connection and reflection, inviting us to go beyond aesthetics to consider its deeper impact. This project also reflects the responsibility of photographers to their subjects, approaching these relationships with humility and integrity, while emphasizing the importance of care and thoughtfulness in depicting others. »
To discover this exhibition with your own eyes, go to Arles next year!
Another iconic venue of the festival is the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, a Chinese institution dedicated to contemporary photography. To access it, simply leave the main enclosure and walk a few meters. The interior is spacious, modern, white, minimalist.
During the opening week, this space hosts thematic workshops and conferences with various guests. Among the highlights, a discussion brought together RongRong, co-founder of the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Zhong Weixing, Chinese photographer, Andrew Maerkle, writer and editor based in Tokyo, notably for Art Week Tokyo, as well as Christophe Wiesner. The debate, around the central theme “Images as bridges: art, community and the city”, addressed essential questions: how can festivals evolve in the face of increasing digitalization? How to activate a community and boost urban development through a cultural event? Upstairs, two magnificent exhibitions pay tribute to the works of Japanese and Chinese photographers Masahisa Fukase and Luo Bonian.
For the second year in a row, an off-site course has also been designed. With this initiative, the festival rediscovers more of the Arlesian spirit, combining urban wandering and discovery of local infrastructure. In collaboration with key venues such as the Red Dot Design Museum Xiamen, or living spaces such as a teahouse, the aim is to strengthen the links between photography and the cultural and societal heritage of Xiamen.
Strengthen ties, both local and international. This is the mission of this festival, year after year. The recent appointment of Christophe Wiesner as co-director of Jimei × Arles is a strong testimony to this, marking the intensification of the collaboration between the two events. On this occasion, he shared his vision: “Art and creation play a central role in understanding the world. Exchanges like this help build a common future, where photography becomes a means of dialogue and unity. »
See you next year!
Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival 2024
Jimei Art Center
Bullding 12, XInglinwan Business Control, Jimoi District, Xiamen
www.rencontres-arles.com/fr/jimei-x-arles-2024international-photo-festival
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
3F, Bullding 2, Xinglinwan Business
Contro, Jimei District, Xiamen
www.threeshadows.cn/cn
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