As part of the program of the “Paris 2024” Photography Meetings and Cultural Olympiads, discover the exhibition organized by the Bouches-du-Rhône Departmental Council: “Aim correctly. Pétanque and Provençal game in the lens of Hans Silvester” from July 1 to September 29.
The Bouches-du-Rhône department has joined forces with the Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles to offer the exhibition “Aiming right, pétanque and Provençal game in the lens of Hans Silvester”. In its setting at the Museon Arlaten, a renowned Provençal museum that it owns, the Department offers a dive through photos, objects and testimonies into the world of “boules” as the great German photojournalist Hans Silvester knew it, from the 1960s to the 1980s.
In the 1960s, Hans Silvester arrived in Provence where he discovered the capital place of pétanque in the villages of the Luberon. More than just a game, pétanque is a meeting place. The most experienced players are captured by the sharp eye of Hans Silvester who knows how to freeze these suspended moments. The less expert ones, they come together as spectators and transform this simple game into an unmissable meeting place.
The exhibition highlights the theatrical nature of pétanque games. The settings are varied, rural or urban and necessarily shaded. The performance is undeniable, that of the players as well as that of the photographer, who manages to capture the suspended ball or the spectacular movement. The dramaturgy is omnipresent, gestures of spite or hugs, without which the southern game of boules would lose its flavor. The scene is completed by the public, the “gallery”, who observe the game and comment on the feats.
• Hans Silvester
The exhibition presents a selection of around sixty modern silver prints of photographs taken by Hans Silvester in the 1970s, mainly in Vaucluse and Bouches-du-Rhône, on the practice of pétanque and the Provençal game.
In addition to Hans Silvester’s photographs, the Museon Arlaten will present the results of its ethnological survey-collection work with current athletes and players of pétanque and Provençal games. A children’s course is also offered, accompanied by a games bag.
“Aiming Right, Pétanque and Provençal Game through the Lens of Hans Silvester” from July 1st to September 29th to be discovered at the Museon Arlaten, 29 Rue de la République, 13200 Arles
