FACT OF THE DAY Jean-Michel Folon in the spotlight for the 3rd edition of the Arles drawing festival

From April 12 to May 11, Arles will host the third edition of the drawing festival. “After two spectacular editions, this festival has ranked among the major festivals of our city“, underlined the mayor, Patrick de Carolis. For this third edition, the organizers decided to pay tribute to the designer Jean-Michel Folon, who died in 2005. “I believe that during his lifetime, he was the most exhibited artist, the designer in the world. Then he fell a bit into oblivion, even though there are two exhibitions on him at the moment in Japan. I am therefore very happy to put him in the spotlight“, rejoiced Frédéric Pajak, the artistic director. The latter promises the Arlesians the exhibition of “very old drawings, quite little known” of the artist, alongside, of course, more well-known works. More than a hundred of his drawings, inks and watercolors will be on display in the Arlaten museon. Around a hundred posters will also be exhibited in the Arles hospital.

“We benefited from great visibility last year“, underlines the president of the festival, Vera Michalski, while the festival totaled 141,000 entries in 2024. “We continue on this momentum even if we have artists who are a little less known.“A choice justified by the artistic director.”When we talk to people, what interests them is the discovery, it’s the fact of being surprised by the drawing. The festival is conceived as a set of drawings without any particular line, in all its variety. We do not hesitate to exhibit very opposing designers.“Thirty-five artists, around 1,000 drawings, will be presented in eleven places in the city. Among them, the relatively little-known works of Jean Moulin.

Thematic exhibitions

For the first time, the organizers also decided to create four major thematic exhibitions. Humorous drawing, a genreoften confused with press cartoons“, will thus be highlighted thanks to designers of different nationalities and various eras within the Cruise area. A selection of Japanese prints from the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France will be installed in the Réattu museum. 150 drawings from the Antoine de Galbert collection will be exhibited in the Sainte-Anne Church. “This theme is one of those which has been designed to be renewed from year to year. It seemed important to us to honor those thanks to whom we have access to these drawings“, notes Julie Bouvard, administrative director of the festival. “Since the first edition, we have wanted to highlight professions. For the inauguration of this theme, cuisine was chosen with drawings from chefs and gastronomic critics.“This exhibition dedicated to culinary art will be installed in the Henri-Comte municipal hall.

Like every year, with the support of the City of Arles, ten primary school classes will create drawings with the help of designers. The result will be presented from April 22 to May 11 in the Van Gogh space. For its part, the Méjan chapel will host drawings by students from three decorative arts schools in Paris, Brussels and Warsaw. Following the 2024 edition, the festival organization distributed a questionnaire to the Arles public. Among the regrets expressed was that the exhibitions closed too early. Three evening events will therefore be organized from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., on Thursday April 24 in the Arles antique departmental museum and at the Méjan chapel, Thursday May 1 at the Sainte-Anne church, in the Henri-Comte room, at the Palais de the Archbishopric as well as at the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz foundation, as well as on Thursday, May 8, at Croisière.

A series of meetings, debates, guided tours, workshops, film screenings and concerts will punctuate this third edition. Among the events, an evening will combine jazz and drawing on May 5 at 8 p.m. in the municipal theater in the presence of André Manoukian and Mosin Kawa. During the concert, the Swiss designer Noyau will create drawings which will be projected live on a giant screen. A drawing workshop in homage to Jean-Michel Folon will also be offered to children in the Van Gogh space. But for the first year, parents will also be able to try their hand at drawing alongside professional Arlesian designers. Finally, another new feature, guided tours will be offered throughout the festival. The entire program can be found on the festival website (https://www.festivaldudessin.fr/fr/). The suspense still remains regarding the godfather or godmother of this edition.