Arles photo festival, first round
How I accidentally met RĂ©my and saw some stunning exhibitions? Are you ready to explore the wonders of photography with me?
July 07, 2024, Sunday
If I read it correctly, fifty-five years ago, the first photography exhibition was held in the city of Arles. There are quite a few exhibitions in various locations, and a lot of photography courses are also held in the city.
The reason for today was that after my morning shift, the chef knocked on my door to inform me that there were few guests in the evening, so I didn’t need to come to work. I rested for an hour, then hopped on a bus. It was a pleasant surprise to bump into a former colleague, RĂ©my, who now works in St. RĂ©my. So, upon arriving in the city, I bought an ice cream and a festival pass. Forty euros is not a small amount, but in return, I definitely counted at least forty exhibitions.
Cristina de Middel – Journey to the Center.
In the (former) church of the Preaching Brothers. The large image of this exhibition appears on most posters. A very powerful exhibition. It leaves a mark. The backstory of the exhibition is that the photographer accompanies those fleeing from Mexico to America, capturing their escape. Those fleeing from a bad fate become excluded immigrants a few steps later on the other side of the fence; but it’s still better for them. Not only Mexicans, there are quite a few places in South America that reject a dignified life…
“Inspired by Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Center of the Earth. It portrays the Mexican migrant crossing as a heroic and brave expedition, not as a flight… where the final destination… is a roadside tourist attraction.”
One sentence of the exhibition is that the Mexican border crossing is a heroic crossing, not a flight. Imagine you have a friend who is on a long journey and happens to pass by your house. Without prior notice, they ring the bell just to have a lemonade, they are tired and thirsty. It’s okay, they are nice and good guests, but your house is full. Today your colleagues are having lunch at your place, you don’t feel like hosting an extra person. You would gladly welcome the unexpected visitor in a few hours. However, the uninvited visitor is tired now. You didn’t respond to the bell, so the uninvited friend thinks no one is home and perhaps you won’t mind if they jump over the fence and sit under the apple tree for an hour. They are probably right, aren’t they?! But from your living room full of guests, you can clearly see your yard and what’s happening in it. What do you do?
What do you do when you know that the Mexican neighbors are very nice, very human, but you are beyond capacity to help. We’ll discuss the current political issues another time. What do you do, what do you feel when a person hides under your fence, coming from a place where even the dog’s kennel would be a luxury? What do you feel when you know that the equation is not that simple and straightforward? What do you feel when you know that there are no good answers to their questions? We all know immigrants, (or at least, if that’s the case, we were born into the luckier part of the world). Now imagine that you are the tired one in front of the fence!
My mother lives in a border village; I have stood at the green border with my left foot in Slovenia and my right foot in Hungary; I noticed that the same grass grew on both sides… I just want to illustrate that people live on both sides.
To unwind from these experiences, I roller-skated home, but before that, I had a large portion of tacos. At the end of roller-skating, I read PĂ©ter PetĹ‘’s book for an hour while enjoying a beer.
In retrospect, the exhibition curator deserves credit, as they didn’t arrange the pictures in a horizontal row, but placed them tightly next to each other, allowing the motifs to continue, thus guiding the eye. For example, if both pictures had a detail of a road, they adjusted the position of the pictures so that the road continued in the next picture. Or for example, if the horizon was visible in several pictures, they made sure to arrange them at the same height.
