Women In Motion celebrates Japan's female photographers at Rencontres d’Arles 2024

Rencontres d’Arles 2024, Beneath the surface

Founded over 50 years ago, the Rencontres d'Arles festival has become a flagship cultural event that promotes the institutional recognition of photography and dissemination of its rich legacy. 
In 2023, this summer entry on the international event calendar hosted 145,000 visitors in search of established talent and emerging artists. 
Organized around the theme Sous la surface ("Beneath the Surface") and running from July 1 to September 29, 2024, the 55^th edition is sprinkled with notions of upheaval, spirits traces, parallel readings and re-readings that permeate the work of the more than 130 photographers, artists and curators presented. This year, among the forty-something exhibits installed in a variety of extraordinary venues across the Provencal city, Japan is given pride of place with four solo and group exhibits.

Women In Motion at Rencontres d’Arles: Honoring Women Photographers

In 2016, one year after launching the Women In Motion program at the Festival de Cannes, Kering expanded its commitment to women artists by supporting the Madame Figaro Award for Photography at Rencontres d’Arles for the first time. In 2019, Group became a partner of Rencontres d’Arles and Women In Motion joined the festival program. Together, they introduced the Women In Motion Award for Photography to raise the profile of women photographers. The Women In Motion Lab was also created in 2019 as a program to support projects that bring attention to women in photography. 
The Women In Motion Award for Photography was bestowed on Susan Meiselas in 2019, Sabine Weiss in 2020, Liz Johnson Artur in 2021, Babette Mangolte in 2022 and Rosângela Rennó last year.

This year, in addition to handing out the Women In Motion Award for Photography, the Kering program will shine a light on Japanese women photographers. It is dedicating the third edition of its Lab to them and supporting their first group exhibition in France, Quelle Joie de Vous Revoir ("I’m So Happy You Are Here"), as well as the first book published on their craft since the 1950s. As part of the Arles Associé program, Women In Motion is also backing the “Transcendance” exhibit which features the points of view of six Japanese women photographers as a parallel to the Kyotographie festival. 

2024 Women In Motion Award given to Ishiuchi Miyako

AT THE ROMAN THEATER IN ARLES
1 Rue du Cloître
13200 Arles
 

On Tuesday, 2 July 2024, Kering and Rencontres d’Arles presented the Women In Motion Award to Japanese photographer Ishiuchi Miyako, at the Roman Theater in Arles, at the opening night of the Rencontres. The event is an opportunity to present her body of work and share with the public her journey and her take on the role of women in photography and society.
The issue of women's representation is addressed subtly but powerfully in the work of Ishiuchi Miyako, who critiques the objectification of women by taking the female body as the topic of her art. Her photos celebrate imperfections, scars and age, as opposed to the beauty canons set forth by the media. Through her artistic practices, Ishiuchi Miyako embodies the principles of women's emancipation by advocating for their autonomy and for better representation. In her photographs, she never stops provoking a dialogue on gender, culture and memory in contemporary society.
 

"Belongings" exhibit
 

SALLE HENRI-COMTE
Rue de l'Hôtel de ville
13200 Arles
 

 In her depictions of intimate scenes, Ishiuchi Miyako invites viewers to question their own perception of femininity, feminine and the role of women. Through projects such as "ひろしま/hiroshima" and "Mother’s", the photographer tackles Japan's wartime past and its impact on individuals, especially women, who are generally ignored in the annals of history. "Belongings", the photographer's first solo show, is being held at Salle Henri-Comte for the duration of the festival. 

Ishiuchi Miyako

Ishiuchi Miyako was born in Gunma prefecture. In 1979, she won the Fourth Kimura Ihei Prize for her work, "Apartment". In 2005, she represented Japan at the Venice Biennale with her "Mother's" series. In 2007, she began the world renowned series "hiroshima" for which she photographed items that belonged to victims of the atomic bomb. In 2013, she received Japan's Medal of Honor and in 2014 she won the Hasselblad Award, known as the Nobel Prize of photography. In 2022, she received the Asahi Award, a distinction that honors people who have achieved extraordinary accomplishments in academia and the arts and who have made significant contributions to the development and progress of Japan's culture and society. In 2023, as part of the Kyotographie international photography festival, of which Kering is a partner, the Group backed the "Views Through My Window" exhibition, a dialogue between her work and the work of Yuhki Touyama. 

2024 Women In Motion Lab: “Quelle joie de vous voir, photographes japonaises des années 1950 à nos jours” ("I'm So Happy You Are Here, Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now")

ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE
35 Place de la République
13200 Arles

The Women In Motion Lab is an initiative designed to provide tangible support for research projects and projects to promote female talent; this year, the spotlight is on Japanese women photographers. The first group show devoted to their history in France, “Quelle joie de vous voir, photographes japonaises des années 1950 à nos jours” ("I'm So Happy You Are Here, Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now") presents the work of twenty-five photographers, including Rinko Kawauchi, Yurie Nagashima, Kunié Sugiura, Tokuko Ushioda and Eiko Yamazawa. This installation at the Archbishop's Palace was produced by Aperture and Rencontres d'Arles, and curated by Lesley A. Martin, Mariko Takeuchi and Pauline Vermare. Together with Carrie Cushman and Kellie Midori McCormick, they edited the first book on the subject, Femmes Photographes Japonaises des Années 1950 à nos Jours, published in June by Textuel in French and by Aperture in English (I'm So Happy You Are Here, Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now) and supported by Kering and Rencontres d'Arles as part of the Women In Motion Lab. 
The Lab's first project, from 2019 to 2021, funded the research that led to the publication of a reference work, Une histoire mondiale des femmes photographes, as well as its English edition, A World History of Women Photographers. For its second project, launched in 2021, Kering and Rencontres d'Arles sponsored research into Bettina Grossman's archives by artist Yto Barrada, which was published in Bettina, and presented in an exhibition at the festival in 2022.
 

Kering supports "Transcendance, Kyotographie Celebrates Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers"

VAGUE
14 rue de Grille
13200 Arles

Featuring works by Mayumi Hosokura, Ai Iwane, Mayumi Suzuki, Hideka Tonomura and Tamaki Yoshida, this exhibition of contemporary photographers, co-produced by Sigma, offers a glimpse into the modern complexities of Japanese society. From intimate portraits to evocative landscapes and poetic experiments, these six photographers bring their personal and collective experiences to life, showing the resilience, creativity and diversity of women who use photography to survive and express themselves. Inspired by "10/10 Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers", an exhibition backed by Kering and presented at Kyotographie in 2022 to celebrate the festival's tenth anniversary, “Transcendance” continues the story, with curators Nakanishi Yusuke and Lucille Reyboz, of this chorus of women photographers who dare to transcend their reality, thanks to the power of photography.