Kering and Les Rencontres d’Arles to present the 2025 Women In Motion Award for photography to Nan Goldin

On Tuesday, July 8, 2025, Kering and Les Rencontres d’Arles will present the Women In Motion Award to American artist, Nan Goldin, at the Théâtre Antique in Arles. During this special evening, the photographer will present her work and share with the audience her personal journey and her view on society. Her Stendhal Syndrom, supported by Women In Motion, will be exhibited at the Eglise Saint-Blaise in Arles.

Through her work, Nan Goldin has recast the representation of women outside of patriarchal norms, but also on overlooked communities. Her intimate and raw portraits deconstruct gender stereotypes and highlight the realities of domestic violence, desire, and marginality. Her iconic work, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, produced from 1980 to 1986, bears witness to the complexity of romantic relationships and power, giving voice to women and communities that have hitherto been ignored. By denouncing oppression and celebrating emancipation, Nan Goldin shows her unwavering commitment.

The work Syndrome de Stendhal, exhibited at the Rencontres d'Arles this year, takes the form of a slideshow juxtaposing images of classical, Renaissance, and Baroque masterpieces with portraits of Nan Goldin's friends and lovers. The structure of the work is inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, depicting the artist's friends and family as mythological figures such as Galatea, Orpheus, and Hermaphrodite. The artist’s voice is mixed with a captivating soundtrack specifically composed by Soundwalk Collective, to which is added a musical creation by Mica Levi. The work culminates in a reinterpretation of the famous Stendhal syndrome itself, illustrating that dizzying moment when beauty, in all its intensity, can induce fainting.

Nan Goldin declared: “This award is such a great honor. I’m proud to be associated with such great women photographers who I admire and respect. I have a long history with Arles, particularly in the 1980’s which had a profound effect on me and my work early in my career. I’ve returned to Arles several times since then and I’m thrilled to be back.”

While continuing to encourage emerging talent through the Prix de la Photo Madame Figaro Arles, which it has supported since 2016, Kering launched, in 2019, the Women In Motion Award for Photography at the Rencontres d'Arles. The latter pays tribute to the career of a leading woman photographer and includes funding for the purchase of works for the Rencontres d'Arles Collection. In 2024, Kering renewed its commitment to the festival, becoming one of its Main Partners.

Previous Award recipients are Susan Meiselas in 2019, Sabine Weiss in 2020, Liz Johnson Artur in 2021, Babette Mangolte in 2022, Rosângela Rennó in 2023, and Ishiuchi Miyako in 2024.

About Nan Goldin 
Born in 1953 in Washington D.C., USA, Nan Goldin lives and works in New York City and Paris. Nan Goldin has revolutionized the art of photography through her frank and deeply personal portraiture. Over the past 45 years Goldin has created some of the most indelible images of our times. Since the 1970s her work has explored notions of gender and definitions of normality and community. Goldin’s current retrospective This Will Not End Well, which consists of six of her slideshows opened at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet in the fall of 2022, then traveled to Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, and Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie. It will continue at Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, in Milan in the fall of 2025 and conclude at the Grand Palais, Paris in 2026. Goldin was appointed Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture (2006), and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Hasselblad Award (2007), the Edward MacDowell Medal (2012).

About Women In Motion 
Kering's commitment to women is at the heart of the Group's priorities and extends, through Women In Motion, to the field of arts and culture, where gender inequalities persist, even though creation is one of the most powerful vectors for change.
In 2015, Kering launched Women In Motion at the Festival de Cannes with the ambition of shining a light on the talent of women in cinema, both in front of and behind the camera. The program has since expanded in a major way to other fields, and especially to photography. 
Through its Awards, the program recognizes inspirational figures and emerging female talent. Its Talks and Podcasts provide an opportunity for leading personalities to share their views on the representation of women in their profession.

About the Rencontres d’Arles
Through exhibitions held in various exceptional heritage sites around the city, the Rencontres d’Arles has contributed to supporting worldwide photographic heritage every summer since 1970, and in so doing has become a melting pot for contemporary creation. A true cultural incubator for artists, the Rencontres d’Arles is an annual hub for photographic creation. Echoing and promoting artistic reflections and practices at a crossroads of disciplines, the Rencontres d’Arles each year presents the work of more than 300 artists and curators, through some 46 exhibitions in venues with specially designed scenographies. For an ever more discerning public, the festival reveals trends, forges new paths, explores, and questions the status of the changing image, creating content that reflects the sociological and geographical diversity of our world. The 56th edition of the Rencontres d'Arles will take place from July 7 to October 5, 2025.

About Kering 
A global Luxury group, Kering manages the development of a series of renowned Houses in Fashion, Leather Goods and Jewelry: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo, Qeelin and Ginori 1735, as well as Kering Eyewear and Kering Beauté. By placing creativity at the heart of its strategy, Kering enables its Houses to set new limits in terms of their creative expression while crafting tomorrow’s Luxury in a sustainable and responsible way. We capture these beliefs in our signature: “Empowering Imagination”.
 

Contacts 
Presse Kering
Emilie Gargatte | +33 (0)1 45 64 61 20 | emilie.gargatte@kering.com
Emma Roquier | +33 (0)6 78 04 06 62 | emma.roquier@kering.com    

Presse Rencontres d’Arles
Claudine Colin Communication 
Alexis Gregorat | +33 6 63 84 35 10 | alexis.gregorat@finnpartners.com
Aristide Pluvinage | +33 6 85 90 39 69 | aristide.pluvinage@finnpartners.com