Arles meetings often lend themselves to the announcements of the Ministry of Culture in favor of photography. Rachida Dati thus made public the constitution of a scientific committee of the bicentenary of photography, chaired by Dominique de Font-Réaulx, in order to “Think about the prefiguration of an institution that is in a network with the other major institutions of photography and which presents the treasures of our national collections: those of the CNAP, meetings already preserved in Arles, the Heritage and Photography Media Library, the Institute for Photography in Lille. »»
The Papeteries Étienne site in Arles could be the place of its establishment. Property of the Arles Crau Camargue Mountatte Agglomeration Community, the 24 hectare site, partly in wasteland, is currently the subject of a retraining. The Arles meetings will have a completely renovated hall in two years to house the production and storage workshops of the Festival exhibitions, even an exhibition space.
This prefiguration study should bring together the various institutions holding photographic funds, such as the heritage and photography media library, which no longer has its own exhibition space, unlike the National Library of France and the Nicéphore Niépce museum in Chalon-sur-Saône.
Several questions are already asking. Because, beyond being a place to enhance photographic collections, will the institution be intended to keep photographers’ funds? And what means does the ministry have for such a major project?
This announcement is reminiscent of that made by Frédéric Mitterrand, on July 9, 2011 at the Meetings of Arles, where the Minister of Culture had announced the creation of a “New space dedicated to photography at the Hôtel de Nevers in Paris, near the Richelieu site of the BNF, the management of which would be entrusted to the game of palm with the mission of ensuring programming of historical exhibitions. »» The former minister now deceased had also announced “An archive center specifically dedicated to the authors-photographers’ fund on the ZAC des Ateliers d’Arles site”. But the arrival of François Hollande at the Elysée in 2012 and Aurélie Filippetti rue de Valois had put an end to these projects deemed too expensive.
In an era of budgetary restrictions where the institutions of photography in charge of the conservation and the valuation of the collections are themselves in lack of financial resources, this announcement leaves doubtful. Especially since France is not without photographic institutions, and that the latter regularly program exhibitions built from their collections, be it the CNAP in partnership with different institutions, from the Friche de la Belle de Mai in Marseille at the Photo Saint-Germain festival, the Nicéphore Niépce museum or the heritage and photography media library.
