arles opening 8 july 2009
meatyard arts debut arles 2009, with thanks to arles connection- gloria and yann, to the artists- leigh anderson, kristy gosling, emil charlaff, rik pinkcombe, rob rusling, barry woods, karen goss, ed watts, sophia al-irimi, alastair hall, darren hall, heike lowenstein, gwen jones.
Writing about arles 09 from the bleak perspective of a rain soaked, dark and windswept manchester isn’t easy and could quickly lurch toward the nostalgic. However, the distance is useful in reflecting on what we managed to do in arles that sunny july that defied the predictions of any number of sceptics and naysayers.
From a starting point of zero in terms of most things required to put on a photo show, but with an abundance of goodwill and enthusiasm to make it work from all concerned, meatyard arts put on a small, quiet yet significant show in one of the great photography arenas in the world.
Arles itself is attractive for the obvious reasons, the history, the sunshine and the fabric of the place – that distressed authenticity the ‘europeans’ do so well. Whilst the u.k presents its history, the French simply live in theirs. This is part of the reason rencontres arles is quite special in the foto world calender, the relationship between the place itself and the mostly informal nature of the proceedings in arles isn’t of course just coincidental.
The show itself was in a great little space just off Place du Forum, the property of Gloria, a lady the like of which we see so little… to describe her more would risk casting her in the ’she’s a character’ mode… so i wont.
During the hanging and each day as we opened and closed, the massed ranks of mostly japanese and american snappers snapped away delightedly at the Van Gogh cafe just a few yards away at the end of the alley … whilst other supposedly ‘knowing’ photographers danced around the edges of the scene ‘knowingly’ snapping the snappers, as predictable as one could imagine… and as tedious.
We opened with wine and nibbles as is the custom on these occasions, all were there – the artists, discretely scrubbed and decked out – and various friends and even photo tourists and academics wandering into our wee soiree. All was well with the world and we talked pictures, took pictures of ourselves and altogether had a swell time… reconvening later that night at a hotel rooftop bar and accompanying pool, we resembled, i suspect, a ramshackle bunch of dissolutes and zee list liggers… a good time was had indeed.
We achieved what we set out to do, we put on the show in Arles, made friends and put the pictures in front of people. We attracted a lot of interested and interesting people, artists and writers and gallerists form across the globe… some of which we hope to be collaborating with in the coming year… and we had a swell time.
From this, we now know that we can do it, we can make our wee foray into the establishment sponsorship zone, in our own way and by our own efforts and without the po faced self importance that so often comes with the territory.
Thanks again to all the artists, to ian for the catalogue, gloria and frederic for the place and the liver crushing last night, and to yann for his friendship and support.
jd meatyard arts