Presented by the Luma Foundation in Engadin, Switzerland, as part of Elevation 1049, STRIP TOWER (962) brings Gerhard Richter’s long-running investigations into the Alpine landscape, extending his practice beyond the canvas and into three-dimensional space. On view until the spring of 2029, the work draws from the methodology of his Strip Paintings, where a single painted gesture is subjected to successive acts of photographing, scanning, digital slicing, and stretching.  What begins as an analogue mark is transformed into a system of color bands governed by repetition and chance. In the tower, this process leaves the flat surface behind entirely, becoming architectural and spatial.

Rising over five meters, the sculpture, recently presented at Serpentine, London, consists of eight perpendicular panels clad in glazed ceramic tiles, each carrying vertically elongated color stripes. The intersecting panels allow people to walk between the surfaces, shifting the encounter from distant viewing to bodily experience. Light reflects off the glossy surfaces, while weather, cloud cover, snow, and seasonal shifts continuously recompose the work. 

all images by Luzi Seiler courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation, unless stated otherwise

STRIP TOWER (962): site, repetition, and slow looking

Richter’s relationship with Sils Maria stretches back decades. He first visited the village in 1989 and has returned regularly since, drawn to its distinctive light and contemplative atmosphere. Long associated with intellectual retreat and sustained reflection, the site offers a fitting context for a work that resists instant legibility. STRIP TOWER (962) encourages repeated visits and incremental perception, asking viewers to notice subtle variations rather than dramatic gestures.

The placement of the sculpture near Lake Silvaplana embeds it directly within the Alpine ecosystem. Its ceramic skin responds to moisture and temperature, while its colors shift under changing skies. The experience of the work unfolds over time, aligning with the German artist’s broader concerns with uncertainty, reflection, and the instability of visual certainty.

With this installation, the Luma Foundation tests how contemporary art can operate outside conventional exhibition formats, proposing the Alps as a landscape where artistic experimentation unfolds over time. Elevation 1049 will return to Gstaad and the Saanenland in 2027, curated by Mohamed Almusibli, but in the Engadin, Richter’s tower will remain, marking the landscape with color, light, and duration.

the work draws from the methodology of Gerhard Richter’s Strip Paintings

elevation 1049 and the alpine landscape as a thinking field

Since its inception in 2014, Elevation 1049 has approached the Alps as an intellectual and ecological field. Through site-responsive commissions, the initiative has explored the relationship between contemporary art and geography, climate, history, and local communities beyond institutional settings. The installation of STRIP TOWER (962) in the Engadin demonstrates how long-term artworks can foster sustained public engagement.

Maja Hoffmann, Founder and President of the Luma Foundation, frames the project as part of a broader commitment to situating significant artistic voices in contexts that demand attentiveness and responsibility. She describes the work as ‘a rare synthesis of conceptual rigor, formal clarity, and material precision,’ noting how its presence affirms the Alps as a site of serious cultural production rather than passive scenery.

Installed for an initial period of three years, STRIP TOWER (962) emphasizes art as a shared public experience unfolding gradually and in dialogue with place. Visitors can walk through the sculpture, pause within its interior, and return under different conditions, encountering a work that is both monumental and quietly responsive. Its scale does not overwhelm the landscape but frames it, inviting reflection on how perception itself is shaped by environment.

the sculpture consists of eight perpendicular panels clad in glazed ceramic tiles

light reflects off the glossy surfaces

sharpening attention to color, light, and movement | image courtesy of Elevation 1049

image by Victor & Simon / Joana Luz, courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation

the intersecting panels allow people to walk between the surfaces | image by Victor & Simon / Joana Luz, courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation

shifting the encounter from distant viewing to bodily experience | image by Victor & Simon / Joana Luz, courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation

seasonal shifts continuously recompose the work | image by Victor & Simon / Joana Luz, courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation

colors shift under changing skies | image by Schaub Stierli, courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation Fotografie

proposing the Alps as a landscape where artistic experimentation unfolds over time | image by Schaub Stierli, courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation Fotografie

the site offers a fitting context for a work that resists instant legibility

the placement of the sculpture near Lake Silvaplana embeds it directly within the Alpine ecosystem

project info:

name: STRIP TOWER (962)

artist: Gerhard Richter

location: Via d’Lej, 7514 Sils Maria, Engadin, Switzerland

dates: January 27th, 2026 – Spring 2029

presented by: Luma Foundation | @luma_arles as part of Elevation 1049 | @elevation1049

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Each summer, Arles becomes a vibrant center for contemporary art, photography, architecture, and design. Exhibitions, performances, installations, and talks unfold throughout the city — in museums, industrial spaces, public areas, and private venues.

In this guide, designboom rounds up some of the most interesting things to see and do in Arles during summer 2025. From major exhibitions at the Rencontres d’Arles photography festival and LUMA Arles, to pop-up dinners by We Are Ona, architectural projects, and artist-led events, we offer a diverse cross-section of the city’s cultural happenings. Read on to explore a selection of highlights.

image by Lucas Miguel via Unsplash

RECONTRES D’ARLES

A cornerstone of the global photography calendar, the Rencontres d’Arles has, since 1970, transformed the French city into an open-air museum for contemporary image-making. Now in its 56th edition, the festival returns from July to September 2025 with a bold and politically charged program titled Disobedient Images. As nationalism, nihilism, and ecological instability grip much of the world, this year’s exhibitions — from Australia to Brazil, North America to the Caribbean — offer an urgent and poetic resistance. With a focus on cultural diversity, gender perspectives, and postcolonial narratives, the 2025 edition turns photography into a tool of commitment, defiance, and renewal.

Tony Albert (Kuku Yalanji), David Charles Collins and Kieran Lawson. Warakurna Superheroes #1, Warakurna Superheroes series, 2017. courtesy of the artists / Sullivan+Strumpf

ON COUNTRY: PHOTOGRAPHY FROM AUSTRALIA

Bringing together Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, this exhibition explores what it means to be ‘on Country’, a profound relationship with land, identity, and ancestry. Featuring leading voices like Tony Albert, Atong Atem, and Michael Cook, the show reclaims photography as a medium of truth-telling and cultural continuity in the face of colonial disruption.

where: Église Sainte-Anne 
when: July 7th – October 5th, 2025

Adam Ferguson. Dwayne John, off-siding a commercial kangaroo shooter, Adnyamathanha Country, Plumbago Station, South Australia, Big Sky series, 2023. courtesy of the artist

ANCESTRAL FUTURES: BRAZILIAN CONTEMPORARY SCENE

Rooted in the vision of a future shaped by ancestral knowledge, this group show features rising Brazilian artists like Denilson Baniwa, Ventura Profana, and Paulo Nazareth, who remix archives, challenge stereotypes, and confront systemic violence through collage, AI, and performance-based photography.

where: Église des Trinitaires
when: July 7th – August 31st, 2025

Mayara Ferrão. The Wedding, from Unforgetting Album, 2024. courtesy of the artist

BRANDON GERCARA: MAGMA IN THE OCÉAN

Hailing from La Réunion, Brandon Gercara fuses drag, volcanic symbolism, and visual performance to create a new cosmology for Kwir* identities. Their deeply political, emotionally charged works erupt with intersectional energy, transforming personal and collective trauma into artistic resistance and joy.

where: Maison des Peintres
when: July 7th – October 5th, 2025

Brandon Gercara. Behind-the-scenes photograph, 2022. © Guillaume Haurice. courtesy of the artist

CAROLINE MONNET: ECHOES FROM A NEAR FUTURE

In striking portraits of First Nations women, Caroline Monnet subverts colonial and patriarchal gazes, presenting Indigenous femininity as powerful, self-defined, and future-facing. With poise and directness, her subjects reclaim agency and visibility—offering not just critique, but a vision of collective empowerment.

where: La Mécanique Générale
when: July 7th – October 5th, 2025

Caroline Monnet. Echoes from a Near Future, 2022. courtesy of the artist

BMW ART MAKERS: Traversée du fragment manquant

To mark 15 years of partnership with Les Rencontres d’Arles, BMW presents Traversée du fragment manquant by artist Raphaëlle Peria and curator Fanny Robin, winners of the 2025 BMW ART MAKERS programme.

Through layered photographs and engravings, the duo revisits personal memories and the endangered trees of the Canal du Midi, exploring absence, landscape, and time. This poetic, tactile work exemplifies BMW’s long-term support for contemporary creation and emerging voices in visual art.

where: Cloître Saint-Trophime
when: July 7th – October 5th, 2025

image courtesy of BMW ART MAKERS

NAN GOLDIN – Stendhal Syndrome

Winner of the 2025 Kering | Women In Motion Award, Nan Goldin presents Stendhal Syndrome — a powerful slideshow merging portraits of her friends and lovers with classical art images taken over two decades.

Structured around Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the piece blends mythological narrative, Goldin’s voiceover, and music by Soundwalk Collective and Mica Levi. It culminates in a reflection on beauty, identity, and emotional overwhelm — a modern retelling of Stendhal’s famous collapse in the face of art.

where: Église Saint-Blaise
when: July 7th – October 5th 2025

Nan Goldin. Young Love, 2024. courtesy of the artist / Gagosian

CONSTRUCTION | DECONSTRUCTION | RECONSTRUCTION 

This landmark exhibition traces the pioneering vision of the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (FCCB), São Paulo’s avant-garde photography collective that redefined modernist imagery in Brazil. Spanning photograms, montages, and experimental processes, the works reflect a Brazil in transformation — socially, culturally, and visually. Featuring 33 photographers, including Geraldo de Barros, Gertrudes Altschul, Thomaz Farkas, and José Oiticica Filho, alongside Neo-Concrete figures like Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, and Hélio Oiticica, the show explores how photography shaped, questioned, and reconstructed Brazilian modernity. Curated by Helouise Costa and Marcella Legrand Marer, the exhibition reframes the underrecognized legacy of the Escola Paulista and its role in global photographic discourse.

where: La Mécanique Générale
when: 7 July – 5 October 2025

Ademar Manarini. Untitled, 1950. courtesy of Heitor and Vera Lúcia Manarini

GEORGES ROUSSE – UTOPIA

Georges Rousse transforms the Abbaye de La Celle with Utopia, a dual presentation of two site-specific installations and a retrospective. Engaging with the sacred architecture of the 13th-century Romanesque site, Rousse deconstructs space through illusion, color, and geometry—most notably with his signature circle and a striking use of yellow and black, nodding to Malevich’s Black Square. The exhibition also traces Rousse’s artistic journey since the 1980s, revealing a lifelong dialogue between photography, painting, and built space. This encounter between contemporary vision and historic monument offers a transcendent, timeless experience of place and perception.

where: Abbaye de La Celle
when: July 7th – October 5th 2025

Georges Rousse. Project for La Celle 1, 2025. courtesy of the artist

FUJIFILM RETURNS TO ARLES WITH FUJIKINA

Fujifilm returns to Arles from 8 to 12 July 2025 with the second edition of FUJIKINA, now part of the official Rencontres d’Arles program. Hosted at the former École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie, the event brings together exhibitions, talks, workshops, portfolio reviews, photo walks, and product demonstrations. This year’s theme, Time as a Developer, is explored through A World in Color, a collaboration with Magnum Photos. The exhibition presents never-before-seen archive images alongside new work by Gregory Halpern. FUJIKINA will also highlight emerging talents in a special series of exhibitions on view during opening week. Invited guests include Raymond Depardon, Laura Bonnefous, Mathias Zwick, Magali Delporte, and others.

where: 16 Rue des Arènes
when: July 8th – July 12th, 2025 

image courtesy of Fujifilm

Arles Books Fair 2025

At the invitation of the Rencontres d’Arles, France PhotoBook presents the fourth edition of Arles Books Fair, celebrating the diversity and vitality of contemporary photobook publishing. Hosted at the École nationale supérieure de la photographie and the Collège Saint-Charles, the fair brings together over eighty international publishers, along with a program of talks and encounters with photographers and authors. France PhotoBook, supported by the French Ministry of Culture, unites key independent photography publishers in France, working to champion creative publishing and the photobook as a genre in its own right.

where: Collège Saint-Charles & ENSP
when: July 8th – 12th, 2025 

image courtesy of Rencontres d’Arles

LUMA Arles

Launched in 2013 by Maja Hoffmann as part of the LUMA Foundation, LUMA Arles is an interdisciplinary creative campus located in the Parc des Ateliers, a former railway site in Arles, France. Conceived as both a space for production and public engagement, it brings together artists, researchers, scientists, and cultural thinkers to explore urgent topics at the intersection of art, environment, human rights, and knowledge. Spanning 27 acres, the site combines seven restored 19th-century industrial buildings—renovated by Selldorf Architects—with The Tower, a striking structure designed by Frank Gehry that anchors the campus. The surrounding park and landscaped gardens, designed by Bas Smets, serve as a public space for art, biodiversity, and leisure. Visitors encounter installations, sculptures, and a living ecology that reflects the region’s natural rhythms. 

This year, LUMA Arles presents a rich array of exhibitions, from David Armstrong’s intimate portraits to Peter Fischli’s first solo show in France, alongside works by Koo Jeong A, Wael Shawky, Ho Tzu Nyen, and Bas Smets, offering bold perspectives on art, landscape, and contemporary life.

image courtesy of LUMA Arles

David Armstrong

Fifteen years after his first Arles showing curated by Nan Goldin, David Armstrong returns with a powerful tribute at LUMA Arles. A key figure of the Boston School, Armstrong’s intimate portraits captured a generation with raw honesty and quiet grace — friends, lovers, outsiders, and dreamers, framed with tenderness and clarity. Paired with his soft-focus landscapes, taken at the height of the AIDS crisis, the exhibition reflects a melancholic beauty and a fleeting sense of time. A celebration of attitude, vulnerability, and an enduring photographic legacy.

where: The Tower – Underground, Level -3
when: from July 5th, 2025

David Armstrong, 2025, The Tower, Underground Level -3, LUMA Arles, France. courtesy of the Estate of David Armstrong © Victor & Simon / Grégoire d’Ablon

Peter Fischli – People Planet Profit

In his first solo exhibition in France, Peter Fischli presents People Planet Profit, a multifaceted exploration of images, objects, and infrastructures shaped by late capitalism. Through sculpture, installation, video, and sound, Fischli probes the entanglement of meaning, labor, and value in a world saturated by digital and material flows. Set in the former Forges of the Parc des Ateliers, the show reflects on the evolution from industrial production to the image-driven economies of today.

where: Parc des Ateliers – Les Forges
when: July 5th, 2025 – January 11th, 2026

Peter Fischli, People Planet Profit, 2025, Les Forges, LUMA Arles, France © Victor & Simon / Grégoire d’Ablon

KOO JEONG A : LAND OF OUSSS ❲KANGSE❳

In her largest exhibition in France to date, LAND OF OUSSS [KANGSE], KOO JEONG A presents a luminous and multisensory universe that merges art, science, and the metaphysical. Through scent, light, sculpture, and phosphorescent paintings, the exhibition invites viewers into the elusive world of OUSSS, a term coined by the artist that suggests a shifting realm between presence and imagination. Installed across two levels of The Tower, the show resonates with Frank Gehry’s architecture and the landscapes of Arles, crafting a deeply poetic and immersive experience.

where: The Tower – Levels 1 & 2
when: from July 5th, 2025

KOO JEONG A, GITD, 5 August 2022 20:22 © KOO JEONG A

Wael Shawky – I Am Hymns of the New Temples

Wael Shawky transforms La Grande Halle into a vast, immersive environment that reimagines the mythic and historical. Centered on the ancient city of Pompeii, the exhibition blends sculpture, sound, and movement to explore the origins of belief and the human need for meaning. Drawing from Greek creation myths and layered with contemporary narratives, I Am Hymns of the New Temples is a powerful meditation on memory, transformation, and the echoes of civilizations past.

where: La Grande Halle
when: from July 5th, 2025

Wael Shawky, I Am Hymns of the New Temples, 2025, La Grande Halle, LUMA Arles, France. Victor & Simon / Victor Picon

Ho Tzu Nyen – Phantom Day and Stranger Tales

Ho Tzu Nyen is known for his immersive multimedia works that blend myth, history, and speculation. Phantom Day and Stranger Tales features five major installations from the past decade, including a new AI-generated piece, Phantoms of Endless Day, commissioned by LUMA Arles. Rooted in Southeast Asian histories and cultural narratives, the exhibition explores how stories are shaped and reshaped—through language, image, and technology. Merging film, animation, sound, and algorithmic editing, Ho crafts an intricate, hallucinatory world where past, present, and future continuously fold into one another.

where: The Tower
when: from July 5th, 2025

Ho Tzu Nyen, Phantom Day and Stranger Tales, 2025 – 2026, La Mécanique Générale, LUMA Arles, France. Victor & Simon / Grégoire d’Ablon

Bas Smets – Climates of Landscape

Renowned for his climate-responsive designs, Bas Smets reimagines cities as evolving ecological systems. Climates of Landscape, his first exhibition at LUMA Arles, presents an ambitious vision for urban resilience through landscape architecture. Featuring major projects in Paris, Antwerp, and Arles, the exhibition reveals how Smets’ work harnesses microclimates and vegetation to respond to the challenges of a changing environment. With the Parc des Ateliers as a central case study, the show explores how the careful design of public space can transform cities into living, adaptive ecosystems.

where: Le Magasin Électrique
when: July 5th – November 2nd, 2025

Bas Smets, Climates of Landscape, 2025, Le Magasin Électrique, Bloc A, LUMA Arles, Parc des Ateliers, France. © Victor & Simon / Grégoire d’Ablon

Sigmar Polke at Fondation Vincent Van Gogh

Fondation Vincent Van Gogh presents a major retrospective that celebrates the radical vision of Sigmar Polke (1941–2010), one of the most inventive and influential artists of the postwar period. Spanning six decades, the exhibition brings together a wide selection of paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, and films, revealing Polke’s relentless experimentation and sharp-eyed critique of culture, politics, and the image. Opening with two rarely shown Van Gogh works, Peasant and Peasant Woman Planting Potatoes and Basket of Potatoes (1885), the exhibition reflects Polke’s interest in the intersections between high and low, past and present. Curated by Bice Curiger, assisted by Margaux Bonopera, the exhibition underscores Polke’s playful irreverence, his embrace of alchemical processes, and his subversion of artistic norms.

A parallel program of talks accompanies the exhibition, including Sigmar Polke and Photography, a two-part conversation series with figures such as Bice Curiger, François Halard, Christoph Wiesner, and Diane Dufour, exploring the lesser-known but groundbreaking photographic dimension of Polke’s practice.

where: Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles. 35 ter, rue du Docteur-Fanton
when: until October 26th, 2025

image courtesy of Fondation Vincent Van Gogh

Michelangelo Pistoletto & Lee Ufan in Dialogue at Lee Ufan Arles

This summer, Lee Ufan Arles hosts a dialogue between two major figures of contemporary art: Michelangelo Pistoletto and Lee Ufan. Born just three years apart, and associated respectively with Arte Povera and Mono-ha, the artists come together for the first time in this joint exhibition. Pistoletto presents a selection of historical and recent works in the Espace MA, alongside subtle interventions within Lee Ufan’s permanent installations. Despite distinct aesthetics, the exhibition reveals shared concerns — viewer presence, simplicity, space, and the infinite—offering a rare and resonant conversation across cultures and time.

where: Lee Ufan Arles, 5 Rue Vernon
when: June 25th – October 5th, 2025

image courtesy of Lee Ufan Arles

The First Exhibition of the Museum of Fashion and Costume

After five years of restoration, the Museum of Fashion and Costume opens in Arles with Collections-Collection, its inaugural exhibition. Set in the 14th-century Hôtel Bouchaud de Bussy — meticulously restored by Studio KO and architect Nathalie d’Artigues — the museum showcases two major Provençal collections: those of the Costa family and historians Odile and Magali Pascal.

The exhibition traces the region’s costume and textile history from the 18th century to today, featuring emblematic Arlésien garments and key historical pieces. It also includes a permanent artwork by photographer Charles Fréger: a luminous series of backlit portraits exploring collective identity through the iconic figure of the Arlésienne. Blending historical heritage with contemporary vision, the museum becomes a new cultural anchor in Arles.

where: Hôtel Bouchaud de Bussy
when: July 6th – January 4th, 2025

image courtesy of the Museum of Fashion and Costume

WE ARE ONA × Dalad Kambhu at La Villa Bank

WE ARE ONA and Luca Pronzato launch a new dinner series in Arles at La Villa Bank, featuring acclaimed guest cheffe Dalad Kambhu, known for her bold and refined cuisine. Each evening, a single table is set for a unique experience, designed by India Mahdavi, with custom furniture made specially for the occasion.

where: La Villa Bank
when: July 6th – 11th, 2025

image courtesy of WE ARE ONA

Villa Benkemoun

Just outside the city of Arles in France, one can find the iconic Villa Benkemoun, designed by Le Corbusier disciple Emile Sala. Built in 1974, the residence features fluid forms and dynamic spaces, originally crafted for Simone and Pierre Benkemoun, a couple who dreamt of living in a house that was transparent and open. Today, the residence still holds its importance as an architectural icon. Today, while no longer a private residence, it remains a significant architectural landmark, now repurposed as an exhibition venue that hosts various public events. The villa is open for visits throughout the summer of 2025. 

image by Eliott Le Nan

opening in summer 2026: Fondation Bustamante

French artist Jean-Marc Bustamante plans on opening the Fondation Bustamante in July 2026, transforming the 12th-century Sainte-Croix Church in Arles into a new cultural space. Designed by architect Charles Zana, the foundation is expected to host exhibitions, artist residencies, and public programs across three floors, with a café, bookstore, and library on the ground level. The foundation is set to preserve Bustamante’s archives, support artists through a dynamic exhibition program, and offer year-round masterclasses and talks. 

image © Hervé Hôte

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At LUMA Arles, a pivotal chapter in the history of postwar art and innovation takes center stage in Sensing the Future: Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.). This landmark exhibition, the first in France to explore the legacy of E.A.T. in depth, is presented in collaboration with the Getty Research Institute and traces the history of a movement that brought together hundreds of key avant-garde artists and the engineers who ushered in the information age. Founded in 1966 by artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman alongside Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer, engineers at Bell Telephone Laboratories – then the world’s leading center for electronic innovation and telecommunications research – E.A.T. emerged as a radical platform that reimagined the possibilities of creative practice through direct collaboration between artists and technologists.

On view through January 11, 2026, the exhibition surveys a transformative period in which the barriers between disciplines – between art and science, experimentation and activism – were actively dismantled. Through a wealth of archival documents, film footage, case studies, and rarely exhibited works by figures such as John Cage, Fujiko Nakaya, Andy Warhol, and Rauschenberg himself, Sensing the Future traces the movement’s arc from the heady optimism of the late 1960s through its more decentralized but no less ambitious projects of the 1970s.‘The mid-60s to mid-70s period were by all accounts the most fervent years of E.A.T.,’ Simon Castets, Director of Strategic Initiatives at LUMA, tells designboom. ‘The stars were truly aligned, not only in terms of funding, but also of mutual fascination between the then impermeable realms of art and science.’ The 1973 oil crisis signaled a shift: public funding dried up, and technology itself became more accessible, prompting many participants to pursue independent trajectories. Even so, Billy Klüver –together with his partner Julie Martin – remained devoted to stewarding E.A.T.’s legacy, preserving an archive that would later prove indispensable to understanding the entwined histories of art and technology. By revisiting the trajectory of the movement, Sensing the Future offers more than historical reflection. It reveals how the questions posed by E.A.T. – about interdisciplinary exchange, innovation, and the future as a shared project – remain not only relevant, but urgent.

Sensing the Future: Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), LUMA Arles | artwork: Facsimiles refabricated by The Andy Warhol Museum – mylar filled with helium (front) | Larry Keating, The Artist and the computer, 1976 – video (back) | all images © Victor&Simon – Victor Picon, © ADAGP, Paris, 2025, unless stated otherwise | header image: E.A.T.’s Pepsi Pavilion at Expo ’70, Osaka, Japan, 1970, March 18 | photograph by Shunk-Kender | Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, gift of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in Memory of Harry Shunk and Janos Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust

LUMA ARLES UNPACKS THE HISTORY OF E.A.T. IN LANDMARK EXHIBITION

Sensing the Future takes over the Living Archives Gallery of the LUMA Arles Tower, unpacking the landmark moments that defined E.A.T.’s short but influential lifespan. The exhibition begins with a deep dive into the group’s beginnings in the mid-1960s, tracing how a visionary alliance between artists and engineers gave rise to one of the most ambitious interdisciplinary initiatives of the 20th century. Artworks and documentation outline E.A.T.’s establishment in 1966 through the 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering event in New York, where ten artists, among them John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman, teamed up with dozens of Bell Labs engineers to stage multimedia performances that employed infrared cameras, wireless sound transmission, and video projection – technologies then still foreign to the art world.

From that unlikely synergy grew an ethos of experimentation, grounded in collaboration, access, and action. Among E.A.T.’s most ambitious undertakings was the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan. Artists Robert Whitman, Robert Breer, David Tudor, and Forrest (Frosty) Myers made early contributions to the design of the pavilion, while eventually the design team grew to twenty artists and fifty engineers and scientists. Conceived as a gesamtkunstwerk, or total artwork, the pavilion featured a geodesic dome clad in a mirror-finished surface, an internal sound-responsive light system, and a water-vapor cloud sculpture by Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya. Her contribution, an enveloping cloud of artificial mist that obscured and transformed the pavilion’s form, ushered a new vocabulary of ephemeral, site-specific art that blurred perception and challenged the dominance of the visual in technological environments. More than half a century later, Nakaya’s legacy continues to reverberate across contemporary practice. Alongside Sensing the Future, another of her works, Fog Sculpture #07563, is on view as part of LUMA’s concurrent exhibition, Streaming from Our Eyes (evolving title, formerly Dance with Daemons).

view of the section dedicated to the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka with materials by Harris Shunk, Janós Kender, Fujiko Nakaya

THE RADICAL MOVEMENT’S ENDURING LEGACY

Whether through the immersive fog-drenched environments of the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka or civic initiatives addressing environmental design and urban communication, E.A.T. continually pushed the boundaries of what art could do, and whom it could serve. A pivotal section of the exhibition is dedicated to Projects Outside Art, a bold strand of E.A.T.’s activities that extended the group’s collaborative ethos beyond the traditional confines of the art world. First presented as an exhibition in New York in 1971, Projects Outside Art marked a shift toward socially engaged, systems-oriented experimentation. ‘Projects Outside Art ushered in a series of exploratory initiatives across the world in partnership with governmental agencies and universities, aimed at broadening the scope and impact of E.A.T.’s mission, as well as its international reach,’ notes Simon Castets. ‘With, for example, research into the educational potential of television in India, El Salvador and Guatemala, E.A.T.’s ambition reflected a deep belief in advanced technologies as a means to advance social aims. While more often than not the projects remained unrealized, their methodology and ethos of cross-disciplinary collaboration have had an undeniable impact on our way of thinking today’s infrastructures of innovation.’

In an age increasingly defined by technological acceleration and its discontents, the utopian idealism at the heart of E.A.T. feels at once remote and urgently necessary. As Simon Castets observes, ‘today, innovation is much more frequently framed as a threat, often rightfully so. Yet, the legacy of E.A.T.’s collaborative spirit could help bring out technology’s positive potential across fields.’  Much like the early 20th-century Futurists envisioned the artist as a vital force within industrial society, E.A.T. imagined new roles for artists across domains as varied as education, public policy, and environmental research. Reengaging with that vision today invites us to reconsider the artist’s capacity not only to reflect society, but to reshape it, through dialogue, through experimentation, and through the conviction that creativity and criticality belong at the core of every system we build.

performance inside the Pepsi-Cola Pavilion, 1970 | photograph by Shunk-Kender | archival inkjet print from negative, Getty Research Institute, 2014.R.20. | gift of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in memory of Harry Shunk and János Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust

LUMA’S LONG-TERM INTEREST IN artist-led use of technologies

Sensing the Future originated as part of the 2024 edition of PST ART: Art & Science Collide, a region-wide initiative presented by the J. Paul Getty Trust across Southern California, comprising over 60 exhibitions and public programs exploring the intersections of artistic and scientific inquiry. Organized by the Getty Research Institute (GRI) – a global leader in visual culture research and home to one of the world’s most extensive art libraries – the exhibition brought renewed scholarly and curatorial focus to E.A.T.’s interdisciplinary legacy. In adapting the show for its European debut at LUMA Arles, the curatorial team embraced both continuity and expansion. ‘E.A.T. is much better known in the U.S. than in France,’ notes Simon Castets. ‘Therefore, in the additional time we had, it behooved us to build upon the extraordinary research done by the Getty Research Institute and include additional works and archival elements. The core structure of the exhibition remains the same, yet, together with Getty, the work continued and we were able to also feature key artworks by other essential figures of that history, including Marta Minujín, Wen-Ying Tsai, Andy Warhol, Lilian Schwartz, and Hans Haacke, alongside dozens of archival documents.’

As the first exhibition in France devoted exclusively to E.A.T., Sensing the Future reflects LUMA Arles’ long-term research interest in the artist-led use of technologies. ‘LUMA’s longstanding commitment to artist-led, innovation-driven initiatives resonates with E.A.T.’s pioneering collaborations between artists and engineers,’ Castets explains. ‘Both share a belief in the generative power of process over product, valuing experimentation as a catalyst for new ways of thinking.’ This alignment lends the exhibition not only historical significance but also a pressing contemporary urgency. At a time when the role of the artist is increasingly intertwined with disciplines ranging from environmental research to artificial intelligence, Sensing the Future underscores how fertile such crossovers can be, particularly when grounded in mutual respect, curiosity, and the open-ended nature of experimentation itself.

interior of the Mirror Dome at the Pepsi-Cola Pavilion, 1970, Photograph by Fujiko Nakaya |  Gelatin-silver print Getty Research Institute, 940003 | Art © Fujiko Nakaya, courtesy Experiments in Art and Technology. © J. Paul Getty Trust

Pepsi-Cola Pavilion, 1970, photograph by Shunk-Kender | archival inkjet print from negative, Getty Research Institute, 2014.R.20 | gift of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in memory of Harry Shunk and Janos Kender | Floats © Robert Breer/Kate Flax/gb agency, Paris | Fog © Fujiko Nakaya, courtesy Experiments in Art and Technology | light Towers © Forrest Myers.© J. Paul Getty Trust

Floats, 1970, Robert Breer, photograph by Shunk-Kender | archival inkjet print from negative, Getty Research Institute, 2014.R.20. | gift of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in memory of Harry Shunk and János Kender | Floats © Robert Breer/Kate Flax/gb agency, Paris. © J. Paul Getty Trust

Fog Sculpture, Pepsi Pavillion, Japan World Exposition 1970, Fujiko Nakaya, Getty Research Institute, © J. Paul Getty Trust

performance inside the Pepsi-Cola Pavilion, 1970 | photograph by Shunk-Kender | archival inkjet print from negative, Getty Research Institute, 2014.R.20. | gift of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in memory of Harry Shunk and János Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust

Fujiko Nakaya at the construction of the Pepsi-Cola Pavillon, photographed by Billy Klüver, © Julie Martin

Marta Minujín, Minuphone, 1967 | Marta Minujín, Greetings from Marta Minujín, 1967 – Postcard from 1969 with the Minuphone | Marta Minujín, Marta Minujín’s Art Works, 1966-1969 – Video | © Victor&Simon – Grégoire D’Ablon

Greetings from Marta Minujín, Postcard from 1969 with the Minuphone (1967), © Marta Minujín

Marta Minujín, Minuphone, 1967 © Victor&Simon – Grégoire D’Ablon

Variations VII, 1966, John Cage | photograph by Peter Moore |. Gelatin-silver print. Getty Research Institute, 940003 © Northwestern University. © J. Paul Getty Trust

Fakir in 3⁄4 Time, 1968, Lucy Jackson Young and Niels O. Young | photograph by Shunk-Kender | Gelatin-silver print, Getty Research Institute, 2014.R.20. | Gift of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in memory of Harry Shunk and Janos Kender | Art courtesy Thomas Young © J. Paul Getty Trust

section dedicated to the movement’s beginning’s | Harris Shunk, Janós Kender, Tom Gormley,Anders Österlin, Robert Whitman, E.A.T.

Harris Shunk, Janós Kender, E.A.T, Robert Rauschenberg, Harold Hodges

Robert Rauschenberg, Harold Hodges, Dry Cell, 1963 | Silkscreen ink and oil on Plexiglas, metal coat hanger, wire, string, sound transmitter, circuit board, and battery-powered motor on metal folding camp stool

project info:

exhibition name: Sensing the Future: Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.)
participating artists: Robert Breer, John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Ivan Dryer, Jean Dupuy, Öyvind Fahlström, Hans Haacke, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Marta Minujín, Peter Moore, Forrest Myers, Fujiko Nakaya, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, Lillian Schwartz, Harry Shunk & János Kender, Wen-Ying Tsai, David Tudor, Andy Warhol, Robert Whitman, and others
location: LUMA Arles, France | The Tower, Living Archives Gallery, Level -2 | @luma_arles
dates: May 1st, 2025 to January 11th, 2026

organizer: LUMA Arles in partnership with the Getty Research Institute | @gettymuseum
LUMA Arles team: Simon Castets, Director of Strategic Initiatives; Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Artistic Director; Fabian Gröning, Project Manager for Strategic Initiatives; Martin Guinard, Curator

Getty Research Institute team: Nancy Perloff, Curator, Megan Mastroianni and Andrew Park, Research Assistants, Alex Jones, Curatorial Assistant, Daniela Ruano Orantes, Curatorial Project Assistance

The post LUMA arles revisits E.A.T., the radical 1960s movement that fused art and technology appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Earlier this summer, the opening of the Living Landscape exhibition at LUMA Arles revealed Murmuring Minds – a new performative and interactive installation by DRIFT. On view until September 29th, 2024, the artwork explores the intricate patterns governing movement and process. Within a designated space, sixty autonomously-moving rectangular blocks act as a swarm executing specific behaviors. ‘We developed the interactive dynamics into four types that we have observed in both nature and human society: The Leader, The Hunter, The Vortex, The Machine. The installation is an experiment and a question. On how we generate choices, what our decisions are, and how these affect larger structures. How do we define leadership and control in a contemporary context’ shares the studio. 

Murmuring Minds by DRIFT | image © Finn Bech

witnessing human-machine interaction at luma arles

During the performance, the audience witnesses participants engaging with their positions and roles amid the blocks. DRIFT seeks to instill awareness that each situation necessitates a distinct approach. Each movement and each decision have a visible effect on the composition and reaction of the blocks. Sometimes collectively, or at other times individually, the blocks coexist in a landscape of events negotiated by the human-machine interaction. As argued by the studio, the nature of decision-making processes, what we consider natural and what we see as artificial are complexified in the performative installation. The computational code that allows movement becomes part of the relationship and the interface. In Murmuring Minds, participants and technology enact beyond the conventional idea of passive contemplation, creating an environment that extends the boundaries between observation and participation.

image © Finn Bech

recreating a swarm behavior

Drawing inspiration from swarming behaviors observed in different species and using the intelligence of birds, fish, and bees as a starting point, Murmuring Minds at LUMA campus creates a space of sociability, study, and play. Within this immersive setting, participants grasp the significance of their actions and responses to the environment as a fundamental survival mechanism and as part of a system. Different choices can create chaos, while certain movements or actions can elicit synchronized responses from the blocks. ‘An element of surprise, excitement and anticipation is prevalent in an installation where the fusion of technology and human interaction form the crux of the experience,’ concludes DRIFT. 

image: video still, Murmuring Minds – DRIFT at LUMA, Arles | courtesy the studio

image: video still, Murmuring Minds – DRIFT at LUMA, Arles | courtesy the studio

image: video still, Murmuring Minds – DRIFT at LUMA, Arles | courtesy the studio

image: video still, Murmuring Minds – DRIFT at LUMA, Arles | courtesy the studio

image: video still, Murmuring Minds – DRIFT at LUMA, Arles | courtesy the studio

project info:

name: Murmuring Minds

artist: DRIFT | @studio.drift

location: LUMA Arles, France | @luma_arles

on view until: September 29, 2024

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The first European retrospective exhibition of American feminist artist Judy Chicago is now on view at LUMA Arles in southern France. Titled Herstory, the show unfolds as an expanded version of the New Museum’s 2023 exhibition, and now presents the most comprehensive display of the artist’s work in Europe to date. Covering over 60 years of Chicago’s career, the exhibition features pieces from her early experiments to her latest iconic works, highlighting her unique feminist approach. ‘Many of Judy’s efforts are focused on softening reality or giving it a female touch,’ says Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Director of Exhibitions and Programs at LUMA Arles in a preview attended by designboom. ‘She has consistently opened up spaces that were closed off to female artists. She is fearless and dedicated to her ideas. This is what makes Judy remarkable.’

The exhibition features a revival of Chicago’s early emblematic Feather Room as its centerpiece, while for the opening, the artist unveiled An Homage to Arles, her first Smoke Sculpture in Europe. The ephemeral artwork enveloped the Frank Gehry-designed tower of LUMA Arles in colorful smoke and fireworks (see more here).

Judy Chicago, Arles Lilies,2024. metal, color | image © Adagp, Paris, 2024 © Victor & Simon – Renata Pires

Judy Chicago: Herstory traces the iconic artist’s 60-year career

Judy Chicago, born in 1939 in Chicago, Illinois, is a pioneering figure in Feminist art from the 1970s, a movement that aimed to portray women’s lives, emphasize their roles as artists, and change how contemporary art was made and perceived. The renowned American artist studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and UCLA, shaping her unique style and feminist perspective. Throughout her 60-year career, she has used painting, sculpture, and performance art to explore themes like female identity, power, and social justice. Her work has been crucial in challenging the male-dominated art scene and inspiring generations of artists and activists. Perhaps her most famous is The Dinner Party, a large triangular table installation celebrating women’s history and achievements. Spanning around 14.5 meters (48 feet) on each side, it features place settings dedicated to notable women throughout history, with an additional 999 names inscribed on its base. Figures honored include the Primordial Goddess, Ishtar, Hatshepsut, Artemisia Gentileschi, and others. This installation has been praised as a feminist symbol while also drawing criticism for its controversial elements, such as female genital-shaped plates. Other notable art projects by Chicago include International Honor Quilt, Birth Project, Powerplay, and The Holocaust Project. 

The exhibition Judy Chicago: Herstory at LUMA Arles showcases Chicago’s diverse contributions across various media: painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, textiles, photography, stained glass, needlework, and printmaking. It traces her evolution from early Minimalism in the 1960s to groundbreaking Feminist Art in the 1970s and later series like the aforementioned Birth Project, and PowerPlay, as well as Resolutions: A Stitch in Time, and The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction. These works expand her feminist agenda to address issues such as environmental destruction, genocide, social inequality, and mortality, demonstrating Chicago’s enduring impact across different art movements despite historical erasure.

Judy Chicago’s Smoke Sculpture enveloped the Frank Gehry-designed tower in colorful smoke | image © designboom

an ethereal feather room at LUMA Arles

The reinstallation of Judy Chicago’s Feather Room is the exhibition’s highlight, transforming the space into an ethereal environment filled with feathers, as its name implies. This soft and airy room evokes a sense of lightness and timelessness, offering a critical counterpoint to the traditional use of hard materials in male-dominated sculpture and architecture. Feather Room introduces a fluid, organic aesthetic that contrasts with the rigid, angular shapes of the minimalist sculptures Chicago had previously explored. Instead of sharp angles and orderly planes, the architectural lines are softened and blurred, creating an expansive effect accentuated by diffuse lighting. The installation’s immersive scale is significant, profoundly impacting visitors who find themselves enveloped in a cocoon of light and feathers.

the exhibition features a revival of Chicago’s early emblematic Feather Room | image © designboom

Also on view is the Birth Project, a collection of images for which Judy Chicago collaborated with over 150 needleworkers. These pieces merge painting and needlework to explore different facets of the birth process, from the painful to the mythical. While working on the Birth Project, Judy Chicago undertook PowerPlay, a series of works examining the gender construct of masculinity. In both modest and monumental drawings, paintings, weavings, cast paper pieces, and bronzes, she casts a critical eye at the negative ways in which men have exercised power and some of the consequences for both them and the world. Writing in Judy Chicago: An American Vision (the first monograph to appear on the artist), British art historian Edward Lucie-Smith states: ‘PowerPlay, begun in 1982, is an enterprise that overlapped with the Birth Project, but that could hardly be more different. In fact, almost the only thing the two series of images have in common is that they are both confrontational and deal with issues that have usually not made much of an appearance in Western art.’

The exhibition also includes Autobiography of a Year, a series of drawings developed in the 90s, when Judy Chicago went through a challenging personal period in her life. ‘She often describes moments of despair, disappointment, dissatisfaction, but also of happiness and joy,’ says Vassilis Oikonomopoulos. In the works, Hues of red, blue, yellow, and green blend together to compose dynamic forms. ‘Color plays a very big role in Judy’s practice, shaping the way she sees the world. But also, colors unify the way the world inside her grows, making it softer, more feminized, and transformative.’

The exhibition at LUMA Arles is on view until September 29th, 2024. The show coincides with the artist’s largest solo presentation in a London institution, on view at Serpentine North until September 1st, 2024 — find more here.

the Feather Room | image © designboom

Portrait of Judy Chicago, 2024 |image © Adagp, Paris, 2024 © Victor&Simon – Joana Luz

Portrait of Judy Chicago, 2024 | image © Adagp, Paris, 2024 © Victor&Simon – Joana Luz

Portrait of Judy Chicago, 2024 |image © Adagp, Paris, 2024 © Victor&Simon – Joana Luz

Judy Chicago, Autobiography of a Year, 1993-1994. mixed media on paper, 140 drawings | image © Adagp, Paris, 2024 © Victor&Simon – Joana Luz

Judy Chicago, Herstory, 2024, Le Magasin Électrique, Parc des Ateliers, LUMA Arles, France | image © Adagp, Paris, 2024 © Victor&Simon – Joana Luz

Judy Chicago, Flesh Fan, Sky Flesh, Evening Fan, 1971 sprayed acrylic lacquer on acrylic sheet | image © Adagp, Paris, 2024 © Victor&Simon – Joana Luz

Judy Chicago, Herstory, 2024, Le Magasin Électrique, Parc des Ateliers, LUMA Arles, France | image © Adagp, Paris, 2024 © Victor & Simon – Renata Pires

Judy Chicago, Pasadena Lifesavers Red Series #2 et Pasadena Lifesavers Yellow Series #2, 1969–1970. sprayed acrylic lacquer on acrylic sheet | image © Adagp, Paris, 2024 © Victor & Simon – Renata Pires

Judy Chicago, Birth Trinity, from the Birth Project, 1983. needlepoint on canvas. needlework by Susan Bloomenstein, Elizabeth Colten, Karen Fogel, Helene Hirmes, Bernice Levitt, Linda Rothenberg, and Miriam Vogelman. 51 x 130 in. The Gusford Collection | image © Adagp, Paris, 2024 © Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York photo © Donald Woodman/ARS, New York

Judy Chicago, What if Women ruled the World?, 2020 | image © designboom

Judy Chicago, What if Women ruled the World?, 2020. embroidery | image © Adagp, Paris, 2024 © Victor & Simon – Renata Pires

Judy Chicago, What if Women ruled the World?, 2020. embroidery | image © Adagp, Paris, 2024 © Victor & Simon – Renata Pires

project info: 

name: Judy Chicago: Herstory
artist: Judy Chicago | @judy.chicago
curator: Vassilis Oikonomopoulos
location: LUMA Arles | @luma_arles in Arles, France 
dates: June 30th – September 29th, 2024
organized in collaboration with: New Museum | @newmuseum

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Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhône has returned to Arles, the city where the artist made his famous painting, almost 136 years since it was created in September 1888. For the first time, the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles brings it home to its birth city, loaning it from the collection of the Musée d’Orsay, for the exhibition ‘Van Gogh and the Stars,’ conceived by Jean de Loisy and Bice Curiger. The show, which runs  between June 1st and September 8th, 2024, features 165 artworks by over 78 artists, including Anish Kapoor, Mariko Mori, Anselm Kiefer, Victor Hugo, Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana, and more.

Their works shed light on the artistic influences that the Dutch painter drew on to paint it and the impression it has generated and left among the artists after him. Starry Night Over the Rhône’s homecoming coincides with two celebrations that began in April 2014. On April 4th, the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles was inaugurated. The following day, April 5th, the foundation stone for the main building of LUMA Arles was laid, the tower designed by architect Frank Gehry. Vincent van Gogh was the heart of both projects, and to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their founding, the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles and LUMA Arles joined forces.

This collaboration includes a public art program centered around one of Vincent van Gogh’s masterpieces. LUMA Arles even tapped the Dutch artist DRIFT for a drone performance above the museum, tracing the movement in Vincent van Gogh’s paintings using algorithms. The lit drones in the night sky also marked the opening of the exhibition Living Landscape at LUMA Arles, an extension to the group show and exhibition at the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, ‘Van Gogh and the Stars’ where the Dutch painter’s Starry Night masterpiece has returned.

View of the Fondation courtyard and shop, with the rooftop installation The Violet Blue Green Yellow Orange Red House by Raphael Hefti, 2014 | images courtesy © Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles and Fluor Architecture (unless stated), photos by François Deladerrière

‘Van Gogh and the Stars’ exhibition with 165 artworks

At the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, the exhibition Van Gogh and the Stars presents Starry Night Over the Rhône alongside the artworks of both contemporary and revered artists such as Anish Kapoor, Mariko Mori, Anselm Kiefer, Victor Hugo, Yves Klein, and Lucio Fontana, to name a few. Their works highlight astronomy, the cosmos and the vast universe, often putting forward the influences, techniques, phenomena, and belief, social, and scientific climates that persisted the 19th century in terms of literature and science.

Take Anselm Kiefer’s The Secret Life of Plants (2004), where a white vortex is spiraling around a black void and a golden stem with golden withering tiny leaves is placed in the center. It is the sibling of his sculptural book of the same name, where the pages made of lead are dotted with specks of white paint in an attempt to paint the spectrum and ancient concept of the universe. Anish Kapoor’s Untitled (Sans titre), 2014, makes an appearance too, a see-through glass-like box that seems to mimic the supernova in a series of consecutive small acrylic explosions. Flecks of their remnants begin to spread out, halted and frozen right in the center of the glass case.

Just like Vincent van Gogh, these artists explore the night, the universe, the stars, the constellations, the cosmos, and beyond in their own ways, with their own flair, their signature styles circling back to the Dutch painter’s own well of influences. The literary works by Victor Hugo and Jules Verne on astronomy grace the exhibition, and painters such as Jean-François Millet, Camille Corot, and James McNeill Whistler’s artworks showcased their understanding of the effects of the night, the clear light of the stars, and knowledge of the cosmos.

Vincent Van Gogh, The Starry Night, Arles, 1888 Oil on canvas, 73 × 92 cm | donation subject to usufruct Mr and Mrs Robert Kahn-Sriber, in memory of Mr and Mrs Fernand Moch, 1975 | image © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

Vincent van Gogh imagined the stars as ‘the refuge of the dead’

The writings of astronomer Camille Flammarion, which back in the day sold in hundreds of thousands of copies, are on display, make their way into the exhibition, defining the time that led up to the creation of Vincent van Gogh’s night scenes. Visitors can also see that some of the contemporary artworks underline the hypotheses roaming around about science fiction and metaphysics, as well as related discoveries that magazines covered in the past. 

Then, artists, intellectuals, and writers after Vincent van Gogh were gifted resources to expand the alleyways towards understanding and learning more about his nocturnal works, and Van Gogh and the Stars expound some of the research that fascinated the public during this time, including the work of great scientific illustrators such as Étienne Léopold Trouvelot and Lord Ross’s drawings of spiral galaxies, which resemble those of the Dutch painter’s works.

In a letter to his brother Theo in July 1888, Vincent van Gogh imagined the stars as ‘the refuge of the dead’, a stark observation from his examination of the stars. Night after night, he studied them by the precise arrangement of the constellations in his paintings, backed by his beliefs, which also appeared in para-scientific literature from the mid-nineteenth century. The way he saw the stars also influenced his contemporaries, such as Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Odilon Redon, James Ensor, Wenzel Hablik, and Constantin Ciurlionis.

The Starry Night, Arles, 1888 Oil on canvas, 73 × 92 cm | donation subject to usufruct Mr and Mrs Robert Kahn-Sri – ber, in memory of Mr and Mrs Fernand Moch, 1975, image courtesy of Musée d’Orsay, Paris | on the left: Wenzel Hablik, Sternenhimmel (Ciel étoilé) / (Starry sky), 1909 Huile sur toile / oil on canvas, 200 × 200 cm, image courtesy of Wenzel Hablik Museum, Itzehoe | to the right : František Kupka, The First Step (Le Premier pas), vers 1910-1913 / ca. 1910-1913 Huile sur toile / oil on canvas, 83,2 × 129,6 cm, image courtesy of Fonds Hillman Periodicals Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York

In contemporary art, the fascination with the night continues, taking on different forms, as seen in the works by Tony Cragg, Alicja Kwade, Anselm Kiefer, Mariko Mori, Gillian Brett, Alfred Smith, Dove Allouche, Yves Klein, Lee Bontecou. Despite its stillness and seeming emptiness, the night sky reveals color and movement, thanks to urban lighting. The resulting glow and reflections illuminate the famous view of the Rhône, bringing it into plain sight, evident now in Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles’ exhibition ‘Van Gogh and The Stars’ and the Starry Night painting.

The influence of this nocturnal scene has graced the works of Edvard Munch, Augusto Giacometti, Robert Delaunay, František Kupka, Kasimir Malevitch, Georgia O’Keeffe, Helen Frankenthaler and other major figures who are featured in the exhibition.  Other artists who are part of Van Gogh and the Stars journey to the stars, once again explored with the return of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhône to Arles, to the banks of the river that inspired it. From June 1st to August 25th, 2024, Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting remains in Arles for public viewing, while the Van Gogh and the Stars exhibition runs between June 1st and September 8th, 2024.

exhibition view of Van Gogh and the Stars, in Arles

Kasimir Cosmic Magnetic Construction , 1916 Oil on canvas, 104 × 59.5 cm, private collection | to the left : Alicja Kwade Superheavy Skies, 2022 Mirror polished stainless steel, stones, motor, 259.7 × 198.3 × 283.9 cm, image courtesy of the artist and Mennour, Paris

view of the exhibition, with the works by (from left to rigth): Mariko Mori, Meret Oppenheim | Mariko Mori, Miracle (I-VIII) , 2001 Eight Cibachrome prints, dichroic glass, salt, and crystals, 69.2 cm diameter each | Meret Oppenheim, New Stars , 1977–1982 Oil on canvas, 205 × 248 cm, image courtesy of Kunstmuseum Berne

view of the exhibition, with the works by (from left to right): Mariko Mori, Meret Oppenheim | Mariko Mori, Miracle (I-VIII) , 2001 Eight Cibachrome prints, dichroic glass, salt, and crystals, 69.2 cm diameter each | Meret Oppenheim, New Stars , 1977–1982 Oil on canvas, 205 × 248 cm, image courtesy of Kunstmuseum Berne

from left to right: Dove Allouche, Sunflowers_11 , 2016, pure silver and tin base on unexposed Cibachrome paper mounted on alumi – nium, 180 × 126 cm | Dove Allouche Sunflowers_39 , 2017-2018, pure silver and tin base on unexposed Cibachrome paper mounted on aluminium, 180 × 126 cm | Dove Allouche 6 million kelvin flaring regions N°5, 2016, graphite, ink on paper and hand-blown glass, 85 × 65 cm | Dove Allouche 6 million kelvin flaring regions N°6, 2016, graphite, ink on paper and hand-blown glass, 85 × 65 cm | images courtesy of the artist and Peter Freeman, Inc. New York / Paris

image © designboom | Anish Kapoor, Untitled (Sans titre), 2014, acrylic, courtesy of Anish Kapoor and Mennour, Paris

image © designboom | Anselm Kiefer, For Renata, The Secret Life of Plants, 2001, plants and graphite on bound photographic prints, private collection

image © designboom | Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale (Concept spatial / Spatial Concept), 1965, water-based paint and holes on canvas, courtesy of Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan

image © designboom | Alicja Kwade, Superheavy Skies (Cieux extrêmement lourds), 2022, mirror polished stainless steel, stones and motor, courtesy of Alicja Kwade and Mennour, Paris

Camille Corot, L’Étoile du Berger (Evening star, morning star), 1864 Oil on canvas, 130 × 163 cm Musée des Augustins, Toulouse | image courtesy of Mairie de Toulouse, Musée des Augustins | photo by Daniel Martin

project info:

artist: Vincent van Gogh

exhibition Name: Van Gogh and The Stars

museum: Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles

location: 35 terrue du Docteur-Fanton, 13200 Arles

dates: June 1st and September 8th, 2024

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DRIFT presents Living Landscape, an exhibition of two immersive and interactive artworks, at LUMA Arles. To mark the opening of the exhibition, the contemporary artist duo staged a drone performance above the museum’s Frank Gehry-designed tower, tracing the movement in Van Gogh’s paintings using their swarming algorithm against the night sky. Titled Electric Sky, the performance is conceived as an extension to the recently-opened group show at the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, Van Gogh and the Stars, which celebrates the return of the Dutch artist’s Starry Night painting to Arles for the first time in 136 years. 

Living Landscape brings together two installations, Murmuring Minds and Coded Nature, that explore swarming behavior to reveal the visible and invisible aspects of nature around us. ‘Our interest in forming patterns and our fascination with the sacrifice of our freedom to live inside the social structure—that’s basically what it’s all about,’ Ralph Nauta, co-founder and artist of DRIFT, tells designboom during the opening. ‘Also, our position within these forms, how we react to them, and what they mean to us.’ 

Murmuring Minds installation | image © Finn Bech

‘murmuring minds’ explore swarming behavior at LUMA arles

The two DRIFT installations at LUMA Arles explore relationality and movement. These themes were also central to Van Gogh’s artistic experiments and are vividly depicted in his paintings. The Dutch artist duo aims to reveal nature’s structures and patterns, offering audiences an interactive experience. DRIFT’s exhibition also serves as an extension to Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles show, Van Gogh and the Stars. This dual commission by LUMA Arles highlights the transformative nature of Van Gogh’s work and how he paved new artistic paths for future generations.

One of the two works presented at the French museum, Murmuring Minds, is a new interactive performance installation that examines the intricate patterns governing natural movements and processes. Within a designated space, 60 autonomously moving rectangular blocks act as a swarm, reacting to participants’ interactions. The piece blurs the line between the natural and artificial, emphasizing the complex nature of decision-making. The computational code driving the blocks’ movement becomes an integral part of the interaction, creating an environment that transcends passive observation and encourages active participation.

‘There are swarming patterns where you’re forced to create a certain movement, or they follow you around. So you’re hunting them, or they’re following you. It’s more like an experiment about how you feel within this structure. I mean, we are all in it every day all of our lives but this is just a way to show it more directly,’ Ralph Nauta tells designboom. The choice of blocks symbolizes the restricted mindset of today’s humanity. ‘We should stop living in square houses. It creates boundaries already.’

within a designated space, 60 autonomously moving rectangular blocks act as a swarm | image © Finn Bech

coded nature and the illusion of freedom

Also on view is Coded Nature, an interactive installation featuring real-time digital starling swarm software projected on a large screen. The work explores the relationship between humans, nature, and technology. An autonomously flying swarm responds to audience movements, symbolizing the continuous flow of creation and change in nature. The piece illustrates how humans navigate societal rules and conventions, challenging the concept of freedom. It suggests that complete individual freedom leads to chaos, highlighting the balance between individuality and societal alignment.

‘We’re looking at these forms, we think we’re looking at a very free natural movement, but it’s all been done by rules. There’s no freedom at all,’ Nauta shares with designboom.‘It’s the same for us in our society. We forget that. We think we’re living free, but in the meantime, we’re wearing clothes, we have all these social constructs, and we have to say the right thing. Everything is rules, rules, rules, rules. It’s an illusion of freedom.’ 

generative projection artwork Coded Nature | image © Finn Bech

Alongside DRIFT’s Living Landscape, LUMA Arles also celebrated the opening of A Lot Of People by Thai contemporary artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, Practical Effects by American artist Diana Thater, and the Van Gogh and the Stars exhibition. Presented by Fondation Van Gogh, the exhibition highlights the arrival of Starry Night to Arles and sheds new light on both the sources the artist drew on to create it and its enormous influence to contemporary artists. 

the piece features real-time digital starling swarm software projected on a large screen | image © Finn Bech

an autonomously flying swarm responds to audience movements | image © designboom

Coded Nature explores the relationship between humans, nature, and technology | image © designboom

in Murmuring Minds, the choice of blocks symbolizes the restricted mindset of today’s humanity | image © designboom

the piece blurs the line between the natural and artificial | image © designboom

image courtesy of DRIFT

project info: 

exhibition name: Living Landscape

performance name: Electric Sky
artist: DRIFT | @studio.drift
location: LUMA Arles | @luma_arles

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images © adrian deweerdt

the frank gehry-designed LUMA arles features several artist commissions across its twelve levels. the museum’s opening exhibition will show major international artists, including etel adnan, ólafur elíasson, koo jeong a, kapwani kiwanga, helen marten, pierre huyghe, carsten höller, philippe parreno and rirkrit tiravanija among others. meanwhile, the surrounding campus is home to seven former railway factories, four of which have been renovated by selldorf architects as exhibition and performance spaces. the surrounding gardens and public park are designed by landscape architect bas smets.

frank gehry notes the stiking form of his LUMA arles tower, and comments on its influence: ‘we wanted to evoke the local, from van gogh’s ‘starry night’ to the soaring rock clusters you find in the region. its central drum echoes the plan of the roman amphitheatre.’

project info:

project title: LUMA arles

location: arles, france

design team: frank gehry, selldorf architects, bas smets

client: LUMA foundation

executive architecture team: studios architecture, C + D

landscape architecture: bas smets, bureau bas smets

project management: MYAMO

technical consultants: setec, terrel, tess, BMF, socotec, transsolar, lamoureux, teraro, C&C, casso

completion:june 26th, 2021

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LUMA tower by frank gehry, january 2021
 | image © adrian deweerdt

LUMA arles is the brainchild of maja hoffmann, who established the LUMA foundation in 2004 as a philanthropic organization. dedicated to providing artists with opportunities to experiment in the production of new work, the foundation focuses on the direct relationships between art, culture, environmental issues, human rights, education, and research. ‘there is one driving-metaphor for LUMA at the parc des ateliers: that of a living organism,’ hoffmann says. ‘as such the balance between form and function determines its viability. it is about composing a polyphonic score where everything is ordered, yet where everything is possible.’

LUMA tower by frank gehry, january 2021
 | image © adrian deweerdt

the city of arles became a UNESCO world heritage site in 1981, incorporating its roman and romanesque legacy which includes the monumental arles amphitheater, the alyscamps, and the antique theater. finished with 11,000 stainless steel panels, the 15,000 square meter tower has been designed to reflect this rich history. ‘we wanted to evoke the local, from van gogh’s ‘starry night’ to the soaring rock clusters you find in the region,’ gehry explains. ‘its central drum echoes the plan of the roman amphitheater.’

aerial view of LUMA arles, september 2020
 | image © hervé hôte

from 2008 to 2020, the development of the campus has been led by maja hoffmann working with a small dedicated team, and the collective input from a core group of advisers including beatrix ruf, hans ulrich obrist, and philippe parreno. LUMA has already commissioned and presented the work of more than 100 artists and innovators at sites in arles, including the ancient roman amphitheater and the LUMA arles campus. subject to the latest government guidelines in connection with COVID-19, LUMA arles will open on june 26, 2021. see designboom’s previous coverage of the project here.

aerial view of LUMA arles, june 2019
 | image © dronimages

project info:

name: LUMA arles
location: arles, france
design team: frank gehry, selldorf architects, bas smets
client: LUMA foundation
status: set to open june 26, 2021 (COVID-19 precautions permitting)

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images © vincent hecht

swiss collector maja hoffmann — founder and president of the LUMA foundation — leads the frank gehry-designed LUMA arles. the tower will showcase some of the art world’s biggest names. while the monumental project occupies a former rail depot, it connects two former rail structures which had been recently converted into exhibition facilities by new york city-based firm selldorf architects.

the LUMA tower will host a variety of such programming as research facilities, workshops, seminar rooms, and artist studios. surrounding the project will be a public park to be designed by landscape architect bas smets. click here for designboom’s previous coverage of the project, and see more photography by vincent hecht on our dedicated tag page.

project info:

project title: LUMA arles

architecture: gehry partners LPP, selldorf architects

landscape architecture: bas smets

client: LUMA foundation

location: parc des ateliers, 45 chemin des minimes, 13200 arles, france

photography: © vincent hecht

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