The new art center Fondation Bustamante opens in Arles
The artist Jean-Marc Bustamante announced that his foundation will open in Arles in the summer of 2026, in the eastern part of the La Roquette neighbourhood. It will be housed in the Church of Sainte-Croix, a former medieval parish church rebuilt in the 18th century, which has been completely transformed for the occasion by architect and designer Charles Zana into a vast exhibition space spread over three floors.
A photographer, painter and sculptor, born in 1952 in Toulouse, who represented France at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, Jean-Marc Bustamante was the former artistic director of the Printemps de Septembre festival in Toulouse and, more controversially, of the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris (where he remained from 2015 to 2018). A member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts since 2016, and soon to be the subject of a retrospective of his work at the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz, the artist has conceived this venue as ‘a bold, innovative and independent cultural centre’.
Its aims are to unearth overlooked talent and showcase contemporary art in all its forms – video, photography, installation, painting, sculpture and music – through an ambitious programme of exhibitions, as well as to launch a series of masterclasses, to be led by Jean-Marc Bustamante, complemented by lectures and symposia. Not to mention its role in preserving the artist’s legacy, aimed at safeguarding and making accessible the artist’s archives.
The Foundation further enriches Arles’ cultural landscape, which is already buzzing with activity during the summer months. Renowned for its love of photography and the major festival it has dedicated to the art form every summer since 1970 – the famous Rencontres d’Arles – the city inaugurated the Van Gogh Foundation in 2014, followed in 2021 by the LUMA Foundation’s 11-hectare creative campus, with its tower designed by Frank Gehry visible from afar, and, in the same year, by the Foundation of the Korean artist Lee Ufan, housed within the Hôtel Vernon and refurbished by his friend Tadao Ando.
(Translated from French)
