Unruly images, defiant words, identities resisting anthropocentrism and capitalist systems… activism lies at the heart of this summer’s 2025 exhibitions.
With Nan Goldin as the guest of honour at the 56th edition of the Rencontres d'Arles, and the Arabic language spotlighted at the 79th Avignon Festival against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, it was to be expected that the programmes of these two major cultural events in southern France this July would resonate with current affairs and the demands of a world grappling with turmoil and violence. Meanwhile in Nice, following the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC 3), the city has transformed its Arts Biennial into the Biennial of Arts and the Ocean, with many exhibitions echoing urgent ecological concerns.
Whether denouncing human barbarity or celebrating the fragility of existence, whether invoking detachment and poetry or standing as a call to conscience, art emerges both as a form of resistance and a bearer of hope.
Unruly Images
From Australia to Brazil, via North America and the Caribbean, the world is being shaken by the rise of nationalism, the spread of nihilism and escalating environmental crises. These tensions are mirrored in the photographic perspectives presented at the 56th edition of the Rencontres d’Arles — vital counterpoints to dominant narratives, celebrating cultural, gender and ethnic diversity.
1/11 Rencontres de la photographie - Arles
Les rencontres de la photographie →
26 venues, some of which have been opened for the occasion, have been uniquely designed to host 46 photography exhibitions. With guided tours of the exhibitions, workshops for young people, photography workshops…
Glamour, Consumerism and Excess
In a group exhibition at Mécènes du Sud, cut-up — the experimental technique of writing and collage — becomes a metaphor, evoking acts of resistance, mechanisms of seduction, expressions of protest, and strategies for survival.
2/11 Mécènes du Sud Montpellier-Sète - Montpellier
Monopolis →
Curator Lou Ferrand borrows several tropes from the contemporary neoliberal city. She opposes contradictions: glamour and excess, consumption and protest, news and poetry. The guest artists, from different artistic disciplines and generations, all experiment with writing and collage to question the cut-up as metaphor, amid resistance, seduction, protest and survival strategies.
Redressing an Imbalance
"I became increasingly aware of how women artists have been consistently underrepresented and undervalued — not only in museum collections, but also in academia and the art market," explains collector Christian Levett, who closed his Museum of Classical Art in Mougins to found FAMM, the first museum in Europe with a permanent collection dedicated exclusively to women artists.
3/11 FAMM - Mougins
FAMM : The collection →
FAMM’s temporary exhibitions programme will begin after the summer. In the meantime, visitors are invited to explore a curated selection from the museum’s permanent collection, spanning key artistic movements from Impressionism to contemporary art. Nearly 100 works from the Levett Collection are on display, all created by female artists from around the world. Among them, Berthe Morisot, Joan Mitchell, Lee Krasner, Alice Neel, Marina Abramović, Frida Kahlo, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas.
Becoming Birds
Unless the struggle for freedom lies in the renunciation of vain earthly attachments, as suggested by the Hoopoe in The Conference of the Birds, the mystical poem by the Persian poet ‘Attâr, who urges his fellow birds to embark on a journey far from this lower world.
4/11 Châteauvert - Châteauvert
Et l’ombre disparaîtra dans le soleil, Katia Kameli →
Katia Kameli's solo exhibition Et l'ombre disparaîtra dans le soleil brings together a range of existing works as well as new productions specially created for the Centre d'art. Inspired by the Cantique des Oiseaux, a tale by the Persian poet Farid od-din Attar, this research has been augmented by new pieces for each of its different iterations in France and abroad.
Committed
At the Villa Datris Foundation, 64 women artists have boldly taken flight in an exhibition with an unequivocal title: ENGAGÉES makes no attempt at subtlety, serving as a direct reminder of the ongoing fight for equality and the urgent need to safeguard the rights won by and for women.
5/11 Fondation Villa Datris - L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
ENGAGÉES →
Longtemps marginalisées, les femmes artistes n'ont gagné en visibilité qu'avec les luttes féministes des années 1960, ouvrant la voie à la reconnaissance de leur art et de leurs revendications. En 2025, la Fondation Villa Datris présente ENGAGÉES, réunissant 64 artistes internationales. À travers des œuvres questionnant les grands enjeux contemporains, elles rappellent la persistance des combats pour l'égalité et la nécessité de préserver les droits acquis.
Rewriting the Story
Drawing on the rich heterogeneity of Southeast Asian cultures, storyteller, artist and filmmaker Ho Tzu Nyen blurs the boundaries between reality, precolonial myths, colonial history and contemporary geopolitical dynamics in five immersive multimedia installations at La Mécanique Générale (Luma Arles).
6/11 LUMA Arles - Arles
Phantom Day and Stranger Tales, Ho Tzu Nyen →
Venue: La Mécanique Générale
Phantom Day and Stranger Tales features five immersive multimedia installations spanning two decades, alongside a new commission, Phantoms of Endless Day that draws from an unfinished film—now resequenced, re-constructed, and narrated through Artifi cial Intelligence processes—to raise the spectre of the last days of the Second World War in his homeland, with Japanese and British soldiers and Communist Guerrilas trapped in the jungle with mystical creatures, including a Shamanesque weretiger
Out of the Shadows
Inspired by jazz, funk and fashion, African-American photographer Kwame Brathwaite embraces both the heritage of the African continent and the aspirations of the African-American community.
7/11 Centre de la photographie - Mougins
Black is beautiful, Kwame Brathwaite →
The work of New York photographer Kwame Brathwaite is being celebrated at the Centre de la Photographie de Mougins. A pioneering figure behind the Black is Beautiful movement in the 1950s and 60s, he dedicated his career to showcasing Black beauty in all its power and diversity. Drawing on a wide range of influences — from the ideas of Marcus Garvey, an early advocate of Pan-Africanism, to the rhythms of jazz, funk and blues — he captured iconic figures such as Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali and Bob Marley. This first European retrospective offers a powerful insight into a career that was committed, brilliant and remarkably prolific.
Lowers as Weapons
In the reimagined world of photographers Fatimah Hossaini and Oriane Zerah, on view at the Jean-Honoré Fragonard Museum in Grasse, Afghan men offer flowers to women freed from the burqa and lay down their weapons, embodying a vision of Afghanistan far removed from conflict and suffering.
8/11 Musée Jean-Honoré Fragonard - Grasse
Unveiled Women and Men in Bloom: Another Face of Afghanistan →
This exhibition, featuring photographs by Fatimah Hossaini and Oriane Zerah, presents a utopian world where Afghan men offer flowers to women freed from the burqa. In this dream world, men abandon their weapons and women sing and dance, embodying a resilient and reimagined Afghanistan, far removed from suffering.
Committing to the Ocean
More than 20 artists exhibited at the Villa Arson embark on a collective exploration of the major challenges facing the Ocean, through critical and documentary approaches as well as more sensory, poetic, or speculative expressions.
9/11 Villa Arson - Nice
Becoming ocean : a social conversation about the ocean →
As part of the Nice Biennial of Arts and the Ocean, the exhibition explores the main challenges facing the Ocean through critical and documentary approaches as well as more sensory, poetic, or speculative expressions. It brings together more than 20 international artists, including Max Hooper Schneider, Antoine Bertin, Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Laure Winants and Armin Linke.
Symbols of Resistance
In Toulon, the MAT brings together pioneers of the street art movement — Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and above all Banksy — while a poetic and fantastical exhibition by Makiko Furuichi calls for resistance against planned obsolescence.
10/11 MAT - Toulon
Bansky avant/après, une (r)évolution →
Street art is one of the most dynamic and influential phenomena in contemporary art. The exhibition offers a broad overview of its trends, styles and techniques. The French scene is represented by historic figures (Miss.Tic, Gérard Zlotykamien), and current artists (JR, Invader...). Special focus is given to Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and especially Banksy, a pivotal figure in achieving global recognition.
In parallel, in the graphic arts studio, the MAT showcases its exceptional collection of works by Ernest Pignon-Ernest. His pioneering work, iconised and reused by generations of artists, epitomises the development of urban art.
11/11 Le Port des Créateurs - Toulon
Un vent d'avance, Makiko Furuichi →
Venue: Galerie du Canon TPM
Makiko Furuichi questions the links between tradition and modernity, consumerism and resilience. The Yōkai, ancient supernatural figures, become symbols of resistance to programmed obsolescence, reminding us that every object can rebel against oblivion.