This gentleman harasses us; we’re a blot on his postcard,” explains Rose, his neighbor.

I was born into the industry (Hollywood), and thus, free not to love it.

“Movies are an authoritarian medium. They vulnerabilize you, and then dominate you,” reasoned the writer David Foster Wallace.

You find yourself sitting in front of the screen for a couple of hours, in the hands of a director, who may or may not be trusted.

These latent sentiments reasserted themselves as I browsed press accounts of the daily upheavals of a couple in the Luberon, who were cast in roles they refused to play. The narrative threatened their means of subsistence. 

The mis-en-scène: Oppede, a peaceful village on the northern slope of the Petit Luberon bordering Ménerbes. In 2004, the couple, Rose and Christophe, purchased a one-hectare plot of land that Rose could use for organic poultry farming to augment the family income for their children.

The metteur-en-scène of the drama: Ridley Scott, their neighbor, a wealthy mega producer and master director, who acquired a former military hospital in the early 1990s. Mr. Scott owns a vineyard that bottles his wine under the label Mas des Infermières. The house grounds and the vineyard are manicured, magnificently. 

At the end of 2009 and in 2010, a wave of lively press reports profiled the drama. Here are passages from three sources, the links of which can be found at the end of this article.

Press Clips

Le Dauphine – 1/21/2010

In Oppède, in the Vaucluse, Ridley Scott can’t stand Rose’s chickens. The illustrious director of “Gladiator” crosses swords with poultry, multiplies complaints and procedures. But justice, until now, has not ruled in his favor…”This gentleman is harassing us, we’re a blot on his postcard”, she explains (Rose), listing the worries that overwhelm her. It all started with a scathing letter from the “British,” sent by special carrier: “I love the Luberon. What you are doing is disfiguring it. You do not respect the beauty of these places.”

La Provence: 11/21/2009

Scott – who lives two weeks a year in the Vaucluse – brings in a battery of bailiffs and straw men to observe and demand the dismantling of what he considers to be blemishes in his landscape: greenhouses, gates, trenches, shrub hedges, sheds, moveable buildings. Even the children’s playhouse made of pallets and a shed on the neighbor’s land are listed!

Le Journal de Dimanche (JDD): 12/20/2009:

A new emissary a few months later: Julie Payne, a second-tier American actress, accompanied by a translator. “Mr. Scott,” she explains, “finds that the trees you planted to screen the greenhouses are not growing fast enough.” The filmmaker offers to finance a 4 m hedge. Rose blurts out: “Such a shadow over our greenhouses would be the death of our gardens!” The actress returned with another demand: “And a check for 70,000 euros to settle you elsewhere?” Seated in their little house, where we slalom between buckets filled with fresh eggs, the Orset couple still have not digested this humiliation. “I work sixteen hours a day,” says Rose. “I’ve already loaded two cars, and I’m so tired by the end of my rounds when I go to the Amaps [Associations for the Maintenance of Rural Agriculture].”

Le Dauphine – 1/21/2010

Her husband, Christophe – a design teacher in Avignon – confirms: “Mr. Scott considers himself a lord and treats us like his commoners. He never deigned to meet us. We could have discussed among civilized people, especially since my wife speaks English well… The truth is that he covets our plot to install a wine cellar.”

The director, in contrast to the subtleties of local life, puts up a procedural frenzy. “He’s the type to sue the mistral because the wind bothers him,” sneer some local residents.

La Provence: 11/21/2009

One thrust to contest a building permit, another to complain about the cackling of chickens (sic): Scott is on his 6th court summons in five years. He lost three; the 3 others were judged yesterday for the construction of a hangar, and two building permits, never issued. “He watches us every time we move a finger. We live through hell,” says Christophe Orset, who has lived in the village for more than 30 years.

Six procedures are being carried out against the town hall at a cost of 2,600 euros each. Result of the trial before the administrative court of Nîmes, as of December 12, again dismissed, and (Scott) ordered to pay a total of 4,000 euros to the municipality of Oppède for legal costs!

Le Journal de Dimanche (JDD): 12/20/2009:

“He was really looking for any stupid thing,” comments a neighbor. This is the time when the village gradually takes Rose’s side. Until then, when at the market, if she said that a billionaire was trying to trouble her, she was considered “a mythomaniac”. Everyone thought that Scott was suffering from a classic “Parisian syndrome”: “After two or three summers, the owners of second homes band together to block the slightest project that might disrupt the postcard they have gifted themselves with,” quipped an elderly Oppédois.

DENOUEMENT

The years passed, and more years, without any reporting on the situation in Oppède.

In the summer of 2022, during a long stay in Provence, I tried to contact Christophe to get some news. We missed meeting. Instead, we exchanged emails.

Suddenly, in 2018, after Christophe and Rose had endured 14 years of legal proceedings, Ridley Scott calmed down given a tragedy that beset them 12 years earlier.

Furthermore, at that time, the situation was becoming untenable for them, especially with the agricultural authorities, City Hall…etc., and, I might add an ontological fatique.

A cordial understanding coalesced among parties, as if by magic. Following a financial agreement with Ridley Scott in 2018, Rose and Christophe’s family settled in nearby Bonnieux.

Christophe reports that in Bonnieux, they have found a “haven of peace” where they completely changed their lives. One good year after another.

In short, an agonizing drama that gashed the couple with misery for 14 years had arrived at a Happy Ending. Only in Hollywood!

Luxury Chalet in Provence Hosted by Rose and Christophe

Chalet: Classy standalone, located outside of Bonniuex. Modern decor, smartly decorated. 1 br., 1 bath. Can sleep more than 2. Contemporary kitchen and bath. TV. Internet. AC. Peaceful.

Please use website contact to request info. Merci.

*A Good Year

*A Good Year is a 2006 film directed and produced by Ridley Scott, adapted from a book by his friend Peter Maybe written expressively for the film. Genres: Romance . Comedy. Drama.

The film is a clone of what the erudite writer Michael Jacobs dubbed the “Good Life Abroad Book,” a subspecies of the travel genre wherein expats, armed with marginal language skills and a slightly condescending tone, fructify fantasies of a Mediterranean lifestyle rarely realized by others. The film performed poorly at the box office, and it underwhelmed critics.

Sources

La Provence: Publié le 21/11/2009:  https://bit.ly/3YVgSec

Le Journal de Dimanche (JDD): Publié le 20/12/2009: https://bit.ly/3PeXeH2

Le Dauphine: Publié  le 21 / 01/ 2010: https://bit.ly/3sA7MaF

##

“Ce monsieur nous harcèle, on fait tache dans sa carte postale,” explique une voisine Rose.

Je suis né dans l’industrie à Hollywood. Du coup, je suis libre de ne pas l’aimer.

« Le cinéma est un média autoritaire. Ils vous vulnérabilisent puis vous dominent. » raisonnait l’écrivain David Foster Wallace. 

Vous vous retrouvez assis devant l’écran, entre les mains d’un réalisateur en qui vous pouvez avoir confiance ou dont vous pouvez vous méfier pour quelque raison que ce soit.

Ces sentiments latents se sont réveillés à la lecture des récits de presse sur les bouleversements de la vie familiale d’un couple. Une situation qui les rendait vulnérables à la perte de leurs moyens de subsistance. Le pire: sans sortie.

La mise en scène: Oppede, un village paisible posé au pied du versant nord du Petit Luberon à côté de Ménerbes. C’est ici que le couple, Rose et Christophe, en 2004 ont acheté un terrain d’un hectare pour que Rose puisse l’utiliser en agriculture biologique en augmentant leurs revenus pour élever leurs enfants.

Le metteur-en-scène de ce drame: leur voisin, le richissime cinéaste Ridley Scott, méga producteur et maître réalisateur dont le film Napoléon s’ouvre en novembre provoque des chuchotements bruyants dans les couloirs de la gloire des Oscars.

En fin 2009 et en 2010, une grosse vague de reportages a arrosé la curiosité des lecteurs. Voici quelques extraits de reportages issus de trois sources dont les liens se trouvent à la fin de cet article.

Les Coupures de Presse

Le Dauphine libéré – 21 / 01/ 2010

À Oppède, dans le Vaucluse, Ridley Scott ne supporte pas les poules de Rose. L’illustre réalisateur de “Gladiator” croise le fer avec la volaillère, multiplie les plaintes et les procédures. Mais la justice, jusqu’à présent, ne lui a pas donné raison…”Ce monsieur nous harcèle, on fait tache dans sa carte postale”, explique-t-elle (Rose), en énumérant les tracas qui l’accablent. Tout commence par une lettre cinglante du “British”, arrivée par porteur spécial : “J’aime le Luberon, ce que vous faites le défigure. Vous ne respectez pas la beauté de ces lieux”.

La Provence – 21/11/2009

Scott – qui réside quinze jours par an dans le Vaucluse – fait intervenir une batterie d’huissiers et d’hommes de paille pour constater et exiger le démontage de ce qu’il considère comme des verrues dans son paysage : serres, portail, tranchées, haie d’arbustes, cabanons, bâtiments mobiles… Même la cabane des enfants en palettes et un cabanon sur le terrain du voisin sont répertoriés!

Le Journal de Dimanche (JDD) – 20/12/2009

Nouvel émissaire quelques mois plus tard: Julie Payne, une actrice américaine de seconde zone, accompagnée d’une traductrice. “M. Scott, expose-t-elle, trouve que les arbres que vous avez plantés pour occulter les serres ne poussent pas assez vite.” Le cinéaste propose de financer une haie de 4 m. Rose éructe: “Une telle ombre sur nos serres, c’était la mort de nos maraîchages!” L’actrice est revenue à la charge: “Et un chèque de 70.000 euros pour vous installer ailleurs?” Attablés dans leur petite maison, où l’on slalome entre des seaux remplis d’oeufs frais, les époux Orset n’ont toujours pas digéré cette humiliation. “Je travaille seize heures par jour, raconte Rose. J’ai déjà plié deux voitures tellement je suis fatiguée à la fin de mes tournées quand je vais livrer les Amap [Associations pour le maintien d’une agriculture paysanne] de la région.

Le Dauphine libéré – 21 / 01/ 2010

Son mari, Christophe – professeur de dessin à Avignon – confirme : “M. Scott se prend pour un seigneur et nous traite comme ses manants. Jamais il n’a daigné nous rencontrer, on aurait pu discuter entre gens civilisés, d’autant que ma femme parle bien l’anglais… La vérité, c’est qu’il convoite notre parcelle pour y installer un chai viticole.”

Le réalisateur, aux subtilités de la vie locale, oppose une frénésie procédurale. “C’est le genre à poursuivre le mistral en justice parce que le vent le dérange”, ricanent quelques riverains.

La Provence – 21/11/2009

Un coup pour contester un permis de construire, un autre pour se plaindre du caquètement des poules (sic) : Scott en est à sa 6e assignation au tribunal en cinq ans. Il en a perdu trois; les 3 autres étaient jugées hier pour la construction d’un hangar, et deux permis de construire, jamais délivrés. “Il nous surveille à chaque fois qu’on bouge le petit doigt. On vit un enfer“, lâche Christophe Orset, qui habite le village depuis plus de 30 ans.

Note de bas de page: Six procédures sont menées contre la mairie pour un coût de 2 600 euros chacune. Résultat du procès devant le tribunal administratif de Nîmes, au 12 décembre dernier, 2009, de nouveau débouté et (Scott) condamné à verser un total de 4 000 euros à la commune d’Oppède au titre des frais de justice”!

JDD – 20/12/2009

“Il cherchait vraiment la petite bête“, commente un voisin. C’est l’époque où le village prend peu à peu le parti de Rose. Jusque-là, quand, au marché, elle disait qu’un milliardaire lui cherchait des noises, elle passait pour “une grosse mythomane“. Tout le monde pensait que Scott souffrait d’un classique “syndrome du Parisien”: “Après deux ou trois étés, les propriétaires de résidences secondaires se liguent pour bloquer le moindre projet qui risquerait de perturber la carte postale qu’ils se sont offerte“, foi de vieil Oppédois.

Denouement

Voilà, les années ont passé, et encore des années sans aucun reportage sur la situation à Oppède.

À l’été 2022, lors d’un long séjour en Provence, j’ai tenté de contacter Christophe pour avoir des nouvelles. C’est raté notre rencontre. Nous avons plutôt échangé des courriels.

A vrai dire, j’ai découvert quelque chose d’hallucinant. Bouche bée quoi.

Tout d’un coup, en 2018, après que Christophe et Rose aient enduré 14 années de procédures judiciaires, Ridley Scott s’est calmé compte tenu de la tragédie qui leur est arrivée il y a 12 ans.

Par ailleurs, à ce temps-la, la situation devenait pour eux intenable avec et surtout les instances agricoles, la Mairie…etc. 

Une entente cordiale est arrivé à pic. Suite à un accord financier avec Ridley Scott en 2018, la famille de Rose et Christophe s’était installée à Bonniuex.

Christophe rapporte que sur Bonnieux, ils ont trouvé un havre de paix où ils ont changé complétement de vie.

En fin, bref, un long métrage de 14 ans arrivé à une Happy Ending. C’est Hollywood!

Sources

La Provence: Publié le 21/11/2009,  https://bit.ly/3YVgSec

Le Journal de Dimanche (JDD): Publié le 20/12/2009. https://bit.ly/3PeXeH2

Le Dauphine: Publié  le 21 / 01/ 2010,  https://bit.ly/3sA7MaF

Note: Luma Arles opened June 26. Obtain Tickets to reserve time slots to visit Frank Gehry’s tower from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 pm (last entry). Ticket includes entry to all exhibitions and public garden:

The Backstory

Impatience is a particular hazard for world class architects who strive to design art institutions. The competition is strenuous. Then upon being selected, getting the structure built is an even more strenuous bovine affair. It is axiomatic among architects and builders in France that nothing comes easy, and never on time.

Almost any perfervid admirer of architecture who tracks the “grands projets” in France has, down the last decade, endured aggravation over the delays in Frank Gehry’s immense 15-story structure covered with glass canopies for the Louis Vuitton Foundation in the Bois de Boulogne, Frank’s first French renaissance, which opened to blaring fanfare in October, 2014,

Yet, the legal wrangling for that project did not approach the interminable delays bordering on bewilderment over Luma Arles where the centerpiece is Frank Gehry’s luminous tower – his second French renaissance.

Here is Frank’s voyage from inception, to approval, to celebration at the groundbreaking, aided along the way by the engagement of the arts patron Maja Hoffmann, founder of the Luma Foundation that funded the vast 24-acre complex. Ms. Hoffmann drove herself to achieve something of consequence that endures. It is an engagement that fueled her persistence, her intractability in pushing ahead against unforeseeable arduous circumstances. 

Voilà, the curtain opens.

An Attachment to France – The early 60’s

In 1960, Frank Gehry moved with his family to Meudon, a Paris suburb. Outside of his work with architects in Paris, there were tours arranged by the architect Mark Biass, a lifelong friend from his days at Harvard Graduate School of Design.

The visits made up a kind of gazetteer, places and their structures, old and modern, each with their own aura and style. Modern buildings in Paris, the icons of Notre Dame and Chartes, the cathedrals of Autun and Tournus, the creations of Le Corbusier in Paris, the monastery La Tourette in Évreux, and the Chapel at Ronchamp.

In France, Gehry fell under the spell of great architecture. The grandeur of its exalted structures dizzied him. The creations were an epiphany, confirming what he sought to feel about architecture, that it was an art of its own.

In the summer of 1961, there were things that mattered and things that one must do. Turning away a job offer in Paris, Frank Gehry yielded to the gravitational pull of Los Angeles where he was to set up his own office and pursue a singular identity.

France was vital in this rite de passage, as well as revealing to Frank Gehry that creating great works is, in a sense, to rescue them from time.

Paris: The American Center – the 1990’s

In 1991, the American Center in Paris accepted an offer to relocate to Bercy, a French quarter along the Seine where wine warehouses were being refashioned for shops and restaurants.

The Board of the American Center commissioned Frank Gehry to design a new building facing the Parc de Bercy.  Opened in 1994, with sweeping curvilinear surfaces and a jutting Cubist profile, the building was shuttered in 1996 due to financial overreach and mismanagement.

The structure stood ghost-like for the next nine years. The Ministry of Culture acquired the building, and extensively refurbished the interior to house, since 2005, La Cinémathèque Française. The exterior and key public interiors are virtually unchanged, and the building serves its new program as if designed for it, expressively.

Note: The American Center was one of the last structures designed by Gehry and Partners before the firm adopted its CAITA software. (Source: Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry, Paul Goldberger)

A Pang of Melancholy: 2003

On April 25, 2003, at Bard College, about an hour’s drive up the Hudson Valley from Manhattan, a throng of notable and cultured people gathered in a pastural setting to commemorate the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, designed by Frank Gehry, the famed harbinger of formless structures.

The stories of Frank Gehry’s architectural masterpieces preceded him, most notably of Guggenheim Bilbao and the Disney Concert Hall.  His volcanic talent connects him to an upper world, an aristocrat of his profession.

While everyone at Bard was quavering in excitement at the architect’s creation – undulating canopies of stainless steel, reflecting light skyward, and others caressing two concert halls – Frank Gehry was, for a transitory moment, gripped with a pang of melancholy, the recognition of France having passed him by.

This uninvited emotion asserted itself in a conversation between Frank Gehry and Frédéric Edelmann, the architecture critic of Le Monde, the leading French daily newspaper. As Edelmann recounted their exchange, Gehry said that he harbored regrets about never being invited to design a structure in France since the American Center in Paris, his only commission on French soil.

Note: At this time, Frank Gehry’s renewal in France was in his line of sight. In 2002, Bernard Arnault, chairman of the French luxury group LVMH, met with Frank in New York City. Shortly afterwards, Bernard proposed to Frank to take on a commission to design a structure for the LV Fondation in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. Design work would begin in earnest in 2005. (Source: Goldberger ibid).

Sketches of Frank Gehry: 2005

Maja Hoffmann, the Swiss-born a pharmaceutical heiress (Hoffmann-La Roche) and patron of the arts, meets Frank Gehry during the filming of Sketches of Frank Gehry, directed by Sidney Pollack, a documentary she co-produced. Maja tells Frank that she has an idea en tête for him in Arles. Without any details, Frank signaled that he would be on board.

Arles Delegation meets Frank Gehry in New York: 2007

In 2007, Frank invited Maja to a dinner celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. In Nov. 2007, Maja organized a trip to New York where Frank Gehry would meet with the Mayor of Arles Hervé Schiavetti and power brokers in the art community. In an exchange with the Mayor, Frank assures him that “I will be worthy of your Roman heritage.”

In December, 2007, the Luma Foundation announces a proposed project at the Parc des Ateliers, a 24-acres site that was once clusters of workshops (ateliers) for railroad maintenance and repair, near the center of Arles.

Maja Cuts a Deal – 2008

On June 20, 2008, the Luma Foundation signed an agreement with AREA PACA concerning financial arrangements and costs. The Foundation was identified as an “acquisition candidate” for the Parc des Ateliers.

An Initial Design Gets Sabotaged – July 2008

On July 6, 2008, Maja Hoffmann and Frank Gehry presented the project in Arles in the presence of the Minister of Culture Christine Albanel and Arles mayor Hervé Schiavetti. Frank Gehry proposed structures of varying heights located near renovated clusters of ateliers (workshops).

The Grande Halle, the largest industrial building on the site, had been renovated with a budget of 5.8 million euros by the region, and inaugurated in October of 2007. The design presented called for the Grande Halle to be cut into two structures. The architects who directed the renovation mounted a public protest: media interviews along with threatening legal action. A revised design was mandated.

Second Design Shown in Paris and Venice Biennale: 2010

In 2010, Maja and Frank go on the road to present a second design for Luma Arles at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal in Paris from July 1 to 3, with Frank hosting a conference on July 1. On August 25, the Luma Foundation presented maquettes of its project at the Venice Architecture Biennale, with Frank reminding the audience that the design was a work in progress. Photos of Maja Hoffmann and Frank Gehry in Venice on ArchDaily.

The design featured two linked towers located near the Grande Halle.

Le Choc. A Rejection: 2011

In an unnerving decision, in March, 2011, the National Commission for Historical Sites and Monuments rejected two of the five building permits because the towers siting over an ancient Roman cemetery could threaten Arles’ Unesco World Heritage classification. In addition, the towers obstructed views of a medieval church. The French Ministry of Culture concurred and recommended that the towers be repositioned on the site.

Steeling herself, Maja Hoffmann stated, “We are convinced that large-scale cultural projects involving private and public partnerships are possible in France and we want to find ways to make them workable.” The way to make Luma Arles workable was strenuous: a third redesign by Frank Gehry of the tower, and relocating it on the site.

The Last Time: Third Design Presented in 2012

A beleaguered, yet determined, Maja Hoffman told a French photography website, that “twice,” and “without consultation,” public authorities have changed the criteria of the building permit and the area concerned.  In a minatory bark she said, “It goes without saying that this time will be the last.”

In December 2012, the “last time” arrived when a third revised design of Gehry’s tower and the Parc was formally presented by the project director Eric Perez, and Maja Hoffmann of the Luma Foundation. 

The new design featured a single soaring 170-foot tower with a stone backbone, enveloped by a 54-foot glass rotunda and a landscaped courtyard, with 230 underground parking spaces. The tower was moved from its original proposed site close to the Avenue Victor Hugo.

Maja Hoffmann, hardened as she was (or is undoubtably is) by five years of delays and tedious negotiations, refused to release to the press the final designs until such time that the construction permits were issued.

The Green Light: 2013 

On July 10, 2013, Arles Mayor Hervé Schiavetti announced that the construction permits for the Luma Foundation had been approved and signed. There remained various administration procedures and the sale of land to complete before construction could proceed.

A Joyous Groundbreaking: 2014

“Arles is such a beautiful city. I have tried not to blemish its beauty.” Frank Gehry (Les Inrocks)

On April 5, 2014, a large crowd assembled in the Parc des Ateliers for a groundbreaking ceremony to hear accolades from Maja Hoffmann, Frank Gehry and the mayor of Arles. It had been nearly six years since Maja and Frank had unveiled the original design in July, 2008.

The sentiments they expressed that day had a melodic tone, rather than celebratory. Getting through the whole arduous experience produced an evocation of immense relief (soulagement), like marathon runners at the finish line, breathless. Les Inrocks magazine quoted a sardonic Frank Gehry, “The French are a complicated people. Maja knows how to get it done.”

And get it done, she did.

Breaking:

June 2023: Tickets to reserve time slots to visit Gehry’s tower from  10:00 a.m. to 6:00 pm (last entry). Ticket includes entry to all exhibitions and public garden:

Spring, 2020: Luma Arles and Les Rencontres d’Arles entered into a partnership on exhibition space for the photography festival at Luma Arles beginning in 2020, announced former mayor Hervé Schiavetti at Paris press event announcing the 2020 festival program. Agreement is for five years. Alas, agreement delayed until 2021.

Gehry in Arles

At first approach from the Avenue Victor Hugo in central Arles, there is something about Frank Gehry’s stainless steel-cladded tower glistening amid the faded camel, umber, rose colors of a timeworn landscape. It sits defiant, like a remonstrance.

Perched on a plinth and rising from 54-foot glass atrium, the soaring 170-foot tower is a 53,000 square-feet surface of metal panels supporting more than 10,000 blocks of gleaming hammered stainless steel.  

The nexus of a complex, known as Luma Arles, the structure will be home to the Luma Foundation, created by Maja Hoffmann, a pharmaceutical heiress (Hoffmann-La Roche) and high-spirited (fougueuse) patron of the arts.

The Luma Foundation supports independent artists, and facilitates discourse and inventiveness by sponsoring cultural, educational and the environmental initiatives.

You can take Frank Gehry’s tower as a twisting tornado, as one architecture critic put it, or you can dismiss it as a beer can (une canette) like certain locals do who don’t get anything.

Or you come to understand it as I do, as the legacy of an indissoluble engagement to art and to the environment — the empowerment to create and preserve unalterable beauty.

Engagement: The Environment 

A Swiss doctoral student, Luc Hoffmann (1923-2016) came after the war to the Camargue, the wild humid delta of brine lagoons and marshes, that stretches from the south of Arles to the Mediterranean sea. At first sight, he was in its thrall. For his thesis, he studied the chicks of the common tern. So, it began. A lifelong engagement. His dedication to the Camargue was pure, even angelic. Luc Hoffmann was like a revolutionary: one gave, everything, for the cause. His visionary existence required a base: he acquired the Tour de Valat estate in the heart of the Camargue. In 1954, he set up there a biological research institute that incarnates today the founder’s incorrigible determination. His passion for nature never faltered. Luc Hoffmann co-founded the World Wildlife Fund, and set up the Mava Foundation to fund conservation projects. 2012 saw the advent of the Luc Hoffmann Institute devoted to sustainable development.

Engagement: Art and Culture

In 1956, Luc Hoffman relocated the family to the Camargue. Over the course of the years, he exemplified to his children a life that had always been lived in accordance with a passion for engagement. For them, it must have been like learning some heroic language. Maja Hoffmann attended a school that her father established on the estate. She had a stint working at La Tour du Valat. Her father revealed an engagement to the world of nature to her, call it conservation; she came to add the universes of art, culture, education and human rights. In the end no one of them less precious than another. These values assert themselves in the Luma Foundation, which may be appreciated as a vital part of Maja Hoffmann’s own self-concept — deep convictions that are emotional and visceral, borne at a young age. Among the inhabitants of Arles, Maja Hoffmann is, simply, une fille du sud. (a girl of the south). For them, this trait is the predominant element in the donnée of her biography. As someone framed it to me in Arles,  “Tout s’explique,” (explains everything). Her engagement is the ineluctable emotional force that drove her to do something of consequence that endures, as her father devoted his fortune to preserving the Camargue and the environment. It is an engagement that fueled her persistence, her intractability in pushing ahead against unforeseeable arduous circumstances — the impersonal and the personal. Among the ways of her family that Maja Hoffmann brought to Luma Arles are: discretion is good taste; words, well-chosen, are important, and the slightest ostentation is classless. So, our narrative begins. Voilà, the mis-en-scene.

Arles: Overwhelming Antiquity

On warm and muggy nights in Arles, the pace is languid. People sit at ease on the terrace, in awe of no one. There are no temptations as much as consolations of a leisurely evening.

In Arles, vestiges of an ancient past dismantles modern memory into sepia tones. The weary antediluvian panorama seems resistant to any fresh coat of modernism.

Perched on the Rhone in Southern France, Arles is a town where every public surface wears a patina of antiquity – cramped lurid biscuit-colored edifices and decaying gray stones.

Arles sided with Caesar over Pompey (Marseille), an alliance that brought prosperity in the 4th and 5th centuries. During 1888-89, van Gogh resided in Arles, memorializing the town in 300 paintings. Once a thriving port, Arles was relegated to a backwater with the arrival of the railroad. 

Lacking any industrial base, Arles has struggled to prosper. Inhabitants refer to the town as broke (fauchée), its institutions starving (au pain sec).

Unemployment, which ran over 15% in recent years, now has dipped below 14%. Among the youth, the out-of-work tops 30%. A quarter of residents are retired. The haute bourgeoisie of Arles live elsewhere, in villages in the Alpilles like Saint Etienne du Grès and Mausanne.

“Arles is a town which is often forgotten..One time a year it reawakens for the photography festival.” Maja Hoffmann (Le Monde)

I know three Arles: One, the first ten days of July when the photo festival has splashy events; two, the other summer weeks when the festival brings in a steady stream of visitors, and the last, in the winter, a mirthless town of cold naked stones where inhabitants measure out the days in exact portions.

Journalists write about Luma Arles from afar, forgoing a visit. For one, Paul Goldberger, biographer of Frank Gehry (see below). And Art News, whose reporter last month misidentified Arles as “marshy wet lands” and as home to the Tour du Valat. No, it’s the Camargue.

Arles: Photography Magnificent

“To collect photographs is to collect the world.” Susan Sontag, On Photography

With art, inspiration is everything. One knows that instinctively. It hung over Lucien Clergue (1934-2014), and his friends in Arles like an unpronounced duty (un devoir). Lucien Clergue, a lifelong resident of Arles, was the first photographer to be elected to the Paris-based l’académie des Beaux-Arts, and to serve as its president.

In the late 1950’s, Clergue began to pester his childhood friend Jean-Maurice Rouquette, the curator of Arles’ Musée Réattu, about the absence of any museum in France with a dedicated collection of photography. In 1961, Clergue traveled to New York. His first stop was at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) to view Guernica by Picasso. As Clergue recounted in an oral history:

“At MOMA, to my great surprise, you had to go through rooms displaying black and white photographs to reach Guernica. I said to Jean-Maurice that to view the world’s greatest contemporary painting, you have to walk through photography. That moment in New York was capital in making us move forward.”

In 1965, the two men organized a mailing to photographers worldwide asking them to donate prints for the photography collection at the museum. Only two photographers refused to donate: Cartier-Bresson and Avedon. Other prints of Edward Weston were donated by Jerome Hill. With enough prints to display in a room, the Mayor of Arles was persuaded to give his consent for the the second floor of the Musée Réattu to be dedicated to photography. Before long came an opportunity for Arles to enlarge its footprint in photography. The annual Festival of Arles, caught up in the revolutionary fervor of 1968, was the target of calls to revamp its dull format. In an oral history, Roquette reminisced:

“We said that the only thing we have that is free is photography. We proposed bringing three photographers to present slides of their work in the reception room at City Hall. There were lines out the door until 3:00 a.m. The next year we set up about 400 chairs in the courtyard of the Musée Réattu. And it took off like that.”

With a photography festival in gear, Clergue began to network with photographers. In 1971, he made a world tour. In Carmel (CA), he met Ansel Adams. With its sparse resources, the nascent festival sponsored a trip for Ansel Adams. In 1974, Adams taught a workshop at the festival. When he returned home, Adams gave a press conference at which he applauded Arles for doing amazing things for photography . Adams’ participation at the festival was an imprimatur, a watershed moment that bequeathed Arles an unalterable destiny: a fervid summer festival for world photography  –  Les Rencontres d’Arles – that attracts today over 100,000 visitors. In the beginning: folding chairs.

Luma Arles: A Timeline

2004: Luma Foundation

Zurich-based Maja Hoffmann launches the Luma Foundation, named after her children Lucas and Marina.

2005: Frank Gehry

Maja Hoffmann meets Frank Gehry during the filming of Sketches of Frank Gehry, directed by Sidney Pollack, a documentary she co-produced. 

2006: Economic Development Zone

On July 17, the City of Arles approves the creation of an economic development zone – ZAC des Ateliers – for the development of the Parc des Ateliers.

2007: AREA PACA  

On June 12, the City Arles appoints AREA PACA, a regional manager of large public projects, to oversee and manage the development of the Parc des Ateliers.

2007-2008: A Bright and Shining Future for Arles

In 2007, Frank invited Maja to a dinner celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. She saw the “Bilbao effect” au premier rang. In Nov. 2007, Maja organized a trip to New York with the Mayor and others to meet with Frank Gehry. In December, 2007, the Luma Foundation announced a proposed project at the Parc des Ateliers, a 24-acres site that was once clusters of workshops (ateliers) for railroad maintenance and repair, near the center of Arles. On June 20, 2008, the Luma Foundation signed an agreement with AREA PACA concerning financial arrangements and costs. The Foundation was identified as an “acquisition candidate” for the Parc des Ateliers.

Luma Arles will be anchored by a 170-foot structure designed by Frank Gehry. This structure would serve as the headquarters of the Luma Foundation, and include exhibition space, a library, classrooms, archive storage, artists’ residences, and a cafe. Six existing structures will be renovated for exhibition space by Selldorf Architects in New York.  The landscape architect, Bas Smets in Brussels, will design a 10-acre public park with hundreds of trees. The project at the Parc des Ateliers will be financed by the Luma Foundation with an original contribution of  €100 million ($115M). Note: The investment today approaches €200 million. In July, 2008, Maja Hoffmann and Frank Gehry presented the project at Les Rencontres d’Arles, in the presence of the Minister of Culture Christine Albanel and Arles mayor Hervé Schiavetti. Frank Gehry proposed two-linked towers on varying heights located next to the renovated clusters of ateliers. The Luma Foundation’s campus will accommodate exhibitions during the annual summer photography festival.

2010: Venice Biennale

The Luma Foundation presented the maquette of its project at the Parc des Ateliers at the Venice Biennale. Photos of Maja Hoffmann and Frank Gehry, and of the presentation on ArchDaily.

2011: Le Choc. A Set Back

In an unnerving decision, in March the National Commission for Historical Sites and Monuments rejected two of the five building permits because the towers siting over an ancient Roman cemetery could threaten Arles’ Unesco World Heritage classification. In addition, the towers as obstructed views of a medieval church. The French Ministry of Culture concurred and recommended that the towers be repositioned on the site.

Steeling herself, Maja Hoffmann stated, “We are convinced that large-scale cultural projects involving private and public partnerships are possible in France and we want to find ways to make them workable.” The way to make Luma Arles workable was strenuous: redesign of the tower by Frank Gehry, and relocating it on the site.

2012: Le Parc des Ateliers

The Parc des Ateliers is drab and dreary vista. A grid of washed-out buildings and burned-out workshops stretch across a parched dirt surface sprinkled with scruffy haphazard plant life and weedy stubble. Many artists have complained about exhibiting in the worn-down ateliers which are at times flooded by summer storms or turned into furnaces on hot days. In 2012, the German photographer Andreas Gursky refused to exhibit at the festival in protest to the conditions.

2012: The Last Time

A beleaguered, yet determined, Maja Hoffman told a French photography website, that “twice,” and “without consultation,” public authorities have changed the criteria of the building permit and the area concerned.  In a minatory bark she said, “It goes without saying that this time will be the last.”

In December 2012, the “last time” arrived when a revised design of Gehry’s tower and the Parc was formally presented by the project director Eric Perez, and Maja Hoffmann of the Luma Foundation. 

The new design featured a single soaring 170-foot tower of twisted aluminum foam with a stone backbone, enveloped by a 54-foot glass rotunda and a landscaped courtyard, with 230 underground parking spaces. The tower has been displaced from its original proposed site, moved closer to the Avenue Victor Hugo.

Maja Hoffmann, hardened as she was (or is undoubtably is) by five years of delays and tedious negotiations, refused to release to the press the final designs until such time that the construction permits were issued.

2013: The Green Light 

On July 10, Arles Mayor Hervé Schiavetti announced that the construction permits for the Luma Foundation had been approved and signed. There remained various administration procedures and the sale of land to complete before construction could proceed.

2013: François Hébel 

Over the course of several years, I thought that I was watching some mordant tragedy playing out in Arles in which two driven individuals, both uncommonly self-possessed, were symbolically opposed. It was not merely that the world had set the two of them at odds. The end game meant that one of them must lose if the other were to win. In 1986, François Hébel took command of the Les Rencontres d’Arles. He launched the display of photographs in the dilapidated railroad workshops. The Parc des Ateliers evolved into a distinctive terrain at the festival. In 1987, Hébel brought to Arles the personal narrative of love and loss of Nan Golden: “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency.” The iconic show brought a sunburst of aesthetic esteem to the festival. Despite two smashing years in Arles, Hébel left to direct Magnum Photos. François Hébel returned to Arles in 2001 as director of a festival heavily in debt with 95 percent of its funding from public sources. Attendance was averaging 9,000 per season. Maja Hoffmann supported the arrival of Hébel by creating, in 2002, the Prix Découverte, an annual prize recognizing young talent in photography. By 2013, Les Rencontres d’Arles had a robust balance sheet with 40 percent of funding coming from visitors, 40 percent from public funds, and 20 percent from sponsors. Attendance was exceeding 90,000.

2013: The Unraveling 

The Parc des Ateliers, a thread woven into the tissue of the festival, became the cause of a long unraveling. Turning backwards to my visits to Arles before 2013, I recall hearing murmurs in the wings (les coulisses) that Hébel’s attitude towards the Luma Foundation had calcified into mistrust (méfiance). What haunted François Hébel was losing control over exhibition space in the renovated ateliers. Aggravated he was by Maja Hoffman’s intention to display at Luma Arles art from her private collection and from the family collection stored in Basel, and works acquired by the Foundation. There was another source for his pent-up frustrations. Hébel saw Arles as an orphan, ignored by carriéristes in the Culture Ministry who channel funds to glitzy festivals. In July, 2013, he put his sentiments, sarcastically, to Le Monde:

“The Cannes Film Festival has its Palace. We are boy scouts camping on the ground.”

François Hébel fought back. He pitched an International Center for Photography that would occupy the ateliers, permanently, sustained by a budget of 34 million euros. In effect, his audacious project would banish the Luma Foundation from the ateliers. I heard a gallery owner remark, “Quel culot!” (What nerve!) The denouement: construction permits were approved in July, and in the fall PACA, the regional government authority, agreed to sell the land of the ateliers to the Luma Foundation for 10 million euros. The coup humiliant (a humiliating blow) came on October 22 when the Culture Ministry rejected Hébel’s alternative proposal, preferring the private initiative of the Luma Foundation. Anti-climatic the moment was on Nov. 5 when Hébel shot off an impassioned five-page letter to Jean-Noël Jeanneney, president of the Festival, in which he announced his departure after the 2015 season, and elaborated on his frustrations and discontents.

Some exits are unforeseeable, even unimaginable. I submit that it was François Hébel’s hubris that put him in an untenable position. It blinded him to how unforgiving the machinery is behind progress. Alas, his letter to Jeanneney came off as petulant, his resignation as poignant, since his reign in Arles had an Athenian brilliance. A prince had fallen from the heights.

2014: The Groundbreaking

“Arles is such a beautiful city. I have tried not to blemish its beauty.” Frank Gehry (Les Inrocks)

On April 5, a large crowd assembled in the Parc des Ateliers for a groundbreaking ceremony to hear accolades from Maja Hoffmann, Frank Gehry and the mayor of Arles. It had been nearly six years since Maja and Frank had unveiled the original design in July, 2008.

The sentiments they expressed that day had a more melodic tone, rather than celebratory. Getting through the whole arduous experience produced an evocation of immense relief (soulagement), like marathon runners at the finish line, breathless.Les Inrocks magazine quoted a sardonic Frank Gehry, “The French are a complicated people. Maja knows how to get it done.”

2014: Sam Stourdzé Named New Director 

In the community of French photography, you can pile the elite directors of festivals, museums and exhibitions into a minivan. Among those with a reserved seat was Sam Stourdzé, director of the Élysée Museum in Switzerland, an institution dedicated to photography.

His appointment as the new director of Rencontres d’Arles was announced in April, 2014, a week after the groundbreaking. 

While Stourdzé lacks Hebel’s narcissism and quirky talent for publicity, he brought to Arles the impassioned, yet rigorous, management style of a museum director. In his first festival season, 2015, he reduced the number of exhibitions to 35 from 50.

In 2016, Stourdzé more than doubled the number of artists exhibiting, from 113 to 250, at 25 locations. Attendance remained glorious, topping more than 100,000 visitors.

Of tantamount importance is a harmonious relationship between Les Rencontres d’Arles and the Luma Foundation, which has assured Stourdzé and his team of the festival’s autonomy. 

2015: Arles’ Clout in French Photography

In the winter of 2015-16, I caught myself saying that it’s not hard to see how the surging currents of French photography all flow through Arles.

The Jeu de Paume, Paris, had an exhibit of Philippe Halsman, co-curated by Sam Stourdzé. One stop on the Paris Métro put me at the Grand Palais for a retrospective of the Arlesian Lucien Clergue, co-curated by Christian Lacroix, a native of Arles, and François Hébel.

2016: Frank Gehry Structure Named

The building designed by Frank Gehry was designated the working title of “The Center for Human Dignity and Ecological Justice” to embrace the intertwining principles of human rights and the right to a healthy environment.

2017: Annie Leibovitz Exhibit

The Luma Foundation acquired the archives of the American photographer Annie Leibovitz – The Early Years, 1970-1983. The photographs were on display in the Grande Halle of the ateliers from May until 24 September. A mild irony: François Hébel hung some photos of Annie Leibovitz in 1986 when the ateliers were first used as exhibit space.

2017: Les Rencontres d’Arles 

Les Rencontres d’Arles organized exhibits in the Parc des Ateliers in L’Atelier des Forges, and La Mécanique Générale. The numbers: 125,000 visitors (up 20% from ’16), 250 artists, and 40 expositions in 25 locations.

2018-19: Les Rencontres d’Arles 

Rencontres d’Arles wrapped up its 2018 season by announcing a record attendance of 140,000 visitors, an increase of 12% from 2017. There were 36 exhibitions in the formal program, along with another 24 in associated programs.

2019 was a record shattering summer with 145,000 visitors at 51 exhibits to celebrate the festival’s 50th anniversary.

Paul Goldberger: The Frank Gehry Biography

Down through four decades from his perch at the New York Times and The New Yorker, the architecture critic Paul Goldberger covered Frank Gehry, who was…”arguably the most famous architect in the world…” he wrote. His intimacy with the man and his work made him a natural to pen a biography.  With a pleasant flowing style that is an expression of his congenial personality, Goldberger chronicles, with entertaining details, the journey of Frank Gehry in “Building Art” (September, 2015). Goldberger reveals the gift France gave Frank Gehry: a glimpse of what architecture could be. Gehry spent a year in Paris in the early 1960’s working with architects. The Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, and the creations of Le Corbusier were an epiphany, confirming what he sought to feel about architecture. The American Center in Paris was Frank Gehry’s first project in France. Opened in 1994 with sweeping curvilinear surfaces and a jutting Cubist profile, the building was shuttered in 1996 due to financial mismanagement. It now houses a national museum of cinema. In 2004 came the opportunity for Frank Gehry to renew his attachment to France. Bernard Arnault, chairman of the French luxury conglomerate LVMH, approached him to design a museum for the Fondation Louis Vuitton in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. The Foundation Louis Vuitton was inaugurated in October, 2014, six months after construction began on Frank Gehry’s structure in Arles.

In his book, Goldberger’s noted Luma Arles in a compact 220-word summary.

Luma Arles: Toward an Opening in 2021

There is a communal psychic energy dispersing whatever resentment lingers as attention turns toward the future, and to the special calculus of art and prosperity that Luma Arles prefigures. To what extent will Arles experience a Bilbao Luma effect — the Frank Gehry tower as une Bilbao à la française? Luma Arles, I predict, will do huge things for Arles as a year-round destination for culture by offering enlightened ways to see and organize the world. Here is a roundup on news items:

Info Centre: Located at the entrance to the Parc des Ateliers on Avenue Victor Hugo. Visitors may sign up for public tours of the construction site. Sketches of Frank Gehry  is on view, along with models of the project.

Actes Sud and ENSP: A major French publishing house, Actes Sud cancelled its plans to take up residence in Luma-Arles. The new Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (ENSP) now occupies will take up new linear structure, designed by the Nice architect Marc Barani, across the street from the Gehry tower.

Bouffe: Two restaurants opened at Luma Arles: La Cuisine des Forges and Le Réfectoire, under the direction of Camarague chef Armand Arnal. 

Hotels: Maja Hoffmann purchased two hotels in Arles: Hôtel du Cloître, renovated and open, and l’Arlatan, under renovation.

President Emmanuel Macron: Emmanuel Macron choose Arles as his first outing with a cultural agenda. On July 17, 2017, he visited Luma Arles accompanied by Maja Hoffmann and local dignitaries.

Francois Hébel: He is currently the Director of the Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris.

Tributes: The team of curators and artists who are working with Maja Hoffmann to actualize Luma-Arles are: Tom Eccles, Bard College Director (New York), Hans Ulrich Obrich, co-Director of the Serpentine gallery (London), Beatrix Ruf, director of the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), and artists Philippe Parreno (Paris) and Liam Gillick (New York).

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«Nous avons eu une bonne dose de nature pendant une journée en Camargue, puis nous nous sommes rendus au Nord-Pinus d’Anne Igou à Arles, mon hôtel préféré au monde, sans exception.» – Jim Harrison

À son décès en mars 2016, Jim Harrison, le prodigieux écrivain et poète, a reçu en France l’admiration autrefois réservée aux rois – un véritable tsunami de distinctions et d’hommages dans la presse écrite et audiovisuelle. La France l’a pleuré comme l’un des leurs.

L’année précédente, une équipe de télévision française avait interviewé Jim dans ses repaires occidentaux pour documenter sa soif de vivre dans de grands espaces et à table (un appétit Pantagruélique). L’adoration française a engendré un surnom: Le Mozart de la Prairie.

François Busnel –  l’animateur et producteur de l’émission littéraire hebdomadaire La Grande Libraire sur France-5, était un grand admirateur de Jim Harrison qui était sur le plateau de l’emission plusieurs fois.

L’amour était réciproque. «La France est tellement en avance sur la façon de vivre la vie au jour le jour», a écrit Jim dans ses mémoires, Off to the Side. C’était une imagination colonisée, fantastiquement, par le vin et la nourriture.

Et naturellement, «… la France est devenue une retraite et un soulagement», où la bonne nourriture était devenue «un réconfort dominant dans sa vie».

Au milieu des années 90, Jim a écrit qu’il allait en France deux fois par an, car ses livres se portaient mieux en France qu’en Amérique.

L’écrivain américain Jim Fergus a décrit comment être à Paris avec Jim Harrison était «comme se promener avec Mick Jagger». Jim était «incroyablement célèbre en France», a-t-il ajouté.

Le magazine L’Obs a demandé à Jim pourquoi les Français le comblaient d’une telle vénération. Sa réponse:

«Pourquoi un pays choisit-il d’adopter un écrivain étranger? C’est peut-être parce que je parle des grands espaces sauvages. Les Français n’ont pas besoin d’entendre parler de New York, car ils ont déjà Paris – une ville bien plus intéressante que New York.»

Dans un épisode de «Parts Unknown» tourné avec Jim Harrison dans le Montana, Anthony Bourdain évoque en notes parfaites ce sentiment:

«Certaines personnes doivent vivre dans de grands espaces où le ciel est éternel. Là où tout le monde doit se pencher sur la terre. »

L’attraction gravitationnelle du Sud

Le sud de la France, où l’huile d’olive remplace le beurre du nord, a eu une attraction gravitationnelle sur Jim Harrison. Lorsqu’il sentait l’éclat de la pression sociale à Paris, il «courrait se mettre à couvert à Arles ou à Marseille».

Jim Harrison a dérivé vers la Bastide du Domaine Tempier à Bandol pour se mêler aux parangons d’une sensibilité culinaire accrue. Pendant seize années consécutives, Jim s’est aventuré au Domaine pour déguster les vins de Bandol et la cuisine provençale de Lulu Peyraud, rejoint parfois par Richard Olney, Alice Waters et Kermit Lynch. Ils étaient les conservateurs d’un plaisir richement texturé, comme Jim l’a rappelé:

«Lors d’un déjeuner interminable avec Olney et l’importateur de vin Kermit Lynch et sa femme Gail, photographe, j’ai goûté une succession de 15 ans de Bandols.»

Il y avait des voyages à Collioure, près de la frontière espagnole, pour rechercher les manuscrits du poète Antonio Machado, et pour se délecter des «vins splendides» du Domaine La Tour Vieille qui «tuaient la douleur de la goutte.»

Dans une interview à Nice-Matin, Lulu Peyraud a raconté que les derniers voyages de Jim ont inclus des hommages littéraires: un à la tombe de René Char, le poète, à L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, et un second aux cimetières d’un autre poète, Garcia Lorca, en Espagne.

Toujours Arles

C’était à Arles que l’âme de Jim était à l’aise. Perchée sur le Rhône, Arles est une ville où chaque surface publique porte une patine d’antiquité et les vestiges d’un passé ancien démantèlent la mémoire moderne dans des tons sépia. Jim a écrit sur son attachement affectueux à Arles:

«Je vais souvent à Arles où je loge habituellement dans un petit hôtel pour écrire – Le Nord-Pincus. L’hôtel dispose de chambres assez grandes pour y écrire. C’est mon hôtel préféré au monde. »

«L’effet du sud est immédiat. Une fois en écrivant pendant une semaine au splendide hôtel Nord Pinus à Arles, je suis devenu chaque jour moins sombre et tourmenté, de sorte que ce que j’écrivais là-bas était inhabituellement jubilatoire. Sans aucun doute, si j’écrivais tout un roman dans le sud de la France, je perdrais ma réputation gagnante de mélancolie.»

«La ville avec son antiquité écrasante est contenable pour que vous puissiez marcher ses frontières. Le marché est d’une splendeur polyglotte, moins bourgeois que les marchés d’Avignon et d’Aix-en-Provence, dont la vivacité vous mettra en appétit.»

«J’ai souvent pensé que si je recevais l’avertissement précoce que je décéderais tôt ou tard, je me rendrais à Lyon et je mangerais pendant un mois solide…. Peut-être que je nagerais jusqu’à Arles pour mon dernier souper.»

Le Grand Hôtel Nord-Pinus

Lieu emblématique d’Arles, le Grand Hôtel Nord-Pinus trône sur la place du Forum, le centre social de la ville.

Les atmosphères du Nord-Pinus sont caste boboïde chic mélangé de la nostalgie des jours glorieux. Les souvenirs fanés sont entassés d’un âge d’or des artistes et des écrivains. Les logements sont spacieux et bien aménagés. Vous ne vous sentez jamais pressé.

En juillet 2019, j’ai dérivé vers le Nord-Pinus. La saison estivale amène des tables entassées sur toutes les surfaces planes de la place du Forum.

Je me suis retrouvé dans la riche décoration de l’hôtel. J’ai regardé des photos de célébrités sur les murs du bar. Icônes françaises habituelles. L’image de Jim Harrison était absente. En sortant, je suis passé à la réception ou j’ai laissé ma carte à la réceptionniste avec un lien d’un article que j’avais publié sur Jim.

Le lendemain, j’ai rencontré un journaliste français, Eric Besatti, sur la Place. Ensuite, je suis retourné à la réception du Nord-Pinus. Ma présence fut accueillie avec une certain froideur. La réceptionniste affichait de la désinvolture à propos de Jim.

J’étais déconcerté. La réception glaciale ne correspondait pas à la mémoire récente. En 2017, j’ai écrit à la direction de l’hôtel pour confirmer certains détails des séjours de Jim à Arles. La réponse s’est conclue par:

«…nous allons y réfléchir en HOMMAGE à notre cher JIM. Il nous manque mais heureusement, son esprit est toujours très présent. Nous ne manquerons pas de boire un verre à sa mémoire; il aurait aimé.»

Par hasard, il y a le commentaire d’Instagram sur lequel que je suis tombé fait par une femme française, qui, entrant dans l’hôtel il y a quelques années, a été reçue ainsi:

 «…jai été accueillie par une adorable femme de l hôtel ravie de rencontrer une fan de Jim Harrison …. elle m’a fait visiter l’hôtel et les endroits où Jim passait du temps. Elle m’aurait même fait visiter sa chambre si celle-ci n’avait été occupée. … J’en suis encore reconnaissante et émue!»

En fait, aujourd’hui son esprit n’est plus présent. Jim Harrison a glissé dans l’oubli au Grand Hôtel Nord-Pinus.

En partant, la réceptionniste m’en a expliqué la raison: l’hôtel est sous une nouvelle direction. La nouvelle propriétaire de l’Hôtel Nord-Pinus est Maya Hoffmann, la grande patronne des arts, qui offre à la ville la magnifique Luma Arles.

Une plaque en l’honneur de Jim Harrison 

En octobre 2016, le maire Hervé Schiavetti a remis la Médaille de la Ville à Jim Fergus, qui a découvert Arles grâce à Jim Harrison, et comme Jim, a adopté Arles comme son point de chute en France. Au Nord-Pinus, Fergus est resté dans la chambre où Jim logeait.

L’heure a bien sonné pour honorer Jim Harrison avec une plaque dédiée à lui sur la place du Forum près du Grand Hôtel Nord-Pinus.

Le nouveau maire Patrick de Carolis a bien reconnu une occasion de rehausser le profil culturel d’Arles en commémorant Jim Harrison, un écrivain de la race des géants.

De ce fait, le maire de Carolis a confié un dossier aux conseillers municipaux pour rend hommage à Jim qui avait un grand attachement à la Petite Rome des Gaules.

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She was at peace with life, free to illuminate all its careening emotions, the weightless days and the troubled ones, and the rebounding reinventions of self.

In the spring of 2016, Gloria Vanderbilt (1924-2019), came forward with Anderson Cooper, her son with her late fourth husband Wyatt Cooper, to tell the story of her life in two medium: an e-epistolary memoir, The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son Talk About Life, Love, and Loss, and the HBO documentary, Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper.

When her world was young, it was taken from her. There was a riveting custody trial in 1934 that removed her from a derelict, inattentive mother to the care of her aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney – heiress, art patron, sculptor, and founder of, in 1930, the Whitney Museum.

Much is revealed of how she, a sublime beauty of uncommon wealth, attached herself, by passion, love or marriage, to men. In her pulling away from her aunt in 1941, when she fled to Los Angeles, and from ostracizing her impoverished mother from 1945 to 1960, there came calling the imminence of deep regret.

I found appealing her frankness, and all denuding of self-pity. She handled her dimming past as if caressing worn stones in her hands. Her strength is in her understanding that she can not explain everything, life has things to tend to.

From my point of view, she bore within her an “imago” – the idealized image of her mother – developed in her lonely childhood. She carried forward this ‘imago’ into adulthood, engendering within her psyche a dédoublement, a splitting of the world of fictive parental love from the harsh cold reality of a chronic painful fracture.

The feeling of being orphaned by legal proxy from her mother was heightened by the loss of her father Reginald Vanderbilt, who passed away from alcohol abuse when Gloria was fifteen months into the world. In the alcove of Gertrude’s bedroom, there was a sculpted bust of her father, which reawakened Gloria’s curiosity about a man she never experienced. The sculptor: Jo Davidson.

Gertrude and Jo: A twenty-five year friendship

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney first encountered Jo Davidson in 1908 at the Paris restaurant La Venue. Whereas Gertrude pursued many artists she supported as lovers, her nearly twenty-five year friendship with Jo Davidson possessed an essential trait: no venery.

In the 1920’s, Gertrude patronized the Paris dress shop of Yvonne, a fashion designer and Jo’s wife. When Yvonne passed away suddenly in New York, Jo and his son Jacques spent three days in May, 1934 (five months before the custody trial) at Gertrude’s estate in Old Westbury on Long Island. Jo wrote to her soon after his departure for France that, paralyzed with grief, he was unable to work.

The passing of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in April, 1942, brought Gloria Vanderbilt back to New York for the funeral. In her book, Gloria wrote, “I now understand that I was far more related to spirit to Aunt Ger and I never became close enough to be aware of this. Another regret.”

The service was held on April 20, 1942, at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church on Park Avenue in New York City where Gloria’s grandfather had donated the portal, and her great grandfather had sold the site to the church.

Gloria took her seat with family members on the pews on the front left side.  Certainly, she glanced to the pews on the front right side to see, among the artists her aunt encouraged and supported, the bearded visage of Jo Davidson.

At the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian, there is a permanent exhibit “Biographer in Bronze”: fourteen portraits in bronze and terra-cotta fashioned by Jo Davidson between 1908 and 1946.

Among these works is the resplendent bronze of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, which she commissioned in 1916. “This was her way of helping me carry on. . . . Her enthusiasm did much to help sustain my courage in this period,” acknowledged Jo Davidson.

The glory.

Jo Davidson

Jo Davidson (1883-1952), born to parents of Russian heritage on the lower east side, articulated an ardent longing for his works to find a home in the parks of his native New York City.

The consoling affirmation would arrive, although years after his passing. Where there were none, there are now three: Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia in Little Flower Park (1957) on the Lower East Side; Gertrude Stein in Bryant Park (1992), and his cherished friend Franklin D. Roosevelt at FDR Four Freedoms Park (2012) on Roosevelt Island.

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