In southern France, LUMA Arles is a new experimental contemporary art center that brings together artists, researchers, and creators from every field to collaborate on multi-disciplinary works and exhibitions. Located south of Arles’ historic city center, the project repurposes the industrial ruins of a 10-acre rail depot and introduces a new public park at the Parc des Ateliers. The central team of designers for the project includes Frank Gehry who has designed a new Arts Resource Center building, Selldorf Architects entrusted with the renovation and conversion of five former rail facilities into new exhibition spaces, and Bas Smets who is responsible for the landscape design.

While the opening of the main building at the Parc des Ateliers is scheduled for 2018, an artistic programme developed in collaboration with LUMA Arles core group of artistic consultants, Tom Eccles, Liam Gillick, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Philippe Parreno, and Beatrix Ruf, is presented periodically in the already inaugurated venues of La Grande Halle, Les Forges and La Mécanique Générale.

Recent projects produced by the LUMAFoundation for LUMA Arles at Parc des Ateliers in Arles include: Imponderable: The Archives of Tony Oursler (2015); Frank Gehry: Solaris Chronicles (2014); Wolfgang Tillmans: Neue Welt (2013); To the Moon via the Beach (2012); Doug Aitken: Altered Earth (2012); How Soon is Now (2010) and the symposia How Institutions Think (2016); The Flood of Rights (2013) and The Human Snapshot (2011).

LUMA Arles will be open throughout the construction period, and its programmes for new work, installations, and presentations will continue both on-site and at locations throughout Arles.

The LUMA Foundation was established in 2004 by Maja Hoffmann in Switzerland to support the activities of independent artists and pioneers, as well as institutions working in the fields of visual arts, photography, publishing, documentary, and multimedia.

Maja Hoffmann grew up in Arles and is very attached to the town and the Camargue region. She decided to undertake this project in Arles because of these personal roots, but also because the history and personality of this city make it a unique place to create a new complex dedicated to artistic and cultural production.

Recognized as a cultural site since the Roman Empire, Arles has inspired artists including Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. Arles was chosen as a World Heritage site thirty years ago and the Camargue is one of the most important natural sites in Europe, named a biosphere reserve by UNESCO.