Jean-Marc Bustamante’s Arles Foundation Will Open in a 12th-Century Church
A former church in Arles is about to become one of the city’s newest cultural anchors. Fonds Bustamante will open on July 9, 2026, inside the renovated Église Sainte-Croix, with an inaugural exhibition, “En Miroirs,” on view through October 30, 2026.
The foundation is the latest sign of Arles’s expanding art ecosystem, where institutions have increasingly clustered around the city’s historic center. Designed by architect Charles Zana, the restored building is divided into two parts: La Nef, which will hold the main exhibition spaces, and Les Collatéraux, an adjoining extension that will house a research center and café.
Bustamante has also used the building itself as a site for artistic intervention. The façade will carry a frieze made of yellow enameled lava tiles, conceived as a tribute to Vincent van Gogh, who once stayed in Arles. Inside, Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias has been commissioned to create a monumental cast-aluminum and glass sculpture for the first floor, rising more than 4 meters high.
“En Miroirs” will place Bustamante’s work in conversation with artists across several generations, including Iglesias, Rodney Graham, Franz West, Thomas Schütte, and René Daniëls. The foundation plans to mount two exhibitions each year, timed to coincide with Arles’s Drawing Festival in April and the Rencontres d’Arles in July.
That schedule positions Fonds Bustamante alongside Luma Arles, Lee Ufan Arles, and Fondation Vincent Van Gogh as part of the city’s permanent cultural infrastructure rather than a seasonal draw. The opening also arrives during a busy period in Bustamante’s career: he represented France at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and the São Paulo Biennale in 1994, directed the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 2015 to 2018, and is due for a retrospective at the Ludwig Museum Koblenz in November 2026.
In Arles, where Roman stone, modern architecture, and intense southern light already shape the city’s visual identity, the foundation’s arrival adds another layer to a place that has become a serious destination for contemporary art.
