More details are coming to light regarding what will actually fill the 58-metre high, arts resource centre designed by Frank Gehry which dominates Luma Arles, the 20-acre cultural campus in the southern French town of Arles. The ambitious cultural project is driven by the Swiss pharmaceutical heiress and contemporary art collector Maja Hoffmann, whose Luma Foundation is providing around €100m in funding for the campus project. A recent piece published in the Wall Street Journal revealed that Gehry’s tower, which is due to be completed next year, will include dedicated spaces for a few select artists. These include Philippe Parreno who, according to a spokeswoman, will have a permanent gallery in the lavish new venue (Parreno incidentally is part of the advisory group, along with Liam Gillick and Hans Ulrich Obrist, driving Hoffmann’s project). The new centre will also house “living archives” dedicated to the Swiss art journal Parkett, and the photographers Annie Leibovitz and (reportedly) Martin Parr. Parr tells us: “To my knowledge, Luma helped to purchase the book collection going to the Tate, and they will have good access to this [Parr’s 12,000-strong holdings were gifted and donated last year]. But no work of mine, or the books on a permanent basis, will be stored or archived there [in Arles].”
CLARIFICATION (26 August) - A spokeswoman from Tate says: "Luma are our partners in the acquisition. We have a sharing agreement with them in which they can borrow a portion of the collection at a given time to be shown in Arles. The collection is housed at Tate. Tate very much look forward to working with Arles to show Martin's collection."