Not unlike the sudden appearance of the cicada, a buzzing critical mass of art-world players burst out of hibernation last Saturday night in the South of France, making for one of the first major international, in-person art happenings since pandemic restrictions started to ease. They surfaced at the behest of Swiss philanthropist Maja Hoffmann, an heir to the Hoffmann-La Roche pharmaceuticals billions, to celebrate the completion of Luma Arles, her 27-acre creative campus in the city of Arles.
The gestation really did take about as long as the cicadas. In 2004 Hoffmann established the Luma Foundation—a nonprofit dedicated to art as well as the environment, human rights, and education. The next year, Hoffmann appointed Frank Gehry to design the centerpiece for the sprawling site she was assembling on an abandoned rail yard on the outskirts of Arles. Responding to Hoffmann’s desire “for some sort of vertical presence,” Gehry began to envision what’s now a twisting, geometric 10-story tower covered with 10,752 shimmering stainless steel panels. Battles along the way with French authorities account for some of the delay. But, according to Gehry, he and his patron just needed time: “Maja is a detail freak, as am I.”
Construction was completed earlier this year, by which time New York–based architect Annabelle Selldorf had also revitalized several existing factory buildings on the site, and Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets had created a verdant park surrounding it all. And only a few weeks ago, when French authorities eased restrictions on social gatherings, Hoffmann sent out some 600 invitations for Saturday’s gala opening dinner and other weekend events.
Among the attendees were artists Ólafur Elíasson, Tino Sehgal, and Liam Gillick, as well as an array of the collectors, curators, dealers, architects, journalists, intellectuals, socialites, and royals who comprise the global art-world ecosystem—Nicolas Berggruen, Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, Mafalda von Hessen and Rolf Sachs, Pierre Lagrange and Ebs Burnough, Ulla Dreyfus-Best, Alain Elkann, Norman Foster, Graham Steele, David Zwirner, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, among them.
“I was in tears, hugging everyone. This feels like a family coming back together,” said another guest, Princess Alia Al-Senussi, the Libyan American, London–based adviser to Art Basel and the Saudi Ministry of Culture. “It’s really magic,” said Simon de Pury, the auctioneer and dealer. “So exhilarating and exciting—a joyful occasion.”
No one was more pleased than guest of honor Gehry, who flew to Arles from his home in Los Angeles, with his wife, Berta Isabel Aguilera. “I’m waiting for the trumpets,” the 92-year-old architect said during the cocktail hour in the Les Forges, one of the former factory buildings. “Tower, for Frank Gehry,” a work for 14 trumpets by British composer Thomas Adès, which was commissioned for the evening, summoned everyone to dinner. The all-organic and locally sourced menu prepared by Michelin-starred chef Armand Arnal included bull tataki and vegetables from his garden.
Hoffmann, in a flowing yellow gown emblazoned with sunflowers designed by Lebanese couturier Rabih Kayrouz, refrained from making a speech. Instead, she went from table to table, speaking to nearly everyone. “We don’t just show, we produce,” she said, encouraging guests to view the many commissioned or never-before-seen art works on site. They included “Take Your Time,” an enormous, rotating mirror by Elíasson, which was fixed atop a monumental double-helix staircase, and “Krauses Gekröse,” a 13-meter-high pretzel-like outdoor sculpture in Pepto Bismol pink by Franz West.
Some of the more adventurous guests even took to wheels and became part of the installation that was unveiled after dinner: “OooOoO,” a glow-in-the-dark full-scale skate park (illuminated with fluorescent paint), created by Korean artist Koo Jeong A.
Berggruen, who has been laboring for years to build a campus for his think tank, in Los Angeles, summed up the evening: “It tells you that, at least for now, until something more traumatic happens, the species survives.”
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