Working with the body: sport through the lens

At the Archives municipales, this news resonates with history and with photography, between documentation and art, capturing the movements and prowess of bodies.
Rugby in Toulouse, motor sports in Le Mans, sailing in Les Sables-d'Olonne, soccer in Saint-Étienne, skiing in Grenoble... and Avignon? While Avignon clubs have achieved national glory and Avignonnais have distinguished themselves in major competitions, it would be a delicate matter to claim that Avignon has had an identity marked by a specific sporting practice. Nevertheless, Avignon was voted France's most sporting city in the early 1970s.
The photographic journey presented in the city's archives is not a perilous gallery of portraits of local champions. Instead, it highlights the diversity of sporting activities in Avignon in the 20th century, the plurality of players involved, and the importance of facilities. It is for their composition, narrative, aesthetic or unusual quality that the archive photographs unveiled today were chosen from the collections.

The exhibition takes over the walls of the Archives building (cour des Archives, rue Saluces, rue du Mont-de-piété and rue de la Croix).
An annex is displayed on the gates of the square Agricol-Perdiguier cours Jean-Jaurès until September 26, 2024.

A game offers a different approach to the exhibition, inviting visitors (young and old) to sharpen their sense of observation.
Available free of charge from the Archives municipales reception desk.

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