Cultish Studio's Arles Exhibition Explores Illusion Across Nine Artists

Coinciding with the Rencontres d'Arles photography festival, Cultish Studio presents 'Il Faut Le Croire Pour Le Voir' at the Galerie des Collatéraux in Arles, curated by Julien Frydman in dialogue with the studio's artistic directors. The exhibition features nine artists and duos whose work investigates illusion as a discipline of looking. Highlights include James Casebere's architectural model photographs suspended above a swimming pool, reimagining Luis Barragán's Mexico City home; Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs's perspectival film 'Blockbuster' with synchronized sound; Mari Katayama's new project 'Tree of Life' incorporating mirrors and soft sculptures; David de Beyter's UFO-themed landscapes; Miguel Ángel Rojas's 1970s photographs of illicit queer encounters in Bogotá cinemas, shown in a peep show format; and Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei's five-channel video 'The Wanderers' alluding to Caspar David Friedrich, created two months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The space, a former stable turned gymnasium with a pool, has been darkened for the show. Frydman notes the works 'unsettle a certainty' without aiming to deceive.