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From Railways To Ateliers
Domus India
|Febuary 2019
A cultural platform experimenting with new approaches to producing and exhibiting, the LUMA Arles workshop for artists, curators, scientists and designers is also open to the public

In 1954, in the municipality of Arles, Luc Hoffmann founded Le Domain de la Tour du Valat, a centre to conduct research into the landscape and biodiversity. Covering an area of 2,600 hectares in the Provence and Côte d’Azur region, in 2008 it was classified as a regional nature reserve. More precisely, Hoffmann, who was an ornithologist, philanthropist, co-founder of WWF and founding father of the Ramsar Covention – the first intergovernmental agreement for the protection of the environment – and an heir of the Hoffmann-la Roche family in Basel, had bought this tract of land in 1947 for various logical and emotional reasons. Tour du Valat would soon become the umbrella of the Camargue, a fluvial-lacustrine island in the Bouches-du-Rhône and for centuries a unique ecosystem. Home to more than 400 species of birds, it has ponds, lagoons, marshes and sandbanks with a great variety of insects. Boldness, experimentation, research and production entwined with diversity have been key words guiding the growth of the LUMA Foundation ever since Maja Hoffmann set it up in 2004. One of Hoffmann’s four children, she has a unique record over the years for supporting innovative and independent artists and understanding issues affecting the environment, human rights, education and culture. The LUMA logo is seen whenever an international institution engages an artist in work the final outcome of which is unknown but that deserves support for this very reason. In 2014 the Foundation decided to find a home for itself. The choice fell on Arles, a land of memories
This story is from the Febuary 2019 edition of Domus India.
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