ARLES.- The exhibition "Dancing in the Street", punctuated by unpublished documents between photographs, sound extracts and videos, offers a tailor-made tour at the heart of the Motown adventure.

As the Rencontres d’Arles celebrates its 50th anniversary, this summer also marks the 60th anniversary of Motown. This mythical label, created in Detroit with only 800 US$ in 1959 by Berry Gordy Jr., has been one of the greatest adventures in international music. Reinventing itself at each era, the "Motown family" guided by its tutelary figures: Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, the Jackson 5,... will accompany for more than 30 years all the evolutions and mutations of African-American music, from the Soul Music of the early hours to the RnB of the 90's.

The first hits would follow very quickly allowing this label to assert itself as one of the most successful African-American ventures in these times when civil rights remained yet to be conquered.

NICOLAS HAVETTE
Curator
Nicolas Havette, born in 1980, lives and works in Arles. Nicolas Havette has been in charge of the artistic direction of the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation since 2015. He is also associate curator of the Tainan Biennale of Photography (Taiwan) since 2018 and executive artistic director of the Chinese International Photography and Art Festival in Zhengzhou (Henan, China) since 2016. He directed the gallery le Magasin de jouets from 2011 to 2018, was co-artistic director of the festival Les Nuits Photographiques from 2011 to 2015.

He was co-curator of the exhibition Manger à l'oeil at MUCEM, an associated program of the Rencontres d'Arles in 2018. He leads various workshops in collaboration with Les Rencontres d'Arles or OeilDeep, and develops his personal work at the crossroads of drawing, photography and performance, entitled FORTUNES . He graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie d'Arles in 2006.

MADJ
Curator
Cultural activist, Madj has always had many roles such as co-host of the radio show "Fusion Dissidente" on Radio Beur (now Beur FM), co-creator of the ground-breaking compilation of the French rap scene "Rapattitude" , involved in the development and management of the project "11'30 Contre Les Lois Racistes" as well as in the organization of several fund-raising concerts combining music and protest... But he will remain above all one of the founders and the leading figure of the Assassin Productions label, the first independent label in French Hip-Hop. Leaving his mark on the group's odyssey by giving it an unrivalled cultural and political dimension in the history of French rap.

In 2003 he was one of the leading members of the collective La Bande Des 4 and participated in the composition of most of the tracks of the instrumental album "Hors De Contrôle", a true UFO of Hip-Hop.

He is also the initiator for Universal Music of the Motor City vinyl compilation series dedicated to the first hours of the Tamla Motown label, the first two volumes of which were released in 2018.

He regularly hosts the TRAVELIN' THROUGH THE PAST BADLY parties where his DJ Sets mix an eclectic and raw energy. The walls of Mains d'Oeuvres, Mondial du Tatouage, La Maison Sage, Mama Shelter, L'International, Festival Street Punk Ink Mas Party de St-Brieuc, La Féline, La Marbrerie, Palais de Tokyo, Bus Palladium, La Dame de Canton, Centre Culturel Hip-Hop LA PLACE or Saint-Sauveur, ... are still shaking !

ADAM WHITE
Consultant
Adam White has written about music and the music industry for more than 40 years, and was vice-president of communications at Universal Music Group International from 2002 to 2012. Author with Barney Ales of Motown: The Sound of Young America (Thames & Hudson). He began his career writing for publications such as New Musical Express and Melody Maker, then served at U.K. trade magazine Music Week before moving to New York to join Billboard, where he advanced to international editor, managing editor and editor-in-chief. In 1983, White scripted The Motown Story: The First Twenty-Five Years , a Grammy-nominated retrospective narrated by Smokey Robinson and Lionel Richie, and in 2005, he wrote Grammy-nominated liner notes for Heaven Must Have Sent You: The Holland/Dozier/Holland Story.

In addition, White co-authored The Billboard Book of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits , and his work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Black Echoes, Radio & Records, Mojo and The Times.

MOTOWN, THE SOUND OF YOUNG AMERICA
Published in 2016
The music of Motown needs no introduction. Berry Gordy’s record label became a league of its own producing hit after hit, suave, sassy and sophisticated, and shaped the careers of so many of the greatest musicians of all time. Now, and with fresh new insights and an incredible visual narrative, the official, visual history of this momentous contribution to music and American culture is told in full. This book delves deep into the success stories of Motown’s powerhouse creative team, including the Holland-Dozier-Holland trio, and unpicks backstories of the Motown musicians envied by many, and covered by the rest.

The roster includes Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, the Jackson 5, The Temptations and Martha Reeves & The Vandellas.

Motown: The Sound of Young America is dense with information and materials gathered from the personal accounts and archives of many of the key players. It is a spectacular labour of love befitting an incredible story.