From Avignon to Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, 5 exhibitions not to be missed this year in Vaucluse!
« Engagées » at the Villa Datris
Since 2011, Villa Datris has delighted us with its annual exhibitions dedicated to contemporary sculpture, tirelessly exploring new themes that are as exciting as they are joyful: Movement and Light, Weaving-Braiding, Recycling-Upcycling…
The key to its undeniable success over the years? The high quality of the exhibitions, under the leadership of its founder Danièle Kapel-Marcovici and the expert direction of Stéphane Baumet, the richness of the mediation, in the form of guided tours and thematic activities for all audiences, a charming situation on the banks of the river in the centre of L’Isle sur la Sorgue, works which inhabit the villa from the cellar to the attic and from the elevator to the garden, and finally – it’s rare enough to note – free entry.
In 2025, for its 15th exhibition, Villa Datris brings together 60 female sculptors – a clever mix of emerging and internationally renowned artists-, who have each resolutely placed their art at the service of equal human rights and the defence of diverse causes. Historically marginalised and treated as invisible, female artists only really emerged from the 1960s, carried forward by the wave of social movements and feminist demands for equal rights. Many of these artists seized the voice they had finally been given, to denounce injustice or expose the issues of modern society. Among them are Magdalena Abakanowicz, Niki de Saint Phalle, Chiharu Shiota, Kapwani Kiwanga, Eva Jospin and many others.
As in previous years, the exhibition will be accompanied by conferences, workshops, and classes.
Practical information
Fondation Villa Datris
7 avenue des 4 otages,
84800 l’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
From 16 May to 2 November 2025
Opening hours may vary depending on the period
Free admission, guided tours on weekends at fixed time (booking advisable)
Jacques-Emile Blanche at the Fondation Angladon
The Angladon Foundation is undoubtedly one of the hidden gems of Avignon, a beautiful collectors’ house built in the shadow of Ceccano (XIV) cardinal palace, which is now the city library. This small museum houses the collection of the fashion designer and art lover Jacques Doucet, an iconic figure of the roaring twenties, whose eye immediately caught the importance of the great artists of his time.
These alone are worth a visit. And yet, every summer, a new exhibition creates a second fascinating journey around an artist or a theme.
This summer, the museum assumes a Proustian air with an exhibition dedicated to Jacques-Émile Blanche, portrait painter of the great artists of the early 20th century, and also writer, critic, musician, and memorialist. A contemporary and friend of Marcel Proust, Jacques-Émile Blanche was a key figure in the Belle-Epoque and post-war movements, and painted the French and British high society as well as the artistic elite and avant-garde of his time. Among the hundreds of personalities who posed for his portraits are Proust, Nijinsky, Cocteau, and Stravinsky. His brush strokes bring an entire era to life. A sparkle of lost time found again.
Practical information
Musée Angladon
5 rue laboureur,
84000 Avignon
From 12 June to 12 October 2025
Opening hours may vary depending on the period
Public rates: €8
(reduced: €6,50)
Visit included in Avignon city pass
Press contact:
Carina Istre
+33 (0)6 79 40 56 37
c.istre@angladon.com
Rêves at Campredon art & image
In 2023, a new page turned in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue for the Campredon Art Centre, now Campredon art & image. Since 1984, the museum has hosted exhibitions of good quality modern and contemporary art. But faced with new challenges (digital transition, new public expectations, etc.), Campredon changed course, with a single annual multidisciplinary thematic exhibition.
Digital technologies in particular have burst into the hanging space and take us into a total experience, combining visual, photographic, digital and video arts.
This spring Campredon Art & Image invites us on an artistic journey through our dreams. Across 4 sequences, you can immerse yourself in the realm of the siesta and the art of doing nothing, before being transported to the inner landscapes that lie behind closed eyes and the surrealism of dreams.
Finally, find yourself in a feminine dream; the dream of a room of one’s own, an open window looking onto a world of freedom and idleness, as envisaged by Virginia Woolf. These themes are explored by photographers, painters, sculptors, videographers, designers and artists from the digital generation, and with them comes the promise of a beautiful waking dream…
Practical information
Campredon Art & Image
20 rue du Docteur Tallet, 84800 l’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
From 19 April to 12 October 2025
Tuesday to Sunday / 10.00 am to 6.00 pm
Public rate: €3
Guided tour: €7
« Sensibilités Vaudou », at the Fondation Blachère
Since 2023, the railway station at Bonnieux in the Luberon has been the unusual and charming setting for the Blachère Foundation’s collection of African art.
The foundation was created by Blachère Illuminations, a flagship of French industry founded in 1973 by Jean-Paul Blachère in nearby Apt, which designs and manufactures light displays for cities around the world.
In 2004, Blachère, an entrepreneur with a passion for Africa and African art, decided to set up a foundation to encourage and highlight the continent’s contemporary art scene. A dedicated art centre was created near the vast hangars of Blachère Illuminations, before being transferred 20 years later to the renovated former Bonnieux railway station.
Until the end of September, “Sensibilités Vaudou” pays tribute to this religion and its living influence on contemporary art. It explores the many facets of the Voodoo cult, blending art, spirituality, philosophy and politics, while confronting traditional ritual objects with contemporary works.
Practical information
Fondation Blachère
Centre d’Art – Gare de Bonnieux
121 Chemin de Coucourdon, Bonnieux
Until 27 September 2025
Open Monday to Saturday
Public rate: €5
Duplessis at l’Inguimbertine
The Hôtel-Dieu in Carpentras, magnificently restored and opened in April 2024, is now home to the Inguimbertine Library-Museum.
This institution, the only one of its kind in France, offers visitors the chance to immerse themselves in the history of the Comtat Venaissin, the former territory of the Popes, before moving on to the world of 18th-century scholarly libraries and, finally, a large fine arts gallery.
In 2025, an exhibition on the portrait painter Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (1725-1802) will bring together some sixty works from prestigious collections, including the best-known portrait of Benjamin Franklin, reproduced until today on 100-dollar banknotes and loaned for the occasion by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
More generally, all the works on display will provide an opportunity to rediscover the virtuosity of Louis XVI’s official portraitist, who was so adept at transcribing the complexions of faces, fabrics and materials, and above all the souls of his subjects.
Practical information
L’Inguimbertine
180 Pl. Aristide Briand, 84200 Carpentras
From 14 June until 28 September 2025
Photos ©T.Verneuil ©Musée Angladon ©V-Gillet-VPA