I have always been a little confused with my «0’s» but somehow it entered into the old mind that one million photographs have been taken in two years and installed in a gallery of 1000 metres for this sole purpose in the Tuileries gardens. The name Ahae meant something to me but was not related to photography. As far as I know it is not a common South Korean name. Then I put one and one together.
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| Coubefy |
A little earlier this year a Southern
Korean had bought an abandoned village in Courbefy in the Haute-Vienne
(France). The price stayed with me as it was just over 500,000€ and I
thought at the time it was cheaper to buy a run down village with 18
shacks rather than a flat in the heart of Paris.
He is to develop an artistic and «natural» environment in the village. Bio-plants etc. However, I did not know that he was a photographer and also a designer, sculptor....and very in touch with a nature that he does not want to see destroyed.
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| The window box from where he chose his photos |
Over 2 years then, he photographed different scenes from the same window in his studio situated somewhere south of Seoul. The same window but not the same scene. As Laurent said he must have had a brillant camera to zoom into all the images we saw.
The 1000 metres of space is remarkable and upon entering one gallery it is not
unlike the same space for the Nymphéas just next door at the Orangerie.
It’s a free entry exhibition on for a couple of months and there were
quite a few people looking at it but certainly not overcrowded.
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| Looking at the gallery |
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| The poster for the exhibition "From My WIndow" |
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| A fabulous space |
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| Caught in action.... |
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| Dragon flies mating |
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| The pool iced over |
Ahae’s main themes are the changing countryside as he sees it from the window and animals. Animal life must be prolific, especially the birds of some many different colours and species. Winter, summer, autumn and spring. Sometimes it looks like the same photo and yet not quite. For once I really do feel it is better to see them in a group. I am not so sure if individual photos would be as interesting if you didn’t know the context and the story behind them. Many scenes are «deja vu» but looking at them together gives a remarkable feeling of space, nature and seasonal colour.
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| Teasing indeed.... |
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| Oops.....slippery |
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| Bit cold on the back feet..... |
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| You were saying ? |
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| A very royal Heron |
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| That poor snake doesn't have a chance |
Poetry is included in the exhibition describing the season or other. The French translations were not as good as the English. Those I read were very moving.
As usual, a lovely moment with Jerome and Laurent and certainly very much better and more interesting than the exhibition Laurent and I had seen in the morning «Baditi dell’arte» at the Musée de la Halle Saint-Pierre. Naive art is one thing this, even if naive was just too much so.
Having finally gone to "La Beauté Animale" with my grandaughter (and I think she did enjoy it) we strolled down from the Grand Palais into the Tuileries Gardens. My intention was of course to go and see Ahae as there are so many photographs of wild life. I took the same photo of her next to the "Autumn ally" and you would think that she is about to turn around and walk up it. Swanie enjoyed the little she looked at. Her world of nature.....
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| Swanie following |
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| Foliage |
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| Laurent entering the woods - |
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| Black and white winter |
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| Autumn |
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| peeping out..... |
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