An informal photo dump and some thoughts on French building elements, establishments, food and people.
04., Petales d’eglantine rosa rugosa Thunberg
During the week off from classes, my Paris roommate (Katelyn Bonaccorsy), a friend from home and myself took a trip to Annecy, France! In our time there, we visited the Annecy Museum, which was the former residence of the Counts of Geneva and the Dukes of Genevois-Nemours. Opened in 1956, the city museum has presented various temporary exhibitions for visitors: “collections related to regional heritage, underwater archeology, medieval sculpture, landscape painting, contemporary art and animation films.”
Entitled “Petales d’eglantine rosa rugosa Thunberg,” the photo above is a piece by Nils Udo located in the Contemporary Art Gallery. The work depicts a close-up photograph of white sand in which a crack has been enhanced with rose petals, fixed to the ground by pine needles. The caption shares that the work is a nod to the Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg who notably explored Japan and recorded many undiscovered species of plants and flowers. Udo’s creative M.O.? He borrows all of his materials from nature. He rarely uses inanimate objects, preferring living subjects, which are constantly developing and changing. For example, his other works feature plants or minerals such as snow, flowers, leaves, berries, water and stones.
“Sketching with flowers. Painting with clouds. Writing with water. Tracing the May wind, the path of a falling leaf. Working for a thunderstorm. Awaiting a glacier. Directing water and light… Counting a forest and a meadow…”
— Nils-Udo
Udo values interactions with nature and the relationship between humans and their environment. In the same vein of awareness, the Annecy Museum had a wall-label at the beginning of the tour sharing their philosophy with regards to patron/ museum interactions that I found to be extremely interesting:
“The museum is neither motionless or fixed. It is almost living organism, evolving with its works, knowledge, its territory, the questions of its time and the expectations of the public.”
— Annecy Museum Exhibit, “The Museum is like a Living Organism”
08., “Breathing Lotus Flower“
Another piece of art from Annecy, located in the plaza in front of Hotel de Ville, is Choi Jeong Hwa’s “Breathing Lotus Flower.” The artist/ designer’s work has returned to Annecy for the third consecutive year, his inspiration stemming from a combination of Korean pop culture and searching for beauty in every day life.
The giant, moving petals were impossible to miss as we walked through the plaza… in part because of the sheer size of the installation (23 feet in diameter) as well as the vibrant pink color of the flower. Interestingly, there was no plaque or information posted around the piece of art. It made me wonder whether the artist’s flower was designed to be walked around and contemplated, allowing people to actively give meaning to the artwork rather than be a passive viewer (Or, maybe it isn’t that deep).
I did some research when we made it home for the night and found that the lotus flower is a cosmological symbol of purity in Asia. According to Annecy’s website: “with this installation, the artist also reminds us of the importance of being in the moment and the fleeting beauty of life.”
Choi Jeong Hwa was born in 1961 in Seoul (South Korea). For him, art is everywhere and for everyone. His floral sculptures have appeared in other cities internationally, including San Francisco, Sydney and Boston.
I like to use the term 生生活活. In Korean, it means enliven: invigorating, cheering the songs and making you dance. The objects that are found and encountered become the assembled structure by themselves. This natural state becomes harmonious; audiences who observe and complete the work would take commemorative pictures and make a forest of tales which in turn gets shared by social media and becomes a digital forest…making everyone sing.
— Choi Jeong Hwa