honorable mention
Michel Kirch france
title
the Awakened
I then created created a formal structure giving these characters the greatest possible impact: an elemental, almost "skeletal" architecture, enhanced by "enlightening" contrasts. Once again so as to ward off distraction or going back to sleep. A black backdrop and, most often, a character within a landscape in which he serves as punctuation, in a meaningful relationship.
This character bears alone the weight of the human condition. His gestures, his silences, his impulses are universal approaches through which each of us can or must manage his relationship with the world. He is at once tiny and gigantic, lost and fully present. Etched into his silhouette we can find the reasons justifying – or not – his presence in any given place. A presence that could be inappropriate were it not for the fact that the force that drives him transcends the perceived landscape. He is a catalyst, he is a consciousness, Awakening is lying in wait for him.
The landscape is the awakened's testing ground. There the elements are potent, sometimes gigantic, often disquieting. The test he is undergoing resembles his inner landscape: lowlands saturated with darkness, roads to follow like some random maze, higher ground to be climbed.
But the landscape needs the awakened one, just as he needs it for his becoming. They complement the energy whose genesis springs from the equilibrium of their encounter.
• Shows in Europe, USA and Asia. (60 shows in 15 countries)
• Represents France at the Alexandria Biennale in 2008.
• The Province of Milan chooses works from his series Climats to accompany a lecture by Edgar Morin and establish a link between Morin’s thinking and art.
• Becomes the first artist to be chosen by the foundation L’Art pour la Conscience, sponsored by Edgar Morin.
• Is chosen two years running (2009, 2010) by Esther Woerdehoff gallery for Paris Photo.
and for MIART and MIA in Milan (2010, 2011).
• Is selected three years running by Mac Paris (2009–2011).
• In 2010 his exhibition TransPhotographies is spotlighted by the City of Marseille.
• Invited by the John McDermott Gallery to the Angkor Foto Festival in 2010.
• Exhibition at Espace Cardin in Paris in december 2011 sponsored by Edgar Morin, with the backing of the ESA
• In June 2012 he is named Intercultural Ambassador by the UNESCO
• Invited by French Embassy in India to exhibit in New Delhi , 2013.
• Invited by UNESCO to exhibit during the Global Conference , 2013.
• Retrospective on various sites in the city of Metz, including the Musée de la Cour d’Or, 2014.
• Shows with Baudoin Lebon gallery at the Art O’Clock fair, Paris, 2013.
• Black and White magazine: Award Winner, Portfolio Contest, 2013.
• Grand Prix Eurazeo for Photography, 2013.
• Publication of the monograph “ “les éveillés”, 2014
• Invited by the Mairie de Paris for “Bridges and Cultures” , 2015
• Winner of the International Competition « Spirit of the Mediterranean », organized by PHOTOMED and LENSCULTURE. 2016
• « Monochrome Photographer of the Year « January 2017 (Monochrome Awards)
• Selected for Festfoto Brazil May 2017
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entry description
One morning, after a night of uncertainties and hesitations, I named these silhouettes "the awakened". They emerge from obscurity, from the sidereal darkness, from places where all light is absent until the moment when life finds its way in. Life in this case is consciousness, awakening. These isolated figures always generate the contradictory forces that balance out our world. In doing so they keep us from slumbrous lethargy.I then created created a formal structure giving these characters the greatest possible impact: an elemental, almost "skeletal" architecture, enhanced by "enlightening" contrasts. Once again so as to ward off distraction or going back to sleep. A black backdrop and, most often, a character within a landscape in which he serves as punctuation, in a meaningful relationship.
This character bears alone the weight of the human condition. His gestures, his silences, his impulses are universal approaches through which each of us can or must manage his relationship with the world. He is at once tiny and gigantic, lost and fully present. Etched into his silhouette we can find the reasons justifying – or not – his presence in any given place. A presence that could be inappropriate were it not for the fact that the force that drives him transcends the perceived landscape. He is a catalyst, he is a consciousness, Awakening is lying in wait for him.
The landscape is the awakened's testing ground. There the elements are potent, sometimes gigantic, often disquieting. The test he is undergoing resembles his inner landscape: lowlands saturated with darkness, roads to follow like some random maze, higher ground to be climbed.
But the landscape needs the awakened one, just as he needs it for his becoming. They complement the energy whose genesis springs from the equilibrium of their encounter.
about the photographer
• Born in France, 1959.• Shows in Europe, USA and Asia. (60 shows in 15 countries)
• Represents France at the Alexandria Biennale in 2008.
• The Province of Milan chooses works from his series Climats to accompany a lecture by Edgar Morin and establish a link between Morin’s thinking and art.
• Becomes the first artist to be chosen by the foundation L’Art pour la Conscience, sponsored by Edgar Morin.
• Is chosen two years running (2009, 2010) by Esther Woerdehoff gallery for Paris Photo.
and for MIART and MIA in Milan (2010, 2011).
• Is selected three years running by Mac Paris (2009–2011).
• In 2010 his exhibition TransPhotographies is spotlighted by the City of Marseille.
• Invited by the John McDermott Gallery to the Angkor Foto Festival in 2010.
• Exhibition at Espace Cardin in Paris in december 2011 sponsored by Edgar Morin, with the backing of the ESA
• In June 2012 he is named Intercultural Ambassador by the UNESCO
• Invited by French Embassy in India to exhibit in New Delhi , 2013.
• Invited by UNESCO to exhibit during the Global Conference , 2013.
• Retrospective on various sites in the city of Metz, including the Musée de la Cour d’Or, 2014.
• Shows with Baudoin Lebon gallery at the Art O’Clock fair, Paris, 2013.
• Black and White magazine: Award Winner, Portfolio Contest, 2013.
• Grand Prix Eurazeo for Photography, 2013.
• Publication of the monograph “ “les éveillés”, 2014
• Invited by the Mairie de Paris for “Bridges and Cultures” , 2015
• Winner of the International Competition « Spirit of the Mediterranean », organized by PHOTOMED and LENSCULTURE. 2016
• « Monochrome Photographer of the Year « January 2017 (Monochrome Awards)
• Selected for Festfoto Brazil May 2017
back to gallery