Voiceover - The origins of my immersive exhibition projects
Voiceover - The origins of my immersive exhibition projects
and "Om Mani Padme Hum"
Since the early 2000s, I have been undertaking trekking journeys in France and abroad, sometimes staying in lodges and sometimes travelling independently with bivouacs. These journeys are both physical and spiritual. Walking is a form of meditation, an introspection, an inner path that allows us to step back and truly feel things. So… let’s walk.
In 2004, I had my first encounter with Nepal, this Himalayan country that has fascinated me since my very first steps there. Like a magnet, it keeps drawing me back. While I am there, I photograph extensively in black and white, using both analogue film and digital cameras.
Then, in 2014, I experienced something new. I travelled to Japan to walk for a long time in the footsteps of Kobo Daishi, a Japanese priest and ambassador of the 9th century AD who established the route of the pilgrimage of the 88 sacred temples of Shikoku. A peaceful and benevolent atmosphere accompanies this meditative walk of 1,200 kilometres through a wide variety of landscapes: cities, forests, mountains, beaches and valleys.
Shortly after this journey, in 2015, I produced an exhibition during a two-month residency : A Beautiful Winter in the Himalayas, presented in the town of Les Herbiers in western France. The exhibition retraced the life of Kathmandu as well as the mineral world of the Everest region, which I had rediscovered in 2013.
Unfortunately, the residency resonated with the devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.9 on the Richter scale that struck Nepal only a few months earlier. In a way, the exhibition also became a tribute to the women and men who lost their lives, their families, their homes and sometimes even their entire villages.
Photography is probably what moves me the most, along with music. These two passions accompany me on my journeys. I like to approach photography as a craft, from conception to production, and even to the making of the final prints myself.
But something had been quietly growing inside me, waiting to emerge. I felt the need to share these emotions and lived experiences — to explain people’s lives and the environments that surround them, to tell a story and convey a culture.
It was no longer enough simply to hang photographs on a wall, give an interview or attend an opening reception. Something pushed me to go further, to explore accessibility and sharing with everyone, including people with disabilities.
The development of this type of project took nearly ten years. Its outcome would take the form of immersive exhibitions. I wanted to tell a story through the six senses we possess — yes, I know, we were all taught that there are only five…
One of these projects is called Om Mani Padme Hum. It consists of several immersive exhibitions currently in development, all connected by the same guiding thread.
Although the exhibition A Beautiful Winter in the Himalayas was a success, I now need to adapt it for an immersive approach. To complete the exhibitions related to Nepal, I also need to return there in order to record ambient sounds.
So my next trekking destination is already set : Nepal, in March or April 2027. A little patience, then.
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#wonder #adventure #selftranscendence #empathy #sensoryawakening
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#nirvana #koyasan #spiritual #trekking #living #nature #pilgrimage
#reconnection #mentalstrength #physicaleffort #purification
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