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(The Niwa Garden) Sponsored by Dom Perignon
June 2001 - December 2002 in the MEP garden
The "niwa" garden is both a terrestrial and spiritual place, where the substance of physical elements embraces the spirituality of emptiness. Between the plenitude of space and the emptiness of the spirit, the niwa invites calm contemplation and thought.
All the paths thought follows are a long and unending intuitive search for spirituality. From one culture to the next, the relationship of Man with Nature plays a founding role. Sometimes, Man is the master and the measure of all things, and Nature bears the imprint of his will or his interpretation. Elsewhere, Nature concentrates and gathers within herself an absolute dimension in which Man finds his place, as part of a great oneness. In the latter case, the contemplation of Nature is the way Man follows to achieve spirituality.
Each culture, and also each artist's career, represents a never-ending rehearsal of this quest for spirituality.
The niwa cannot be dissociated from light. Like a photosensitive medium, the garden absorbs light and reflects the way it changes as time goes by.
Through light and through the chromatic variations of the passing hours, days and seasons, the garden becomes an instrument of contemplation, a means to achieve empathy with the absolute, and a way of approaching "ma". The light captured in this way and diffused through this open area gives life to space and achieves a form of alchemy that gives matter a soul.
Here a gentle breeze, the movement of a shadow or the trembling of a leaf are signs of a spiritual presence. Fragility, transience and silence suggest the infinite mystery that lies beyond what the eye sees, and seek a new dialogue between the soul and nature. Unlike geometrical perspectives and landscape effects, the composition of the various elements here betokens a mystery without delivering an explicit message.
The niwa is the place where we can approach a state of ideal calm, free ourselves from our passions and achieve contemplation.
The niwa garden at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie is an attempt to re-compose the ultimate conditions of an experience that is both artistic and spiritual. It also illustrates, in this symbolic location, the profound meaning of light: light as a measure of the absolute and as the very foundation of the art of photography.
Keiichi TAHARA
Biographical Note
Keiichi Tahara was born in Tokyo in 1951; he has lived in Paris since 1972.
His is known as one of the greatest architectural photographers in the world, and has won many awards. In 1988, he was awarded the prix Niépce for all of his work; in 1995, he was given the Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris and took part in the inaugural exhibition at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie.
In 1999, he took part in the Festival Lumière in Lyon and inaugurated the illumination of the Saint-Martin canal tunnel in Paris.
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