Grande Image #3
ESBA-TALM Le Mans
Organised by Christophe Domino

Photography

Bardo (2008)

Photographic print
or video projection on architecture │variable dimensions.

Bardo is a Tibetan term whose literal translation is “suspended between”. It designates in Buddhist philosophy the various “intermediate states” of life and death that are seen as much uncertainty as waking opportunities.

The image was elaborated on the basis of these notions, by an offset intervention in this still consecrated place that is the cathedral of Le Mans.

In fact, traditionally, one never lies on one’s back in a church or religious edifice, one prostrate on the ground to bow before the “divine”.

Nevertheless, the elongated posture remains the best point of view to contemplate the erectile verticality of the monument. It is also the most comfortable.

This photograph is initially a portrait of Ruchi ANADKAT, visual artist of Indian origin, formed from his childhood to Indian classical dance, Bharat Natyam. This dance has this peculiarity of having almost disappeared, then, found again from the sculptures of the temple Chidambaram in South India, it has experienced a new development.

How does act this strange relationship between sculpture and dance, in such a Western context? How do different traditions interact in a single space beyond their own dogmas?

From a pictorial point of view, the image is constructed in the passage from the ground to the wall, bringing a horizontal plane to the vertical. This changeover, perfectly identifiable in the image, redefines a unique and independent pictorial space that frees it from its original context.